So after disabling all of the ones I know were not necessary, (services) I have a total of 34 but it's taking up about 375mb of ram, does anyone know if that sounds normal?

You could probably trim a few more off the list, but the memory usage sounds about right, plus or minus. I've read posts by people that claim they took the number down to something like 20.

There are LOT more pieces of software running in the background than what show up in your process and services list.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even on a 1GB machine that leaves a lot to work with.

Use a program like SIW or What'sRunning to get a more comprehensive list of what's running on your machine.


edit to add 'What's Running'. Shows processes, drivers, services, etc in a tabbed window.

On a XP system, that figure (around 375MB) is actually pretty good.
I just wanted to add that you'll almost NEVER reach that on a VISTA system, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. The way that Vista handles memory is different, so expect to see about half of your available memory in use, no matter what you do to the running processes.

Insofar as 20 processes on XP, I've never gotten there, but I do not run a unconnected, unprotected machine, and I require some of the 60+ some odd processes to run most of the time.

One thing this posting brings to mind, is it would be nice to be able to have multiple process profiles that you could change on the fly. So that you could have a general usage, high performance, and gaming profile that you could switch to just by loading a different profile from within an active session...hmmmm, maybe something to suggest to MS?

Gerritt

Gerritt said:

Well as soon as I turn on TF2 (Team Fortress 2) and play for a few minutes I get a OS memory error (page filing) which doesn't crash the game but the text becomes either some cryptic language or black blobs. Which is odd since it requires only 512MB of ram to play.


john albrich said:

SIW?

Re: Vista, that's totally true. Usually at startup, I'm already using 800MB (out of 2GB total). But that figure also includes a myriad of programs that I have set to run at startup (NetLimiter, TrueCrypt, ATT, Daemon Tools, PG2, etc etc). Under normal conditions, my memory usage never really goes above 1.2-1.3GB.

The people who always obsess with having the most free memory and then never actually utilize that memory are, to me anyway, a little odd. In general, unused memory is wasted memory. If you use it now and again, well then you're not wasting it.

The only times in Vista when I have problems with memory is when I fire up two or more VM's at the same time. At times like those I'll see my memory usage go to 1.99GB, and s**t starts getting paged to my disk. Which is why I'm looking to sell my DDR500 soon and go for 4GB of DDR400 (since I can't find another 2GB of my DDR500). That, plus DDR1 is going to be extinct before long, and the prices have come down a bit lately, even though they are still about twice as high as DDR2.

McFly 6K said:

Yea.. the reason I posted this was addressed above if maybe you know why?

I was thinking I'd have to buy another 512x2 kit for this old monster but I don't really want too

System Internals for Windows....
You should have been able to google that one yourself.

When I googled it I got system info for windows...

Brandon,
Have you looked on E-Bay for your sticks?
There's a kajillion hits for DDR DRAM out there! Most of it is rated DDR800+ but should still work as long as your MB supports a voltage modifier for DRAM.

Gerritt

Gerritt said:

Can't ebay, only local purchase... thankfully a few places have it but it's around 25$/512

Brandon DeCoppel said:
They both provide tools to provide enhanced visibility into the system environment.

System Info for Windows (Gabriel Topala) is a single application providing a wealth of info in an easy-to-use interface. Much like What's Running (Christer Fahlgren) but provides even more info about the system, attached/installed devices and programs.

Systems Internals for Windows is a collection of tools that can do that. When used individually, these tools take up fewer resources than the other programs.

What's Running (like some other sites) also has a good run-down on process information: http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/processinfocentral.aspx


edited to correct and add-program credits and add the bit on What'sRunning's information page.

29 processes @ startup with my messenger off.

299M of 1024 physical memory.

