Vista and Memory Usage

Yes the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager does use quite some memory. Around 60MB iirc.

 

I went through the BlackViper list of services and tweaked some there, used CCLeaner (and others) to clean up the startup lists, and I have some software installed that adds some processes back into the mix, so all in all, it still is a net reduction in the out of the box Vista experience for number of services/processes running.

 

Just checked my Taskmanager (Vista HP with 4 Gig)
61 Processes
32% of Memory
1% CPU Useage

Why would I care how much memory is being used ?
I guess I am surprised that it isn't nera 100%, since I am on the internet, reading mail, and defragging all at the same time.

And only 1% CPU useage ? Seems pretty efficient to me....but I am no computer expert.

 

When I started this thread, I really had in mind the number of processes of my Vista system - around 77 - which seems a lot running only Firefox. Memory usage I see it as related to the number of running processes, not an issue per se.

I went through every single process, and I can now understand the high number: 9 processes alone are from ASUS, 4 from Media center, 4 Mobility Radeon (ATI), svchost.exe (14 instances), StorageCraft has 3 without even thinking about the program, and there are at least 5 Windows processes specifically related to Vista. Well, I suppose Vista can handle it, like somebody said, I have to get rid of my XP mentality.

 

Deciding which Services you really want/need running and which you can stop/disable can reduce the number of processes. Read this for more details. I used the "safe" configuration as a starting point, but did not use it all.

 

I have 15 instances of svchost.exe running (one is running 32bit mode). I once read somewhere why Vista has more of these processes running than XP. In XP several system processes may share one instance of svchost where in Vista there is less sharing thus more svchosts are running. The reason behind this is that if something happens to one of the svchost processes the less impact it will make on the system.

 

Bring up a command prompt ("DOS Box") and type in tasklist /SVC to see what program each is associated

 

... or save this as a .bat or .cmd file for some more interesting information. You might want to set the scrollable area of your dos box to be more than the default ...


@echo off

tasklist /svc

echo.

netstat -a -o -f | find /V "%COMPUTERNAME%:" | find /V "*:*" | find /V "Active Connections"

echo.
echo *** End of List ***
echo.

 

Thanks, I've been reading this long list, and there are definitely things that are useless, and can be safely disabled.

 

On a standalone pc you can turn off more services relating to networking, well at least I do, such as Workstation, Terminal Services and some others I can't think of right now.

I don't think BV's list reflects this?

A word of caution though, I wouldn't be messing around with any settings if I didn't have a decent backup such as an imaging application.

 

A backup, my kingdom for a backup.

 

Using my custom vista 64-bit install i have 40 processes running with just IE open. Current memory usage is 892mb.
Total 4093mb
Cached 1419mb
Free 1975mb