Reclaim Your Memory By Mastering Windows Task Manager
Friday, February 15, 2008 by Leo the Lion | Discussion: Personal Computing
Following on from a great thread by Mike earlier this week, I came across this article, which came up on Lifehacker today. It gives great guidance and help when it comes to reclaiming memory from those pescky programs that hog memory when they are not needed. Personally, I use TuneUp Utilities 2008 to disable a lot of the processes at 'startup' but that surely does not catch all of them so this little guide will hopefully help me speed up my system even more. Thought it worth sharing with you. Certainly worth a read. 
Leo the Lion
Reply #2 Friday, February 15, 2008 5:53 PM
Reply #2 Friday, February 15, 2008 5:53 PM
Yeah, Mike you are right about TuneUp. I'm trying out the 2008 release at the moment and they've improved it even more. They've added a Defragger into the 'works' too but I still think PerfectDisk does a better job. By the way, nice article - '.......tight ship', of yours. Made interesting reading together with the replies from other members.
Snowman
Reply #3 Friday, February 15, 2008 6:28 PM
Reply #3 Friday, February 15, 2008 6:28 PM
Really..... with the amount of RAM in most machines today, one shouldn't really be "whimping" about a few extra free mb 
With 2+GB of memory you'll need to run some serious heavy weight apps before you run out.
If you have an accient thingy with 512MB running XP though..... then you might.
I'm on 2GB of memory on a Vista system, and currently have God knows how many apps/services running, taken up just 58%, and the system is still pretty 'spunky'
kona0197
Reply #4 Friday, February 15, 2008 6:56 PM
Reply #4 Friday, February 15, 2008 6:56 PM
I have 2 GB on my Vista system and it still runs like crap. My system is far from "spunky"...
Snowman
Reply #5 Friday, February 15, 2008 7:05 PM
Reply #5 Friday, February 15, 2008 7:05 PM
Could be a combination of "low speed" CPU/RAM
(I peeked at your score here: https://forums.wincustomize.com/?forumid=260&aid=148121 )
(I peeked at your score here: https://forums.wincustomize.com/?forumid=260&aid=148121 )
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #6 Saturday, February 16, 2008 8:39 PM
True for the most part...sometimes is really more about apps pissing you off because they think you cant live without their unused processes clogging up the taskmanager(even when they havnt been launched)
Plus,a clean taskmanager makes it easier to spot things that should not be there.Bad thingys.
And...cleanliness is next Godliness?
And...waste not want not.(900mb here)
Reply #6 Saturday, February 16, 2008 8:39 PM
Really..... with the amount of RAM in most machines today, one shouldn't really be "whimping" about a few extra free mb
With 2+GB of memory you'll need to run some serious heavy weight apps before you run out.
With 2+GB of memory you'll need to run some serious heavy weight apps before you run out.
True for the most part...sometimes is really more about apps pissing you off because they think you cant live without their unused processes clogging up the taskmanager(even when they havnt been launched)
Plus,a clean taskmanager makes it easier to spot things that should not be there.Bad thingys.
And...cleanliness is next Godliness?
And...waste not want not.(900mb here)
Leo the Lion
Reply #7 Sunday, February 17, 2008 12:27 AM
Mike, have you been chewing on that bar of soap again?
Reply #7 Sunday, February 17, 2008 12:27 AM
And...cleanliness is next Godliness? 
And...waste not want not.(900mb here)
And...waste not want not.(900mb here)
Mike, have you been chewing on that bar of soap again?
Snowman
Reply #8 Sunday, February 17, 2008 3:41 AM
Reply #8 Sunday, February 17, 2008 3:41 AM
True for the most part...sometimes is really more about apps pissing you off because they think you cant live without their unused processes clogging up the taskmanager(even when they havnt been launched)
A lill' bit of system-vanity, eh? 
Plus,a clean taskmanager makes it easier to spot things that should not be there.Bad thingys.
Imo, unless you're a complete n00b you know what's good and what's not, in the taskmanager
But yes, in essence, the less you have to sift through the easier you spot the 'rotten apple(s)'.
