Interesting Software and System News

[mkis]

Yes I've noticed that gains through defrag tending to resettle at a lower level. So for use during a session really. Then reboot resets available usage to max that can be attained (I guess). I can monitor for a while  with the meminfo program.

[cod head]

Personally I can't see why RAM needs to be defragged, it doesn't suffer the same issues as a fixed hard disk when heavily fragmented. Certainly not with modern systems and RAM.

This is the same as SSD Solid State Disks in a way, which they don't believe need to be defragged; not only that but there is supposed to be a life to SSDs and defrags potentially shorten that life.

How to defrag RAM, reboot, done.
For me I really see no need to even contemplate defragging RAM as all locations are addressed in RAM and it isn't as if like the hard disk it has to spin to multiple locations for the data, which is the true problem with HDD fragmentation.

I tried a Memory fragmentation device once.The results lasted about a minute then it was back to normal.I use CleanMem by PC Wintech and it is the only memory optimiser I have tried that seems to work.Its made by Creastery,one of the members at WOT.I think his real name is Shane.My memory at idle on Vista was around the 60% mark.Now its in the 45 to 50% mark since using this app.The author states it does not clean the memory it asks windows to do that.Plus it does not run all the time taking more memory than it uses.

It is available direct from authors site or from Major Geeks.For more info and download link go here.

http://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem

[YoKenny]

@ cod head

You are comparing apples to oranges. 

On my XP Pro system I use MemInfo only to display free RAM not to defrag it and on Windows 7 I use the CPU Meter gadget to display RAM usage.

I am with DavidR in the need to defrag RAM.

Last time I used CleanMem on my XP Pro system it always caused it to crash so I won't be trying that again. 

[cod head]

I am also with DavidRin the need to defrag mem.Thats why I said I used it once and the result lasted about a minute.In other words memory defragmenting is a waste of time.

But the CleanMem app by PC Wintech has a very positive advantage on my machine.But as always no two machines are alike.

[Chris Thomas]

Free Memory by Automatically unloading unused .DLL from Memory

   1. Run Registry Editor and navigate to the following registry key:
      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
   2. Create a new sub-key named AlwaysUnloadDLL and set the default value to 1
   3. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

[Hard_ROCKER]

This reg key has no effect on win 2000 and later.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb776795(VS.85).aspx#Unloading_the_DLL

The Shell automatically unloads a DLL when its usage count is zero, but only after the DLL has not been used for a period of time. This inactive period might be unacceptably long at times, especially when a Shell extension DLL is being debugged. For operating systems prior to Windows 2000, you can shorten the inactive period by adding the following information to the registry.

[Chris Thomas]

@ darth

Wow! I didn't knew that before 

I got this piece of information from TweakXP.com

http://www.tweakxp.com/article36974.aspx

http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-xp-tips/unloading-dll-files-from-memory/

[Alan Baxter]

On my XP Pro system I use MemInfo only to display free RAM not to defrag it.

I am with DavidR in the need to defrag RAM.

Me too on both, except I've never needed to reboot XP to reclaim memory. Windows XP with a 1GB pagefile and 1GB RAM have always done a good job for me at managing memory. My Windows 98SE system works best if rebooted daily.

BTW, I slowed meminfo's refresh rate down from its default of one second to five seconds.  That reduced its CPU from 0.3% to one fifth of that on my 600 MHz XP box.  (Sorry, watching it rack up 10 seconds of CPU time every hour bugged me.)

[Jtaylor83]

Internet Explorer 9 demos set for March MIX conference

Source: Betanews

[Lisandro]

Get Good Old “Up” Button Back in Windows Vista and 7 Explorer
http://www.askvg.com/classic-shell-get-classic-start-menu-and-explorer-toolbar-buttons-cut-copy-paste-etc-back-in-windows-vista-and-7/

[bob3160]

Get Good Old “Up” Button Back in Windows Vista and 7 Explorer
http://www.askvg.com/classic-shell-get-classic-start-menu-and-explorer-toolbar-buttons-cut-copy-paste-etc-back-in-windows-vista-and-7/

What's so bad about the Windows 7  Start Menu

[Lisandro]

Get Good Old “Up” Button Back in Windows Vista and 7 Explorer
http://www.askvg.com/classic-shell-get-classic-start-menu-and-explorer-toolbar-buttons-cut-copy-paste-etc-back-in-windows-vista-and-7/

What's so bad about the Windows 7  Start Menu

Nothing, just the "Up" button I was looking for...

[pinnacle]

Anyone ever try this thing out its called SpeedyFox . Here is the description from its website Mozilla Firefox is a fast browser, but with the lapse of time it starts working much slowly. The reason is fragmentation of profile databases. A free tool SpeedyFox is designed specially to resolve that problem. The method used in SpeedyFox is 100% safe for your profile (e.g. bookmars, passwords, etc), it's well documented and tested on many computers. http://crystalidea.com/speedyfox

[DavidR]

Tried it doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference for me.

Whilst there may be some benefits in test conditions with stopwatch, etc. in real life on a reasonable quick system the user is unlikely to notice.

[mkis]

Windows Secrets today report on Windows 7

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/100218#story1