Huge Memory Use After Boot

[slugonamission]

Ive heard about disabling services to free up RAM, but for a normal computer (networked, software development, wiriting documents, printing, gaming etc) what services can i safely nuke? Also, if i set a service to manual startup, is it still loaded with windows but not started?

Thing is, after boot, windows is nicely hogging about 300MB of RAM, which sounds quite a lot...

 

[Nodsu]

Look in Task Manager what exactly is using up the RAM. There is no point in random optimisations - always see what is your bottleneck/problem.

 

[slugonamission]

on boot, its mostly explorer and java IIRC, svchost and steam are also using quite a lot of memory ATM, along with firefox (43Mb...) and MSN

 

[wlknaack]

You can reduce the number of running services, reduce the number of programs that start on boot (start-up menu), and optimize the page file (virtual memory) in order to decrease your RAM usage.

The following sites will help you choose which services you can safely set to manual and/or disable:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/windows_xp_services_2.php

http://www.z123.org/techsupport/xpservices.htm

http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm

To adjust the page file size go to:

Start/right click My Computer/ Properties/Advanced Tab/under Performance click Settings/Advanced Tab/under Virtual Memory click Change/set the MINIMUM and MAXIMUM page file size to equal 1.5 times your total RAM (i.e. If you have 500mb RAM, set the min/max to 750mb)/click Set/OK, etc..

To remove the programs which start at boot and which you do not need to be running all the time, from the Start-up menu, go to:

Start/Run/type "msconfig" in the run dialog box, without the quotations/click the Startup tab/deselect those programs you do not need to run. If you have security programs installed like Spybot Search and Destroy or WinPatrol for example, or the CCleaner program, you can use any of these to parse the Start-Up menu.

 

[slugonamission]

thanks, them links are helpful

I'll try a few of them tomorrow

Thanks again, Slug

 

[Nodsu]

Java on boot? WTH?

Anyways, right after boot, in Task manager, open the processes tab and sort the table by the memory usage. 300MB of RAM used at startup is not normal and it is most likely some third party software, not Windows components that needs to be disabled.

 

[slugonamission]

disabled some services not much difference

heres the processes tab

 

[xero]

use msconfig

Use msconfig (start->run->msconfig.exe<return>) to determine the programs which are being loaded on startup. Disable the non critical ones. Will give u about 20% more ram (on average). Disabling unnecessary services is also a good thought, but you must know what you are doing.

 

[Nodsu]

Whoa.. Looks like you have enabled every single program that can, to load at startup. Your system tray must be at least 6 inches long As xero said, use msconfig or the programs themselves to disable them loading at startup. Some of them may be listed as system services too.

And you have to find out what is loading Java and disable that horrid thing.

 

[xero]

java? can you eat that? well another bad invention, its slow, its has worthless thread scheduling and has many many security leaks. Try to visit keygen.us (DONT!), lol and get infected by the byteverifier class trojan loader

Think you have been protected by disabling all active X is java going to infect you. Weren't class files prohibited to write files? lol

Well luckily we decided to bypass java and stick with good old CPP

 

[Nodsu]

ActiveX? What is that? *google* GASP! Someone is still using IE?!

 

[xero]

*shame* lol. Well technically yes, i am still using Internet Exploder. But you dont wanna know what i had to do to make it safe. loads and loads of police-ies. I wont been infected until next ie upgrade *sigh*

 

[slugonamission]

All i can see in startp etc that could cause java to run on boot is jusched.exe

Would that keep java running on my system though?

 

[N3051M]

jusched.exe is java's update program, some say its important some says its not..
[to disable it just goto control panel and open the java control thing there and uncheck 'chech automaticaly for updates' or something similar..]
what you should be worried about is why java.exe is loaded during bootup.

download your choice of scanners for the 4 baddies (virus, ad/spy/malware) update and scan. some free ones are adaware, spybot S&D, and AVG..
next download process explorer and that will give you much more detailed info on current running processes and where they originate from..

a few programs i see you could disable via their respective programs, which would make booting windows faster and use less memory, and only calling on them when you decide to use them.
eg: msn messenger [options>general>uncheck startup when windows starts]
steam.. similar thing..
itunes also etc...

you get the jist..

 

[slugonamission]

ok, got that and it turns out Maya PLE documentation server was starting java. Strange really, i wouldnt have thought it would need java

anyway, around 250Mb on boot now, which isnt too bad now is it?

BTW, what option in that process explorer is for memory use, i looked in the add/remove column thing and cant find it

 

[Nodsu]

Virtual Size and Working Set. VS is the total memory used by program, including portions that are swapped to disk and shared pages, etc. WS is the portion of VS actually in RAM.

 

[N3051M]

option? clarify.....
process explorer www.sysinternals.com lets you see like task manager, but with more detail (ie: what folder/prog it came from, descriptions etc) and how much each process is taking up (cpu wise)
its a stand alone program with no need to install, and from there you can decide what else you may want to clear off the memory/startup lists by going to their programs or msconfig etc..

 

[slugonamission]

working set, thats the one i wanted

Thanks