WebGizmos
Reply #9 Sunday, February 17, 2008 4:44 AM
Reply #9 Sunday, February 17, 2008 4:44 AM
Great link Leo! Yeah...some of us are still nincomputers when it comes to some stuff like what processes you can and can't kill...it's not like we have all day trying to figure "all" these processes out...so any help is always welcome.
Chasbo
Reply #10 Sunday, February 17, 2008 5:04 AM
Reply #10 Sunday, February 17, 2008 5:04 AM
Yes, the more info the better.
I've let this slide. Thanks to the earlier article and this one I've been tweaking like mad the last couple of days. Got it down to 35 processes at boot. 37 running right now. The one that pissed me off the most was the Apple Mobile Devices. WTF! It's for IPhones. Came on board with ITunes and people bitch about Microsoft! I ain't gonna have an I Phone! Useless to me.
I've let this slide. Thanks to the earlier article and this one I've been tweaking like mad the last couple of days. Got it down to 35 processes at boot. 37 running right now. The one that pissed me off the most was the Apple Mobile Devices. WTF! It's for IPhones. Came on board with ITunes and people bitch about Microsoft! I ain't gonna have an I Phone! Useless to me.
WOM
Reply #11 Sunday, February 17, 2008 8:04 AM
Reply #11 Sunday, February 17, 2008 8:04 AM
I have 4 gig of Ram and am sitting at 29% used. I've got mIRC, browser, 2 games and 3 yahoo widgets open, plus all the crap windows wants/has/uses.
prickly pear
Reply #12 Sunday, February 17, 2008 8:49 AM
Reply #12 Sunday, February 17, 2008 8:49 AM
Hello,
I was reading an article on MSN a few weeks ago and found out about a program called Process Explorer. You can read about on CNet.com. Process Explorer is an advanced process management utility that picks up where Task Manager leaves off. It will show you detailed information about a process including its icon, command-line, full image path, memory statistics, user account, security attributes, and more.
It gives you more detailed information about what process are running so you can "kill" them if you want. Worth checking out. Just putting in my two cents.
I was reading an article on MSN a few weeks ago and found out about a program called Process Explorer. You can read about on CNet.com. Process Explorer is an advanced process management utility that picks up where Task Manager leaves off. It will show you detailed information about a process including its icon, command-line, full image path, memory statistics, user account, security attributes, and more.
It gives you more detailed information about what process are running so you can "kill" them if you want. Worth checking out. Just putting in my two cents.
Chasbo
Reply #13 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 9:51 AM
Reply #13 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 9:51 AM
37 processes right now with Firefox and Winstep running. XP Forever!
XP Forever!
Leo the Lion
Reply #14 Friday, February 29, 2008 9:47 PM
Reply #14 Friday, February 29, 2008 9:47 PM
This little proggy came out on download squad today and looks pretty good and it's FREE WWW Link
HG_Eliminator
Reply #15 Friday, February 29, 2008 10:18 PM
I have tried all this Leo......
and I still cant remember squat...
Reply #15 Friday, February 29, 2008 10:18 PM
Reclaim Your Memory By Mastering Windows Task Manager
I have tried all this Leo......
and I still cant remember squat...
Nimbin
Reply #16 Friday, February 29, 2008 11:06 PM
Reply #16 Friday, February 29, 2008 11:06 PM
32 processes running at the moment, and on computer start i have 29.
1.5Gb RAM with 27% used
1.5Gb RAM with 27% used
Leo the Lion
Reply #17 Friday, February 29, 2008 11:16 PM
It's called age. It catches up with you after a while. Ask Zubaz he can't hardly remember anything and it's a wonder he can still spell his name (Only messing with you Zu)
Reply #17 Friday, February 29, 2008 11:16 PM
Reclaim Your Memory By Mastering Windows Task ManagerI have tried all this Leo...... and I still cant remember squat...
It's called age. It catches up with you after a while. Ask Zubaz he can't hardly remember anything and it's a wonder he can still spell his name (Only messing with you Zu)
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #18 Friday, February 29, 2008 11:49 PM
Always hated those leftover entries in msconfig...all gone now.
Reply #18 Friday, February 29, 2008 11:49 PM
This little proggy came out on download squad today and looks pretty good and it's FREE WWW Link
Always hated those leftover entries in msconfig...all gone now.
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Reply #1 Friday, February 15, 2008 5:40 PM