Processes, Memory and the Windows Task Manager

[Tom]

WinXP SP3 all MS updates
1.5GB RAM
Dell D600
160GB internal Western Digital HD, 5400 rpm
1) Is there a utility to assist in the review of the Image Names/Processes
so as to identify which of them go with which program?
2) Is there a utility to determine last usage and/or most recently used of
the Image Names/Processes?
3) Is it possible to determine RAM sufficiency from the Performance tab with
Commit Charge (K) for Total=1,412,280; Limit=2,994,236; Peak=1,790,876.
Also, Physical Memory for Total=1,572,072; Available=374,932; System
Cache=560,296.
TIA!!!

 

[Gerry]

Tom

1. Download Process Explorer.
For further information about Process Explorer see here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

A Search Online function is incorporated in the utility.

2. Possibly Process Monitor but it is not so easy to master.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

3. Your figures suggest marginal use of the pagefile. Your memory usage
is high so I suspect you may have to get a number of sets of figures to
determine how typical the figures you give are.

You can get more accurate information on pagefile usage using
pagefilemon, a small freeware utility.

Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage. Start it to run
immediately after start-up and look at the log. Pagefilemon takes
snapshots. You need to run it at the beginning of the session at then
run it again at intervals throughout the sessions. The log is Pagefile
log.txt. If you right click on the file in Windows Explorer and select
Send to, Desktop (Create Shortcut). The same applies to
XP_PageFileMon.exe.

A small utility to monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

Note that programs using undo features, particularly those associated
with graphics and photo editing, require large amounts of memory so if
you use this type of programme check these first observing how the page
usage increases when they start and whether the usage decreases when you
close the programme.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Tom]

Thanks, Gerry...
I've downloaded and started the Process Explorer. PE is pretty neat! My
Physical Memory shows 198,040 available with System Cache at 411,580ish.
Since I have 1.5GB of RAM this indicates that it would be beneficial to
replace one of my 512MB DIMMs with a 1GB DIMMs to have a total of 2GB RAM.
Is this your take also? Is there any way to determine actually how much
memory would be beneficial from the PE System Information graph (or
whereever)?
I also put the procexp.exe in one of my directories (non-Program Files) on
C. When I attempt to use the Help function, I can't and continue to see
Address Not Valid. Any ideas?
TIA!