OS and Software > Microsoft Help > [Vista] How should I tweak Vista so it hogs less RAM?

[Vista] How should I tweak Vista so it hogs less RAM?

You need to pull up Task Manager and see what process is using up the ram and go from there. The only reason I can think of is a poorly written program OR malware.
--
Brian

"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain

reply to robman50
Windows with 1GB of memory is a joke these days when running any kind of newer software, and a onboard video so old this machine might not even run HD videos well. So what you likely have is a machine that can watch a few youtube videos, and browse the web at best.

If you're down to services, and drivers with most of the memory used anything you run will be in the pagefile. This machine might be better maximized with a smaller os like nix, which ubuntu is a popular variation, and can run from a live os cd, however browsers these days will use upwards of 100's of MB of memory alone.
--
I distrust those people who know so well what god wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires- Susan B. Anthony
Yesterday we obeyed kings, and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth- Kahlil G.

reply to robman50
I agree with CylonRed, but also consider this:

Vista does not run ideally on 1GB Ram. That is the number one reason that it got panned so harshly when released. The average computer at that time only averaged 512mb - 1gb. MS was looking for a wide base of acceptance and mistakenly set hardware requirements too low. IMHO, Vista's biggest failing was in its marketing. Several years later, Win 7 was pretty much an over night success, because most of the existing hardware by then began at a minimum of 2gb ram and dual core processors.

Adding 1 gb of ram should provide a decent improvement.
--
Deeds, not words

reply to robman50
I just found an pair of sticks from an similar laptop that I had in the scrap pile. It is now 2GB (2x1GB) and seems to be running a bit smoother. Windows is even giving me an 5.3 for the RAM rating.
Can't be any malware in there because I just did a fresh recovery from the recovery disks.
The process 'svchost.exe' it taking about 100+ MB. How do you shrink that one down?

With the exception of 3rd party software installed as services do not mess with the windows services unless you like things to stop working for no apparent reason. You have 2GB now, you should be fine for basic software, leave it alone.

For 3rd party there is a bunch of 'preloaded' stuff from Cyberlink, Adobe, Java, and a lot of unnecessary laptop stuff.

Would shutting down Aero free up any RAM?

Is aero even enabled with that video card? A very little bit, but with 2GB now you don't need to free up tons of ram. You're not gaming on this are you?

»www.lancelhoff.com/how-to-disabl···n-vista/

Actually yeah it is and I am quite surprised. As for gaming it would be nice but I highly doubt the system can keep up with it.
Here is what chips this laptop has. NVIDIA GeForce 6150 GPU and NVIDIA nForce 430 MCP featuring HD video.
I really do not know what it is even capable of.
CPU is AMD Turion 64x2 TL-50 1.6Ghz.

Early amd dual core, but the video isn't good for gaming, especially these days. Older games might be ok, but looks like it will be fine for video, and browsing. On newer games the cpu, and gpu will both be inadequate.

Shutting down Aero freed up some RAM and I also disabled the Windows Search service. It seems to be running a bit more smoothly now.
About the Superfetch service, would disabling it be a smart thing to do?

Doesn't really matter. Gamers with less than 4GB of ram tend to shut it off so it's not trying to preload their large games, but the memory it uses to precache is released when needed, otherwise it just makes programs like your browser start faster by preloading it into memory. It's based on the programs you use the most.
--
I distrust those people who know so well what god wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires- Susan B. Anthony
Yesterday we obeyed kings, and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth- Kahlil G.

I'll leave it on. I only use Firefox and Thunderbird. Doubt I will play any games on this thing.

reply to robman50
Use Black Viper's Guide to decide what services to change - been around for years - very reliable advice.
Windows loads a lot of services that just aren't needed on a home pc.
»www.blackviper.com/service-confi···rations/

reply to robman50
I accidentally disabled the program that uses the webcam in the laptop. *face palm* LOL.
Who knew that hp Quickplay was a Cyber Link program.
But with msconfig on 'normal' startup and everything is enabled it is running good with that extra 1gb. Even the Start menu is coming up quicker since I increased the VRAM setting from 64mb to 128mb.
I ran the laptop idle for a few hours to let windows do what ever is needed.

reply to robman50
I run Vista on a P4 HT 3.6, 2 gig ram, 128 ATI card. And it screams. Several people who have used this comp are amazed at the speed.
I set my Windows as this:

Click: Start, control panel, System,advanced system settings,advanced,settings, adjust for best performance.

Start,computer, R/click C/: drive select properties, deselect indexing.

Start,control panel, administritive tools,services, superfetch disabled.

Readyboost I also use a 4 gig ( fast ) flash stick , although I'm not to certain of the benefits of it.

Several other tweaks that I cannot remember at present.

Another thing , Vista uses something called memory preselect/predict.
Which means ram is taken at boot up. If you play a game and a lot of ram is used when you reboot that memory is still being taken . To get around this prob boot twice. i.e boot and then reboot again.
Probably used the wrong names for this prob. Sorry!

I did some reading and disabled a few services and here is how it's running.

memory 563mb

total 1917mb
cached 1531mb
free 52mb
physical memory 29%
page file 577mb/4830mb
kernel
total 113mb
paged 70mb
nonpaged 42mb

odd, it seems to be running quicker with out superfetch.