What processes are safe to turn off in Windows XP? (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Lehr]

My 1.1 Ghz running WinXP seems to run slower than my 400 Mhz running Win98. Looking at my system information, I see that it shows Total Physical Memory at 128 Megs, and Available Physical Memory at 11 Megs.
It seems I need to free up some processes, and I was wondering if anyone knew what non-essential services and processes would help me get a bit more memory to play with.
Or, would anyone know of any sites that may have this info?
Thanks,

JL

 

[Max Leung]

If you only have 128 megs of RAM installed on your PC, I strongly STRONGLY suggest you buy more RAM. You should at least have 256 megs of RAM! XP is a RAM hog. Disabling processes will not help you much, if at all.

RAM is cheap...$150 US should get you 512 megs of RAM at the very least. 256 megs of RAM will probably not cost more than $80 US. I am assuming your PC uses DDR-SDRAM...if doesn't, then RAM will be even cheaper for you.

 

[Jeff Lehr]

Max,

I realize that now. I stole another 128 Meg stick from my other computer to try it and it works so much better now.
Crucial has 256 Meg for $50 right now...looks like it's time to load up.

JL

 

[Graeme Clark]

When you look, check to see what prosses are taking up the most RAM. If you have a few IE windows open, you might find that it's taking A LOT at times (253MB for me right now).

It's hard to say what processes for sure you can close, because there could be a lot that you don't need that most people wouldn't have.

 

[FrankT]

Hi,
Check this link out it may be what you are looking for. Hope it helps:
http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/winxp...es/index.shtml

 

[Scott L]

www.tweakxp.com is also very good.

 

[Jeff Lehr]

Thanks for the links, guys. Just the kind of information I was looking for.

JL

 

[Dustin B]

$150US for 512MB of ram? Too much.
Link Removed
This is where I recently bought 512MB and it's dropped another $7 for a 256Mb DIMM from when I purchased.
$140CDN for 512MB of CAS2.5 PC2100. That would be around $90USD.

 

[Steven K]

A quick way to free up memory is to kill explorer.exe from your Task Manager.
Also, delete ntdll.dll which will ensure that you have plenty of memory left.
Good luck

 

[Danny R]

Go to www.pricewatch.com for really cheap prices on computer components. $75 for 512 MB of DDR memory is pretty good.
Sorry, I don't find the above advice funny. I've dealt with WAAAY to many idiodic emails telling folks to delete such and such "virus" file on their computer. Luckily I've got my folks I support trained to ask questions before taking action, and most of them know where to look to look to discover if something is a hoax or not, but still.

 

[Jeff D.]

A quick way to free up memory is to kill explorer.exe from your Task Manager.
Also, delete ntdll.dll which will ensure that you have plenty of memory left.

While that is funny, it most definitely should've been made clear that it was a joke. I could say obviously, but it may not be to some - definitely do not follow the advice above.
/Jeff

 

[Graeme Clark]

I actually do have to kill explorer from time to time.