"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...


Some good steers there, and also from others who have replied. Thanks
all
for your input. I am using two things to monitor the memory usage. The
first is the built-in Windoze memory and processor usage graphic desktop
widget. The second is the memory usage monitoring tool in the memory
cleaner program that I have been using. It agrees exactly with the Windoze
one, which would suggest that they are right. As you see the memory
clogging up over a couple of days, the system performance degrades very
noticeably, to the point where it becomes unusable for all practical
purposes. If you then run the cleaner, it will recover perhaps 20% at
best, and there is a corresponding improvement in performance, which
again, would suggest to me that what the widget is reporting as being the
case, actually *is* the case. Ultimately, the only way to get the system
back to full normal performance, is to either soft or hard restart, after
which, low memory usage is again reported.

When I get time, I'll do a restart, and then note what all of the
background applications and the system, are using. When it has started to
clog noticeably, I'll recheck, and see what is using it all ...

Arfa

Arfa, here is a little free (donate if you wish) program that will show you
all the stuff that runs upon system start.
It may find more than what msconfig indicates. It is always surprising how
much stuff wants to suck up your RAM without your explicit permission.

http://www.windowsstartup.com/

Charlie