Menus and widgets that disappears when a lot of windows are opened

[Carmine [www.thetotalsite.it]]

Windows Vista is said to use a lot of system RAM, in regard of this I wish
to make a question...
Practically, as I have seen, despite the SuperPrefetch and the mechanisms
concern the memory utilization, the Shell Memory is limited.
To be more precise, I have 2gb of RAM, then, I open about 50 istances of
Windows Explorer, the used RAM is about 700mb.
Now, for example I right click on a file, but there aren't many options...
(such as "open", "edit", "send to")... like there isn't enough memory (but I
still have 1300mb free memory).
Furthermore, I can't open new istances or new programs, and many widgets
(textboxes, menus, buttons, windows and tabs) disappear...
How can I modify this behavior and to do so that I can open many windows
contemporarily?

Thanks in advance,
Carmine

 

[Richard Urban]

I take it that you are testing the limitations of Vista, and nothing more.
In over 15 years of using Windows, I can not see why anyone would need 50
instances of explorer open simultaneously. You can get anything to fail if
you try hard enough.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Carmine [www.thetotalsite.it]]

I take it that you are testing the limitations of Vista, and nothing more.
In over 15 years of using Windows, I can not see why anyone would need 50
instances of explorer open simultaneously. You can get anything to fail if
you try hard enough.

The 50 istances of windows explorer were just an example.
The problem occurs even if I open 50-60 tabs in internet explorer and some
other programs, or if I open many various programs.
So, the limit isn't in the RAM, but in the windows shell, is it?
There isn't a option to reserve more memory to the windows shell?

Bye,
Carmine

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

50 to 60 tabs? Geez

 

[MICHAEL]

The 50 istances of windows explorer were just an example.
The problem occurs even if I open 50-60 tabs in internet explorer and some other programs, or
if I open many various programs.
So, the limit isn't in the RAM, but in the windows shell, is it?
There isn't a option to reserve more memory to the windows shell?

50 Windows Explorer windows... 50-60 IE tabs..... why?


-Michael

 

[Richard Urban]

As I said, you can force anything to fail. What is your point? OK you were
successful. Your computer fails. Now start using it in a sane and sensible
way.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Or give it to me, I will put it to good use.

 

[Carmine [www.thetotalsite.it]]

As I said, you can force anything to fail. What is your point? OK you were
successful. Your computer fails. Now start using it in a sane and sensible
way.

Yes, but I think this is quite strange.
For example, now I have got:
Photoshop CS, with a 6000x4800 file
Premiere Elements 3.0, which use around 700mb of memory
Visual Studio 2005 Professional, with 150mb used
Alcohol 120%
Audiograbber
Windows Live Writer
Publisher, Word and OneNote 2007
Windows Media Player
Windows Movie Maker
L&H Power Translator
Internet Explorer with 7 tabs
Windows Mail
DeepBurner
Avast! 4
GetRight
Windows Live Messenger
(and many other daemons in background).

The system, obviously, uses now 1,95gb of memory; and 2,5gb of swap file.
However, it works without problems.
Instead, when I open 50 tabs of IE, the system begin to give errors; and,
for example, when I right click the contextual menu doesn't appear, some
widgets vanish, etc...
It's curious, IMHO.

Bye,

 

[MICHAEL]

Yes, but I think this is quite strange.
For example, now I have got:
Photoshop CS, with a 6000x4800 file
Premiere Elements 3.0, which use around 700mb of memory
Visual Studio 2005 Professional, with 150mb used
Alcohol 120%
Audiograbber
Windows Live Writer
Publisher, Word and OneNote 2007
Windows Media Player
Windows Movie Maker
L&H Power Translator
Internet Explorer with 7 tabs
Windows Mail
DeepBurner
Avast! 4
GetRight
Windows Live Messenger
(and many other daemons in background).

The system, obviously, uses now 1,95gb of memory; and 2,5gb of swap file.
However, it works without problems.
Instead, when I open 50 tabs of IE, the system begin to give errors; and, for example, when I
right click the contextual menu doesn't appear, some widgets vanish, etc...

