Memory Tip

[Humpty]

Memory optimisers are a waste of time and should never be used.

 

Now for the tip that I found in one of my other forums which most of the experts here probably already know about.

 

Open Taskmanager and leave it open.

 

Open my computer,minimize and watch explorer's mem usage drop.

 

Maximize and explorer will go to about half of it's original mem usage.

 

Open a large word document and do the same.Winword.exe will dramatically drop it's memory usage,same as for IE.

 

Works on quite a few apps I've tried.

[JohnDemolition]

it happens on all programs really. the reason why it does that is because there is nothing to display.

[Humpty]

it happens on all programs really. the reason why it does that is because there is nothing to display.

Open My Computer and close it,slight drop in explorer's mem usage.

 

Minimize and then explorer dramatically drops it's mem usage.

[Andavari]

Interesting, I never knew that existed.

[Humpty]

Yep Andavari,only found it myself today.

 

It even works with taskmanager.

 

First opened it's using 3,780kb.

 

Minimize then reopen and it's using only 1,432 kb.

 

Now can anyone tell me how and why there "seems" to be less memory used.

 

Sorta works the same way as the "config.trim_on_minimize" setting for Firefox.

 

On Windows operating systems, when a program is minimized and left for a period of time, Windows will reclaim the memory the program used in anticipation that other programs might need it. Because of the way Mozilla applications are stored in memory, Windows is much more aggressive in reclaiming the memory they use, which can cause a delay when the program is restored. This preference determines whether to allow Windows to reclaim memory from a minimized Mozilla application.

Mozilla article

[Andavari]

Too bad there's no way to get it to work with svchost.exe, it's the biggest memory hog on my system, well erm Firefox is able to bloat right past it sometimes.

[kane]

Dude that is interesting. Pitty it has no use to me today but would have been a lifesaver if it worked on the old win98.. Bad memories of having 350mhz with about 128 ram or less LoL. g wasn't them the good old dayz

[Andavari]

Bad memories of having 350mhz with about 128 ram or less LoL. g wasn't them the good old dayz

There wasn't too much good about Win98 back in the day . I remember crashes, the VxD bug that caused Win98 to commit virtual suicide, and annual OS reinstalls.

[Humpty]

Another quirk I have found is that if you use the keyboard shortcut to minimize - windows key+M - there is no drop in mem usage by any app.

 

Also,if I remember correctly when I had AVG antispyware that all processess drop dramatically in memory usage after a memory scan.

 

So there must be a way or run command to this manually.

 

Not that I need this as I have a gig of ddr.

 

Just on a learning curve.

[JDPower]

So there must be a way or run command to this manually.

That'd be a great find (if there is one).

[hazelnut]

Here is a link, not tried it though

 

http://www.trap17.com/index.php/memory-tri...-xp_t38816.html

[Andavari]

Here is a link, not tried it though

 

http://www.trap17.com/index.php/memory-tri...-xp_t38816.html

I've been using that since the Win98 days, however I've noticed no real difference.

 

That page unfortunately doesn't tell enough info about it, hence the quote below:

 

Change DLL Unload Time

 

 

Explanation taken from VoptXP v7.12 / DLL unloading:

DLLs are system files which many programs use. Windows always unloads DLLs from memory when they are no longer in use, but only after the DLL has not been used for a period of time. This inactive period might be unacceptably long for optimum system performance.

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

The registry key that you would need to change:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\AlwaysUnloadDll "(Default)"

 

 

How to turn AlwaysUnloadDLL Off (0 is off, Windows Default Setting):

1. Open the registry editor and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\AlwaysUnloadDll

2. To disable AlwaysUnloadDLL and reset it back to the Windows standard settings change the Default number to: 0

 

How to turn AlwaysUnloadDLL On (1 is on, so-called Performance Booster):

1. Open the registry editor and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\AlwaysUnloadDll

2. To enable AlwaysUnloadDLL to fast unloading change the Default number to: 1

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

Warning:

Changing the DLL Unload Time may make Windows start to act in strange ways, such as:

* Programs that never crash all of a sudden start crashing.

* Programs that load correctly all of a sudden crash when you try to start them.

* Winsock.dll errors if you use a proxy server or ad filtering software, etc.

 

Suggestion:

* Before changing the DLL Unload Time it would be a good ideal to manually backup the system registry, that way if changing the setting causes major problems you can undo it rather quickly.

* Print this document for reference.

[JDPower]

Here is a link, not tried it though

 

http://www.trap17.com/index.php/memory-tri...-xp_t38816.html

I tried that a while back and kept getting explorer failing to start at computer startup.

[New_Age]

Here is a link, not tried it though

 

http://www.trap17.com/index.php/memory-tri...-xp_t38816.html

I tried that and it completely messed my system up but thankfully I restored everything back to normal.

[hazelnut]

I guess I'll just stick with running a memory scan in avg antispy. Kills 2 birds with one stone.