Memory management in XP

penrhyn

I recently added an additional 512mb (total RAM is now 1gb) of RAM to my trusty PC.
All is running well but I was wondering if there is anything that needs to be done to optimise the way windows uses it.
I know that you can change the page file settings, but to what? Is there anything else that needs to be changed?
I guess I'm just trying to squeeze a bit more performance from the beast.

steveeeee

Unless you're getting "out of memory" error messages, I'd leave your virtual memory settings as they are. You don't need to make any configuration changes to take advantage of additional RAM that you've installed.

Chippy_Minton

It depends how many applications you like to have open at the same time and what they do (e.g. editing very large graphics files), however setting the page file to 1.5 times the amount of RAM is the default and sufficient for most people.

There are several ways to improve system performance, for example:

• Disable unnecessary startup programs and services to free up more RAM.
• Defragment the paging file and other system files using PageDefrag tool.

dot111

How do I disable start up program?
Thanks

Chippy_Minton

Click Start - Run - type msconfig - OK. On the Startup tab, untick any programs you don't want to start. Click OK and then reboot. Be careful and disable one or two at a time and make sure there are no detrimental effects.

Some programs have an icon in the system tray (next to the clock) and you can disable them by right-clicking the icon and unticking 'Start with Windows' or somewhere in 'Options....'.

dot111

How do I find out what they are if it's not obvious. I've done one, but there are a few I would like to remove.
Sorry if I'm being thick.

cwoodham

http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/browse.php

http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html

http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php