It's curious, IMHO.

The only curious thing is why you'd even want to open 50 IE tabs
or 50 Explorer windows. The fact that you can open that many,
says something about Vista's overall stability and performance,
and your machine itself, IMO.


-Michael

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Thats over multi-tasking.

 

[Carmine [www.thetotalsite.it]]

This is an issue that really isn't an issue. I suggest you dont worry
about it. NASA's computers will not do what you are trying to do. And we
don't even know what kind of hardware you are running.

I have a core 2 duo 6550 with 2 gigs of corsair DDR2800 and a 2 gig
fkash drive(also corsair) ready boosted and 820gigs storage on a intel
Q35 MB with a 600w FSP group PSU and nvidia 7900 Vid card. Vista
Ultimate x64.

Those are the kind of specs we would need to see how far you can push
your sysrtem.

Other wise your reasons for wanting your sysem to run that many
instances of ANY program is just silly.

Mhm, yes.
This is my hardware configuration:

Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3100mhz
ASUS P5K-Deluxe (P35)
2gb ram ddr2-800 team group xtreem
nvidia geforce 7800gtx 256mb
A pair of s-ata disks (250gb + 300gb) and a 160gb IDE HD
Vista Home Premium 32bit
lc power titan 560w psu

That's all.

 

[Charlie Tame]

The only curious thing is why you'd even want to open 50 IE tabs
or 50 Explorer windows. The fact that you can open that many,
says something about Vista's overall stability and performance,
and your machine itself, IMO.


-Michael

Hehe, I may later see if I can get Ubuntu with a 50 sided "Cube" - what
you think will happen? (Works fine with 6 or 8 sides).

I agree it is "Curious" but the OP is running "Standalone" tasks in the
above list (more or less) where 50 instances of IE may be trying to
access the internet for refresh etc... it may be something like the IP
stack collapsing under the strain where the first thought would instead
be memory.

IIRC out friend Waves once mentioned something about XP falling over
with 60+ IE windows...

(Spiders can have 4 pairs of eyes I believe, enough there to keep 8
spiders entertained I should think).

 

[MICHAEL]

Hehe, I may later see if I can get Ubuntu with a 50 sided "Cube" - what you think will
happen? (Works fine with 6 or 8 sides).

Let me know.

I agree it is "Curious" but the OP is running "Standalone" tasks in the above list (more or
less) where 50 instances of IE may be trying to access the internet for refresh etc... it may
be something like the IP stack collapsing under the strain where the first thought would
instead be memory.

IIRC out friend Waves once mentioned something about XP falling over with 60+ IE windows...

Yes, I remember it blathering on about that. It is something else...
I just haven't figured out what *it* is. ;-)

(Spiders can have 4 pairs of eyes I believe, enough there to keep 8 spiders entertained I
should think).

-Michael

 

[Richard Urban]

If I want to break my computer I will just feed it 220 volts. Job done. An
alternative is to hit it with a hammer.

Then I can come here and complain about Vista not being able to handle it.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Charlie Tame]

If I want to break my computer I will just feed it 220 volts. Job done.
An alternative is to hit it with a hammer.

Then I can come here and complain about Vista not being able to handle it.

Can we rely on an invite to this celebration ???

It is an interesting question though, as all multi tasking relies on
"Some" resource(s) being time-sliced, so if your critical component
(CPU, water wheel, pendulum etc) can do (say) 10 operations a second and
you feed it 11 jobs then it will never get finished but fall
progressively further behind

(Yes I know that is not a great analogy but it will do for now)

What this would suggest is that 9 tasks is feasible, 10 is possible but
leaves no spare capacity and 11 would look dramatically different. There
has to be a tipping point somewhere, and CPU power and speed isn't it,
the ratio between cycles and task "Slices" will be the same, so it is
going to be other resources like memory causing delays in processing or
waiting for peripheral bits (Chipsets etc) so I doubt there's a
realistic calculation anywhere for it.