On Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:29:48 +0000, Arfa Daily wrote:

"Charlie" wrote in message
...

"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



Thanks Charlie. I'll give it a look

Arfa

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals

Download Autoruns and Process Explorer. Scroll down the page on the
right.

Those are just two tools in the arsenal I use when I'm out on a trouble
call. They are very useful at tracking down your sort of problem.

You have to be careful of some of these other suggestions. I don't trust
many of them, only what M$ Technet approves. Learned my lesson a long
time ago in the 90's.



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Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse