How To Get The Most Out Of Your Ram

The all-time way to improve organisation performance is to make better utilise of your RAM. Here are several hacks to show you how to try this earlier you buy more.

No affair how much memory yous take, y'all could ever utilise more. Installing more than RAM is generally the quickest mode to meliorate XP performance.

But you tin besides speed upwards XP by making better use of the RAM you already have. In this hack, we'll look at how you can speed upwardly your system performance by using your RAM more effectively.

11.iii.1 Make Better Employ of Your Memory with the Job Manager

If your system doesn't accept enough RAM, or if it uses what it has improperly, your system slows downward. That'southward because in those circumstances it moves data and programs to a paging file on your difficult disk, and your hard disk is slower than RAM. A certain amount of this is normal, merely if you employ a paging file too much, or if fifty-fifty your paging file tin't handle the retentiveness load, you'll encounter system slowdowns and problems.

The Task Managing director's Functioning tab, shown in Figure 11-2, provides the best way to monitor retention use. To run the Task Managing director, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, then click on the Performance tab. With it, yous can translate the information and make better employ of your memory.

Figure 11-ii. The Chore Director's Operation tab

The most important parts the screen shown in Figure 11-2 are the charts that report on paging file utilise and the tabular textile below information technology that give a more than detailed view of your electric current utilize of memory.

The charts relating to the Page File are cocky-explanatory; they testify electric current usage, as well every bit usage over time. If you encounter that Page File use is oftentimes high, it means either that your organization isn't making the almost efficient use of RAM, or you lot need more RAM. In that case, follow the advice later in this hack for how to make meliorate use of RAM.

The data below the Page File nautical chart can be almost impossible to decipher. Table 11-1 details what the information ways, and makes recommendations on how to use that information to make improve use of RAM.

Table xi-one. Agreement Performance tab retentivity reporting
Category	Subcategory	What the data means
Totals	Handles	Lets a programme use organisation resources such as registry keys, fonts, and bitmaps. Sometimes, poorly written programs don't close their handles down when the program closes, leading to retention loss. As a applied affair, you won't need to monitor this number.
	Threads	A detached portion of a program executing a single chore independently of other parts of a plan. Again, as a practical matter, yous won't need to monitor this number.
	Processes	Reports on the number of programs and services (processes) currently running on your system. Monitor this to see whether you have too many programs and services running on your PC. To shut down unnecessary services, come across [Hack #iv].
Commit Charge (K)	Total	The total amount of concrete retention (RAM) and virtual memory (page file) currently in use, in kilobytes. The more programs, files, and data you lot have open, the greater your commit accuse will be. The greater the commit charge, the more than demands will be put on your system. To reduce the commit charge, close programs and files, especially large files.
	Limit	Reports on the total amount of concrete and virtual retentiveness that is currently available for your PC, measured in kilobytes. To increase the limit, you can increase the Folio File size (run into article 4.nine "Optimize Your Bandy File Size") or add RAM to your organization.
	Meridian	Reports on the highest total amount of memory, measured in kilobytes, that has been in utilize during your current session. Check this value each session to see whether the Pinnacle value is frequently at or near the Limit value. If it is, y'all need to increment your memory, by either adding RAM or increasing your Page File size.
Physical Memory (K)	Total	Displays the total amount of RAM in your PC, in kilobytes. This number can exist disruptive; to find out the corporeality of RAM in megabytes, divide it by 1,024.
	Available	Reports on the total amount of RAM, in kilobytes, currently bachelor. When available RAM is used up, your organization begins to use its Page File.
	Organization Cache	Reports on the total amount of RAM, in kilobytes, that is being used for the near recently accessed data and programs. Programs and information tin be in the system cache even after they accept been closed down; the PC looks to the system cache beginning when opening a programme or file, since it can exist opened from the cache faster than from the hard deejay.
Kernel Memory (K)	Full	The full corporeality of retentiveness, in kilobytes, in apply by the primary components of the XP kernel. The kernel is the core programs and files that make up the operating system.
	Paged	The total amount of retention in a Page File, in kilobytes, used past the primary components of XP.
	Nonpaged	The full amount of memory of RAM, in kilobytes, used by the master components of XP.

Hither'due south how to apply the information on the tab to make better utilise of RAM:

If the Total Commit Charge exceeds the Total Concrete Memory, y'all probably need more RAM. When the Commit Charge is regularly college than the Physical Memory available, it means that you have to regularly use a Page File, which slows your organization downward. Purchase more RAM; it's cheap and will heave organization performance.
Before running a retention-intensive application, apply the Processes Tab to place retention-hogging applications, and close them downwardly. The Processes tab of the Task Director lists every process and program in use and shows the full corporeality of retentiveness each uses. Click twice on the Mem Usage heading on the tab to reorder the listing of programs and processes so that those that crave near memory show upwards at the height. Close down programs that yous don't really need earlier running a retentiveness-intensive application.
If the Peak Commit Charge is frequently at or near the Limit Commit Charge, you lot need to increment your retentivity. When this occurs, it means that your PC is frequently out of memory or close to beingness out of retention. Either add together RAM or increment your Page File size.

11.3.ii General Advice for Making Improve Utilize of RAM

Then, you've learned how to employ the Task Manager. Here are some additional tips for making better utilise of your existing RAM:

Remove DLLs from cache retentiveness. If y'all notice your system running slowly later on XP has been running for some fourth dimension, or if your RAM seems to be getting depression for some reason, the culprit may exist left-backside DLLs from programs that are no longer running, only that XP even so keeps in retention. Sometimes XP keeps DLLs in cache memory even when the program that required them is no longer running, and this cuts down on the retentivity available to other applications.

You can use a elementary Registry hack to have XP automatically remove from cache retentivity DLLs that are no longer needed by programs. Run the Registry Editor [Hack #68] and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. Create a new DWORD value named AlwaysUnloadDll, and give it a data value of 1. Go out the Registry and reboot for the new setting to take effect. Note that this setting may cause problems with some programs. Some Windows programs?particularly older and sixteen-chip programs?may effect error letters with this setting in effect; so if that starts happening, delete the new central or requite it a value of 0.
Reduce the number of colors. Using 32-bit color takes upwardly a great deal more retentivity than xvi-bit color, and it also puts a greater strain on your processor. If you lot primarily use business concern applications such as word processors and spreadsheets, you virtually probable won't observe a different between 16-bit and 32-bit color, so going with sixteen-bit color is a good bet. To change your color depth, correct-click on the desktop, choose Properties Settings, and in the Color Quality box cull sixteen scrap.
Avoid DOS applications. DOS applications don't allow XP to manage memory properly, and they hold onto the memory they employ, not allowing it to exist swapped out for utilise for other programs or processes. If yous use any DOS applications, supercede them with Windows versions.
Reduce the icons on your desktop. Every icon on your desktop uses up retentiveness. Delete icons you don't use regularly. Run the Make clean Desktop Wizard, which will automatically delete icons that y'all don't regularly use. Correct-click on the Desktop and cull Backdrop Desktop Customize Desktop Make clean Desktop Now. A magician will stride you through the process of deleting unused icons. If you lot want the wizard to run every 60 days, cheque "Run Desktop Wizard every sixty days."
Reduce the applications and services running in the groundwork. You may have many programs and services running in the background, without realizing information technology. Look at your Notification area, and come across if there are whatsoever programs running that you don't require. Shut them down, and brand sure that they don't load at startup. Also, XP frequently starts services on startup that you might not need [Hack #4]. For example, if y'all don't apply a wireless network card, you lot don't need the Wireless Zippo Configuration service.