how to increase the maximum number of windows ?

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The PocketTV Team

my XP desktop seems to limit the maximum number of top-level windows to
about 50 or so.

when the limit is reach, the system refuses to open new windows.

because of the nature of my job, i need to keep about 100 windows opened
(most of them minimized), to have rapid access to a number of documents.

is there a way to increase the maximum number of windows with XP ?

my XP system has 512K+ memory, 100GB hard disk, so memory resources are not
an issue. apparently there is a limit that is either hard-coded in the XP
kernel, shell or maybe something that can be tuned up (from the registry).

i have used google to search for an answer to that one, and all i found were
many people who had the same question, but no answer.
 
Q. "is there a way to increase the maximum number of windows with XP ?"

A. No.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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


| my XP desktop seems to limit the maximum number of top-level windows to
| about 50 or so.
|
| when the limit is reach, the system refuses to open new windows.
|
| because of the nature of my job, i need to keep about 100 windows opened
| (most of them minimized), to have rapid access to a number of documents.
|
| is there a way to increase the maximum number of windows with XP ?
|
| my XP system has 512K+ memory, 100GB hard disk, so memory resources are not
| an issue. apparently there is a limit that is either hard-coded in the XP
| kernel, shell or maybe something that can be tuned up (from the registry).
|
| i have used google to search for an answer to that one, and all i found were
| many people who had the same question, but no answer.
 
So with 100 minimized windows you're able to immediately find the one you
want?
I tip my hat to you
 
You're deluded with your feeling of self importance!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
| So with 100 minimized windows you're able to immediately find the one you
| want?
| I tip my hat to you

They might be grouped on the taskbar
 
He can flirt with his secretary at the same time while he has a 100 windows
open -- mostly minimized. Anything else you think he might have that is
minimized? LOL
 
Move or copy your 100+ documents on a USB ThumbDrive (or a RAM Drive but
make sure you don't loose them) so that they open faster.
Michael
 
DL said:
So with 100 minimized windows you're able to immediately find the one you
want?
I tip my hat to you
Click to expand...

yes. for example, i need to keep alive a dozen software emulaters
applications that take a long time to start-up. and i need to keep several
development environments. add to that several ftp windows that take a lomg
time to open etc... very rapidely i am limited by the XP restriction that
prevents me to have more than about 30-50 windows opened at the same time.

basically this is a very ennoying restrictions for many people who do
engineering work with XP, and I hope that it has been logged as being a BUG
in the MSFT KB.

using google, i have seem many people complaining about this relatively low
limit on the number of windows.
 
Phillips said:
Move or copy your 100+ documents on a USB ThumbDrive (or a RAM Drive but
make sure you don't loose them) so that they open faster.
Click to expand...

the windows that i keep opened are applications that take a long time to
start-up.

when i need to have 20 or 30 of those to stay alive, i have basically
reached the maximum number of windows that can be simultanously opened, and
that's a big problem.

i have no problem with local documents that can be opened fast, except that
keeping a window openeed is often convenient and saves the time to find the
document in the folder hierarchy.

this problem affects mostly engineers / software developers.
 
Carey Frisch said:
Q. "is there a way to increase the maximum number of windows with XP ?"

A. No.
Click to expand...

could this RFE be logged into the KB, please ?

the maximum number should be made configurable, or the kernel should use
dynamically allocated data structure so that no hardcoded maximum would be
enforced.

i personally would prefer about double the current maximum. and apparently,
many people using XP for development would agree with me, from what i have
seen on various forums.
 
Why would you think memory isn't an issue.
XP has about 20 processes with nothing happening. Add 100 more give 120 processes. Each process can access 4 GBytes of memory (though 2 GB is shared). So 120 x 2 GByte = 240 Gigabyte, yet you have only half a gigabyte of memory. So you need a swap file 239.5 gigabyte.

While a program may not use all of its 2 GByte it expects it to be available if it wants it. That's why operating systems need lots of free disk space so the swap can grow to the size needed.
 
Why would you think memory isn't an issue.

because when XP refuses to let me open more windows, I have still plenty or
RAM available, and my system does not swap.

so i'm sure the limit they put on the maximum number of windows is due to
some internal table of the kernel that has a hard-coded size, and that it is
not caused by any memory limitation on my system.

i also have a linux system and on this one i can open i may windows as i
want, and run as many processes as i want, until i start running out of
memory and swapping. so i know what happens when you reach the real limit
of a system. there is no hard-coded limit.


Why would you think memory isn't an issue.
XP has about 20 processes with nothing happening. Add 100 more give 120
processes. Each process can access 4 GBytes of memory (though 2 GB is
shared). So 120 x 2 GByte = 240 Gigabyte, yet you have only half a gigabyte
of memory. So you need a swap file 239.5 gigabyte.

While a program may not use all of its 2 GByte it expects it to be available
if it wants it. That's why operating systems need lots of free disk space so
the swap can grow to the size needed.
 
There is no practical limit. What you describe is what happens when you run out of memory.
 
-----Original Message-----


yes. for example, i need to keep alive a dozen software emulaters
applications that take a long time to start-up. and i need to keep several
development environments. add to that several ftp windows that take a lomg
time to open etc... very rapidely i am limited by the XP restriction that
prevents me to have more than about 30-50 windows opened at the same time.

basically this is a very ennoying restrictions for many people who do
engineering work with XP, and I hope that it has been logged as being a BUG
in the MSFT KB.

using google, i have seem many people complaining about this relatively low
limit on the number of windows.
Click to expand...

With each succeeding post you further confirm your basic
lack of competence. You don't even know what a "bug" is,
nor do you seem to realize that this is a peer-to-peer
NG and there is no chance in hell that your whining will
will get logged anywhere.
 
In
The PocketTV Team said:
i am limited by
the XP restriction that prevents me to have more than about 30-50
windows opened at the same time.

basically this is a very ennoying restrictions for many people who do
engineering work with XP, and I hope that it has been logged as being
a BUG in the MSFT KB.
Click to expand...


A bug? A bug is something that doesn't work as planned. This
restriction is almost certainly by design, and is clearly not a
bug.

This restriction may cause problems for you, but it doesn't do so
for the enormous majority of XP users. Once in a while I may have
as many as ten windows open at once, but rarely. Many people
never have more than one window open at once.
 
He has his page file too small. I have 108 windows open as I write this.

Use
for /l %A in (1,1,100) do notepad

to open 100 copies of notepad

(taskkill /im notepad.exe to close them)

He thinks he knows more than Windows does about memory management, and won't listen.

There is a contract between Windows and Programs. That is that each program can access 4 GiBytes of memory. Approx 2 GiBytes is shared memory (system dlls etc). I have 21 proce
 
He has his page file too small. I have 108 windows open as I write this.

I'll change the settings for my paging file to "system-managed file", we'll
see if this will work better than the custom size that I had (max 800MB).
 
Suggest you send this request to Microsoft. This forum is not Microsoft.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms
 
With each succeeding post you further confirm your basic
lack of competence. You don't even know what a "bug" is,
nor do you seem to realize that this is a peer-to-peer
NG and there is no chance in hell that your whining will
will get logged anywhere.
Click to expand...

i don't remember asking your personal opinion regarding my competences.
flamers are loosers, therefore i will refrain to tell you what i think of
your attitude here.

being a microsoft developer (for many years), i know very well that the
microsoft newsgroups are monitored by microsoft employees and by microsoft
MVP. i have reported many issues, mostly related to mobile devices, that
ended being logged by MSFT.

if you are not interested by the issue being discussed in this thread, just
don't read the postings.
 
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