3 Vista vs XP? 2 GB Limit; VM Performance; and Multiple Remote Logins

[Peter de B. Harrington]

HI:

I run many memory intensive calculations. I am curious if the 32 bit Vista
(business edition) still has the limit on memory allocation of 2 GB/thread
the way XP does?

Is there an improvement in virtual memory management over XP?

Lastly, does Vista support multiple users remotely logged into the same
computer?

Thanks,

Pete

 

[Kerry Brown]

Yes the limitation is because of 32 bit addressing. You can use the /3GB
switch but this may actually cause the computer to run slower with most
programs. In Vista you set this with BCEdit and the "increaseuserva"
parameter. It sounds like you need a 64 bit OS. I think the answer on
concurrent sessions is no but I'm not 100% sure.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa906211.aspx

 

[Dale]

The answer on concurrent sessions is absolutely no, just as it was in XP and
2000 Professional.

Multi-user remote desktops is a function of server operating systems. At
the price of Vista Ultimate, one could almost buy an OEM version of Windows
Server 2003.

Dale

 

[Kerry Brown]

Yes, but you'd also need TS CALS

I was pretty sure about concurrent sessions. I know there was some talk of
it early in the betas but I couldn't find any references.

 

[Dale]

That is true. Good things cost money.

Dale

Yes, but you'd also need TS CALS

I was pretty sure about concurrent sessions. I know there was some talk of
it early in the betas but I couldn't find any references.

 

[Guest]

I havent had to use the /3gb switch on the 32 bit version it detected that I
have 3gb installed.

MBG

 

[Kerry Brown]

The "increaseuserva" (used to be /3GB in XP) has nothing to do with how much
RAM is detected but how much address space is given to processes.

 

[Robert Moir]

I havent had to use the /3gb switch on the 32 bit version it detected
that I have 3gb installed.

The /3gb switch doesn't do what you apparently think it does.

 

[Pete Harrington]

There seems to be a lot of interest in concurrent remote sessions. I am
attaching a procedure I found on the net on how to configure multiple
concurrent sessions in XP. It has worked well for me, but I have never
needed more than two concurrent sessions running simultaneously.

I have one box running XP64 for the real heavy duty memory jobs. Not enough
64 bit applications out yet for me to switch my routine work computers over
to new boxes. I am worried that Vista 64 will use more RAM leaving less
available for the applications.

Thanks for all the responses.

Pete

Recipe for concurrent sessions --
http://www.golod.com/2005/10/enabli...p-professional-and-media-center-edition-2005/

Print these directions so that you have them to work from.
Restart your computer in Safe Mode - Follow this link to learn how to
restart Windows XP in Safe Mode
Turn off/disable Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) and Terminal Services
Right click My Computer
Select Properties
Click on the Remote tab at the top of the window
UNCHECK the box next to, "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer"
Click OK
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services
Find Terminal Services in the list
Right click on Terminal Services and click Properties
In the Startup Type box, select Disabled
Click OK to close the window
Next you will replace the current version of the Terminal Services DLL
(termsrv.dll) with an unrestricted version from a previous release of
Terminal Services.
Here is a copy of the Terminal Services DLL
(http://members.lycos.nl/nessyh/files/termsrv.dll)- Save it to your Desktop
or other suitable location
Using a file manager like Windows Explorer open C:\Windows\system32\dllcache
Rename the file termsrv.dll to termsrv_dll.bak or whatever you would like.
Copy the downloaded termsrv.dll file (the one you just downloaded from the
web) to C:\Windows\system32\dllcache
Open the C:\Windows\system32 folder
Delete the file termsrv.dll in C:\Windows\system32
Now we can edit the Windows Registry to enable more than one RDP connection.
Go to Start -> Run and type regedit - Hopefully you knew that already
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal
Server\Licensing Core
Add a DWORD Key named EnableConcurrentSessions and give it a value of 1
Close the Registry Editor window
Go to Start -> Run and type gpedit.msc to run the Group Policy Editor
Browse to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows
Components -> Terminal Services and double click Limit number of connections
Select the Enabled button and enter the number of connections you would like
to enable..at least 2.
Restart Windows
Right click My Computer and select Properties.
Click on the Remote tab at the top of the window
CHECK the box next to, "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer"
Click OK
Go to Start -> Control Panel ->Administrative Tools -> Services. Select
Terminal Services from the list and double click it or right-click ->
Properties. Set the Startup Type to Manual.

Restart Windows/Computer

 

[Fat Bastard]

The /3gb switch has nothing to do with how much physical RAM you have
installed. It is used to allow each 32-bit process to address up to 3gb of
virtual memory instead of 2gb. However, if the app doesn't know how to use
that much it won't do anything anyway, except for limit your kernel memory,
which is of course a bad thing.