[extropy-chat] when will computers improve?

[BillK]

On Sat Dec 20, 2003 01:22 am Harvey Newstrom wrote:

> Be aware that Win98 reports percentage of virtual memory, not actual
> memory. Your 80% free may be using all your available memory and
> swapping some into your virtual memory. Tuning it down to fit only in 
> real memory will greatly speed up the machine. You can test this
> theory by setting your virtual memory to a static size instead of
> letting the system do it. Then if you double your virtual memory, you 
> can see your resources appear to cut in half. Or if you half your
> virtual memory, you can see your resources appear to double.
>

Correct. That's why I use the FreeMeter utility. Download from:
<http://www.tiler.com/freemeter/default.php>

FreeMeter itself uses 1480KB of Physical Memory and about 1% of GDI
and 1% of Sys resources.

Just for interest, I unloaded all the other programs I usually have
running via the Close Program dialogue (Ctrl Alt Del), then closed one
App at a time, to get some numbers out.
The starting position is slightly higher than my previous email as I had
a couple of utilities running that I had forgotten about

Physical Memory 256MB   Page (Swap) File 768MB    Available
% Available   % Used    % Available   % Used    GDI%  User%   Sys%

51.5           48.5        100           0      84      83     83

Unload Mozilla Browser and Email
62.7           37.5        100           0      90      88     88

Unload AVG antivirus
63.4           36.6        100           0      91      90     90

Unload Sygate Personal firewall
67             33          100           0      94      94     94

The only items left in the Close dialogue box now are Explorer and
FreeMeter.

I was quite surprised to see how little resources AVG used. I think
Norton AV will use more than this.
And Sygate also was quite low. Check how much ZoneAlarm uses.

Best wishes, BillK