XP's equal to System Monitor

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob
  • Start date Start date
Is there one. I'd like to monitor memory usage.

Thanks
Bob
Click to expand...

Open Task Manager. With the processes page displayed, click on View> Select
Columns.... You'll find several different choices related to memory usage.
 
In
Bob said:
Is there one. I'd like to monitor memory usage.
Click to expand...


Although you *can* do this (see Sharon's reply), let me ask why
you want to. If you are trying to minimize memory usage, that's a
counterproductive thing to do. Windows is designed to use all, or
almost all, 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.
 
Bob said:
Is there one. I'd like to monitor memory usage.

Thanks
Bob
Click to expand...

Task Manager and Performance Monitor provide information on memory
usage. However the items reported and the definitions of these items
are different from what is reported by the Windows 9x System Monitor.

What specific memory related items were you looking for?


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
I curently have 512 and was woundering if adding more would be benificial.
It curently shows 198 mb available.
Bob
 
I wanted to see how much of my 512 was being used and if it was beneficial
to add more. It would have been nice to monitor video memory but i don't see
that option.

Bob
 
In
Bob said:
I curently have 512 and was woundering if adding more would be
benificial. It curently shows 198 mb available.
Click to expand...


Adding more would probably not be beneficial, but that's not the
way to find out.
How much memory you ne ed depends on what apps you run, but
almost everyone needs at least 256MB for decent performance. For
some people, for example those who edit large photographic
images, more than 256MB--even much more--can be required for good
performance.

If you are currently using the page file significantly, more
memory will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your
performance. If you are not using the page file significantly,
more memory will do nothing for you.

Go to http://billsway.com/notes_public/winxp_tweaks/ and
download WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your pagefile usage.
That should give you a good idea of whether more memory can help,
and if so, how much more.
 
Bob said:
I wanted to see how much of my 512 was being used and if it was beneficial
to add more. It would have been nice to monitor video memory but i don't see
that option.

Bob
Click to expand...

The page file usage utility that Ken Blake referred you to is the best
way of assessing the potential benefit of a RAM upgrade in Windows XP.
It gives you the equivalent of the "Memory Manager - Swap File In Use"
reported by the Windows 9x System Monitor.

With Windows XP there appears to be about 40 mb of items that Windows
can "park" in the page file without having to page them back in again,
or at least not frequently. So I generally use an actual usage value
of 50 mb or more as the indicator that more RAM would reduce the
paging activity and thereby improve performance.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
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