Processes

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Guest

Can anyone tell me where to find normal processes for windows. for some
reason on a normal bootup when i check system information it tells me out of
256mg of memory i only have 35 available. I am running windows xp home and
norton internet security. How can i tell whats taking the memory?
 
mikeG said:
Can anyone tell me where to find normal processes for windows. for some
reason on a normal bootup when i check system information it tells me out
of
256mg of memory i only have 35 available. I am running windows xp home
and
norton internet security. How can i tell whats taking the memory?
Click to expand...

Taking up memory is pretty normal. After all memory that isn't be used is
useless. Windows will keep things in memory just to make them start faster
and things like that, but it will release them when an application
specifically needs the memory, so it's not unusual to find a lot of memory
is in use even when you're not doing a lot.

Speaking of Norton - it is very heavy on systems resources so that will suck
up a lot. I use the Windows Firewall, AVG Free (from www.grisoft.com) for
anti-virus and Microsoft Anti-Spyware. Collectively they probably come to
about 15MB, Norton's footprint is much larger.

Although if it's possible to upgrade your memory do it, even to 512MB you'll
see much better performance, another stick of 256MB is only about £25.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove 'nospam.' to reply by e-mail*
 
Paul,
Thank you for your reply. I have a golf program that will not run properly
it lags bad and thought if i could free up some memory it would help. It
seems like the whole system is an old one and it's not
 
Paul,
Thank you for your reply. I have a golf program that will not run properly
it lags bad and thought if i could free up some memory it would help. It
seems like the whole system is an old one and it's not
Click to expand...

I insisted on 512MB RAM when I first built my XP Pro System. I now have
1GB of RAM because of some programs I wish to run simultaneously. I agree
with Paul, at the least, have another stick of 256MB added to your system
to bring it up to 512MB. It's often said that one of the best upgrades for
any system is to add more RAM.

Patty
 
mikeG said:
Paul,
Thank you for your reply. I have a golf program that will not run
properly
it lags bad and thought if i could free up some memory it would help. It
seems like the whole system is an old one and it's not
Click to expand...

If you're noticing the hard drive light is flicking a lot then it probably
is a memory issue.

256MB is very low for a system nowadays. Try uninstalling Norton (or
totally disable it - which is a little tricky), make sure the Windows
Firewall is on and see how you get on then.

Double the memory at least and you'll see a huge improvement.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove 'nospam.' to reply by e-mail*
 
=?Utf-8?B?bWlrZUc=?= said:
Can anyone tell me where to find normal processes for windows. for some
reason on a normal bootup when i check system information it tells me out of
256mg of memory i only have 35 available. I am running windows xp home and
norton internet security. How can i tell whats taking the memory?
Click to expand...

Normal. That's why its recommended to have at least 512 for XP, as XP
itself, can take 256 just to load up. Then, after that, you're swapping.
Once you start heavy swapping, your pc slows down as it's using a file
on the hard drive as ram. If you have a 5,200 RPM hard drive, then one
can really see mucho slow PC. Yes, 5,200 hard drives are STILL installed
on national brand pcs in 2006.

Heck, for years, many big brand pc companies were still putting in
Quantum BigFoots, which run at 4,500 RPMs. And, were designed as backup
HDDs, NOT for Win on C:. But they were really cheap.

So, best bet for you is to install more ram. As far as processes goes,
here:

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/startup/
http://www.castlecops.com/StartupList.html
http://www.jasonn.com/turning_off_unnecessary_services_on_windows_xp
 
mikeG said:
Can anyone tell me where to find normal processes for windows. for
some reason on a normal bootup when i check system information it
tells me out of 256mg of memory i only have 35 available. I am
running windows xp home and norton internet security. How can i tell
whats taking the memory?
Click to expand...


That's entirely normal.

Wanting to minimize the amount of memory Windows uses is a counterproductive
desire. Windows is designed to use all, or nearly all, of your memory, all
the time, and that's good not bad. Free memory is wasted memory. You paid
for it all and shouldn't want to see any of it wasted.

Windows works hard to find a use for all the memory you have all the time.
For example if your apps don't need some of it, it will use that part for
caching, then give it back when your apps later need it. In this way Windows
keeps all your memory working for you all the time.
 
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