Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (
More info?)
In news:GC2Bd.24244$Ff3.16737@trndny04,
Bob <bobdawn1@verizon.net> typed:
>I curently have 512 and was woundering if adding more would be
> benificial. It curently shows 198 mb available.
Adding more would probably not be beneficial, but that's not the
way to find out.
How much memory you ne ed depends on what apps you run, but
almost everyone needs at least 256MB for decent performance. For
some people, for example those who edit large photographic
images, more than 256MB--even much more--can be required for good
performance.
If you are currently using the page file significantly, more
memory will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your
performance. If you are not using the page file significantly,
more memory will do nothing for you.
Go to http://billsway.com/notes%5Fpublic/winxp%5Ftweaks/ and
download WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your pagefile usage.
That should give you a good idea of whether more memory can help,
and if so, how much more.
--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup
> "Ken Blake" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
> news:ukvBm$o7EHA.936@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>> In news:ttIAd.14759$152.245@trndny01,
>> Bob <bobdawn1@verizon.net> typed:
>>
>>> Is there one. I'd like to monitor memory usage.
>>
>>
>> Although you *can* do this (see Sharon's reply), let me ask
>> why you
>> want to. If you are trying to minimize memory usage, that's a
>> counterproductive thing to do. Windows is designed to use all,
>> or
>> almost all, your memory all the time, and that's good, not
>> bad. Free
>> memory is wasted memory. You paid for it all and shouldn't
>> want to
>> see any of it wasted. Windows works hard to find a use for all
>> the memory you have all the
>> time. For example if your apps don't need some of it, it will
>> use
>> that part for caching, then give it back when your apps later
>> need
>> it. In this way Windows keeps all your memory working for you
>> all
>> the time.
>>
>> --
>> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
>> Please reply to the newsgroup