'Latency' In Desktop Apps, Task Bar Hiding, and IE8 Favorites With Vista 64-bit; Implications?

[Susan]

My original thread posted to IE's newsgroup...

KIS and Defender:
No, you do not need to be running both products. It's possible to have
too
much real-time protection. Scanning with several products, however, is
common practice. No anti-malware program will detect and remove *all*
malware.

These four programs are free (or there's a free version) and safe:
1. Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool
2. Windows Defender
3. Malwarebytes AntiMalware
4. SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/
(Just added to my list)

Don
[MS MVP- IE]

This is an interesting problem so far. The latency symptoms I described
have disappeared although Disk Cleanup might have removed something that was
clogging up IE8 and/or the desktop. Besides that I reactivated Windows
Defender, updated and ran it. But it found nothing. I then ran the latest
MS Malicious Software Removal Tool and it found nothing. And I ran another
KIS sweep. It noted something like a Java update I needed and a Firefox
update I needed and after updating those then found no vulnerabilities. I
also unloaded the game DVD, 'Prototype' that was in the tray installed and
ready to play. And at some point after rebooting I tried IE8 again and left
it running for most of a day and the latency in its Favorites or in the
desktop Task Bar has not returned once since. I loaded the game DVD again
and played it a few times but left the DVD with the tray closed and still no
latency issue has returned. This had been bothering me a number of days
prior in-between reboots and running many several apps in the course of a
day and seeing this latency problem many times, which was usually what would
drive me to reboot since that would clear up the problem for a while.

I was wondering if disabling Defender's service might have been upsetting
the PC cart? Whether there was still code somewhere trying to monitor
something but couldn't? Or, I was wondering if just running these programs
like a KIS, Defender, and Malicious scan, even though nothing was found,
could be "straightening out" unknowns that didn't need to be mentioned? Is
that possible?

I'll have to wait and see now if I ever see this latency again--I don't know
how to create it on purpose.

Thanks.

 

[Susan]

When I thought the problem had disappeared I was right and wrong. It
disappeared because I hadn't been playing a game called Prototype for hours
on end on the day(s) I was saying the latency was gone. I _now_ think this
is a memory issue where a game, after closing it, doesn't release or clear
the memory areas involved. This is why rebooting the computer works. After
I finish playing a game is there any way or tool I can use to clean up this
problem and avoid having to reboot? Thanks.

 

[Merle]

I use memory defragmenter 1.1 from www.freedownloadscenter.com

Here is a snip from the site
Memory Defragmenter is a software to free up wasted RAM. What is memory
(RAM) fragmentation? Windows programs use RAM (Random Access Memory) for
their operations, however sometimes they fail to release the RAM after use.
This means that parts of your RAM is occupied holding useless data and your
computer becomes slow. What is memory (RAM) defrag? The process of freeing
the memory (RAM) is called memory (RAM) defrag. Why do I need to defragment
my memory (RAM)? You need to defragment your memory (RAM) because
fragmentation slows down your computer considerably, since to run your
programs smoothly you need as much memory (RAM) as possible. Memory
Defragmenter also prevents Windows crashes since Windows crashes mainly
occur if there is no free memory (RAM). Which functionalities are included
in Memory Defragmenter? When you launch Memory Defragmenter, an icon showing
the amount of available memory (RAM) appears in your system tray next to the
PC clock. This is useful when you want to know how much memory (RAM) each of
your programs use. Anytime there is a problem with one of your programs or
Windows generally, check how much memory (RAM) there are available. You can
configure Memory Defragmenter to automatically run on Windows startup. You
can configure Memory Defragmenter to automatically free memory when the
amount of available RAM falls below a certain value. To open the
configuration window of Memory Defragmenter right-click its icon in the
system tray and select the appropriate option. Alternatively you can just
click on Memory Defragmenter icon to maximize it. You can manually free
memory (RAM) as desired. To do so you can conveniently just double-click
Memory Defragmenter icon in the system tray. What are the minimum
requirements to run Memory Defragmenter? Memory Defragmenter runs on all
versions of Windows and doesn't have any significant system requirement.

 

[Merle]

Also try framXPpro.zip at CNet.com

 

[Merle]

Sorry, that was FreeRAM XP Pro 1.52

 

[Rick Rogers]

Garbage. Tools like that work contrary to the memory design model in Windows
and force the system to work twice as hard by stripping the ram of cached
processes and/or data. This in turn forces the OS to reload that which it
already had loaded in anticipation of user demand.

Let's put it this way: You are at the top of a flight of stairs at your
home, about to head down them. You see a basket of laundry that needs to be
done and the washer is downstairs. You don't plan on doing laundry right
now, but you know it needs to be done soon. Do you (a) go downstairs and
leave the basket at the top since you don't need it right now? Or (b) bring
the basket down now and drop it at the laundry room for later use? Choosing
(b) gives you less work later since you don't need to go back upstairs and
retrieve the laundry. Option (a) makes you work twice as hard as now you've
got to go back up and retrieve what you passed by.

Windows memory management model uses caching by design to make use of memory
more efficient. Utilities such as the ones you suggest work against this
model on the theory that by freeing ram it makes it more accessible to new
processes. Problem is, the "new process" is frequently one that would have
already been preloaded in memory had the ram not been forcibly stripped of
cached processes.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
Vote for my shoe: http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com