But sometimes when playing TF2 i still get the error .. >

Another good resource of information about the processes running on Windows is:
http://www.processlibrary.com

Also, for a FREE fully automated report about the processes running on your PC, you can instal and run Uniblue's ProcessScanner:
http://www.processlibrary.com/processscan/

This free application will give you a complete analysis of all the processes running on your PC, along with a risk analysis of each one!

john albrich said:
Actually, there is only two ghost processes running in Windows XP. They show up in .NET process list and they can be identified because their names start with $ (if I recall correctly). What's unique about them is you can't get any more information about them even if you try.

svchost.exe also hides a lot of processes but you can see inside of them using Process Explorer:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

I'd say a good, clean, personal computer running XP should have around 30 processes running. After boot, it should be under 30. Once a user is in front of it, it usually pops above 30. If there is more than 40, there is a good chance a lot of it shouldn't be running.

Ford, I didn't want to get bogged down in semantics as to what is and is not a 'process', but I was generally referring to all the background programs, files, bits and pieces, etc. that are kicked off and running in the background, including those that are managed by 'processes'. I think I said that fairly clearly.

Also, your comment about using ProcessExplorere to examine the svchost 'processes' in more detail was a good example of one way to find more info.

On my everyday-use computer, literally hundreds of items are running in the 'background' and the 'process' list only barely scratches the surface at what is actually running. That is what I wanted to point out.

A program like SIW or SIV helps the user investigate and understand those details, whereas a program like TaskManager does not. ProcessExplorer is definitely better, and I use it a lot, but it also doesn't show all the details.

I have compiled a list of websites that can be used to research files found to be currently in use, whether identified as a 'process' or not.

For those that are concerned about external agents scanning their system, these sites don't have to scan your system and you don't download a 'scanning' program. You do have to enter the file information in an entry field, and to do that, you have to know all the files involved. Besides whatsrunning.net (mentioned earlier), here's another example of this kind of website: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/filedb/Cat-A.html

I'll edit later and append the list of websites.

john albrich said:
I'll define it for you then. It is merely an executable running on the shell. That is, the operating system manages it.

Gosh. Thanks.

No problem.

Here's a list of websites that might help you identify files/programs/processes that could be causing trouble, be spoofed, or just to satisfy your curiosity.

The reason I'm providing so many websites, is that every website has limits. You may be unable to find something even listed at one website while it is 100% identified at another. At times I've had to go through the entire list of sites to find a useful reference for an obscure file.

I've not visited every one of these lately, so things could have changed, or might be obsolete. Note that in some websites, you have to modify the URL to include the filename, while at others you enter the filename into a data field, and at others you have to read thru an alphabetized list of filenames. It varies. For completeness I also included a few of the websites that may scan your computer and they are so identified.

File Extension Info (general)
http://www.dotwhat.net/

DLL File Info
http://dll-ocx.com/rdll.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/dllhelp/

Process and File ID
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/filedb/Cat-A.html
http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/Processes_Range.aspx?...amp;Stop=I
http://www.file.net/process/zhotkey.exe.html
http://www.processlibrary.com/
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php?filter=sndmon
http://www.programchecker.com/file/19145.aspx
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/symscui/
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/sys/795-Lbrtfdcsys.html
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/startup/letter-e.php
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/
http://process.networktechs.com/SymSCUI.exe.php
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
http://www.castlecops.com/o23list-1614.html
http://fileadvisor.bit9.com/services/search.aspx
http://process.networktechs.com/ati2evxx.exe.php


File Analyzing Websites-may be intrusive
http://mark0.net/onlinetrid.aspx
http://www.fileresearchcenter.com/
http://www.runscanner.net/files/dll/relog_ap/relog_ap.dll.aspx
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/symscui/


edit-shorten length of one of the example links
edit-add reason for listing so many sites

Another very useful tool (I'd go so far as to say it is a vital tool)...can't believe I forgot this one...Autoruns. It shows what starts up when you boot your PC. Again, this goes far beyond the 'processes' that are started.

http://majorgeeks.com/Autoruns_d4686.html



edit to add-
One of the great things about this program is that it requires no windows installation...has no effect on the registry, etc. You simply copy the file(s) to a desired folder. It's completely portable and even runs from a USB "memory stick". To "uninstall" Autoruns, you simply delete the files. (for example, I would copy these files to the folder C:\ProgramFiles\DownloadedFiles\Autoruns, then just put a shortcut to the executable either on my Desktop or in my custom "SystemTools" folder)