Is there a program to do for e-mail what Lazarus does for writing on browsers?

According to http://pdfedit.cz/en/index.html, it works on Windows. I see no need to install Cygwin and I would avoid doing so.

 

@ usafveteran :

Thank you for pointing that out to me. A reboot killed Cygwin, and I didn't resume it.

@ AltBo :

I followed your instructions regarding Avant, but it is still preventing me from even visiting shopathome.com. I am pretty annoyed by that. I am going to contact Avant support. My continuation with Avant is dependent on the resolution. Inability to resolve false positives isn't an acceptable feature. With Microsoft Security Essentials all I had to do was click Ignore.

Some days ago I compared Process Lasso and Process Tamer by viewing Performance in Task /Manager. I concluded Lasso's performance was better, so I was sticking with it. But in the last couple of days, Lasso is seriously malfunctioning. It has been ineffective in reducing CPU Usage. I have been checking the Activity Log and seen that Lasso has not been exercising restraint on Pale Moon. Instead it has been going after processes that aren't a problem on my memory, especially WinPatrol. I know Win Patrol is not the problem because I frequently hover over the System Explorer icon, which shows the top 3 CPU Usage programs. I wonder if this screwup relates to the latest beta update.

 

Right now it seems all PL seems to want to do is pick on WinPatrol. About 20 minutes ago I clicked out WinPatrol, and since then the Actions Log shows no processes being restrained by PL.

 

@ AltBo : I noticed that Pale Moon was showing Above normal priority class on Process Lasso, so I set its Default priority class at Normal. Then PL started restraining PM again in the Actions log after ignoring it. Most of the time PL is putting PM at Below normal priority class. But the performance is still very unsatisfactory.

Should I use the Trim Virtual Memory option with Pale Moon on Process Lasso? Or should I set watchdog rules for it?

I find that VM Size seems to give me a more accurate picture than Mem Usage of what are the problem programs for slowing down the computer. Sometimes the browser is fairly light on the Mem Usage but heavy on VM Size. I should have told you, but I do already run an extension called MemoryFox. It shows up on the Task Manager as afom.exe.

I am about to finally get around to installing CleanMem this afternoon.

 

conceptualclarity...

Rather than go after PaleMoon with Process Lasso, I think I would first try CleanMem on it. Once you have it installed, start Mini Monitor. Right click its icon in the system tray and run the wizard. Don't change anything until "Operation Mode". Next choose "Ignore List". Then add explorer.exe, ProcessGovernor.exe, JetBoostTray.exe, and GBoost.exe. Don't add Pale Moon, but if you have a browser that you use separately for games, you might want to add it.

I use Opera mostly, and I have chosen to leave it off the list, so CleanMem trims its memory. I haven't noticed much difference with Opera, but I'm sure there is some. The big change using CleanMem is all the other processes that get trimmed. As I have mentioned, you will eventually want to add some others to the "Ignore" list if you use video editing software or video conversion software. You can also add your backup program and defragger to the list...anything that runs for a long time performing a critical service.

I added over 20 processes and still have gotten a reduction of over 10% of RAM usage at idle. That carries over to when I am using the browser, so that should help you immensely.

I have a program called Kiwi Applications Monitor. It costs $35, but I think the pay version of CleanMem will do the same things, and it's only $4.95. Basically Kiwi Applications Monitor gives me the ability to set the high memory usage for a program and then what to bump it down to when it gets to the high. If CleanMem does this, you could set PaleMoon at 200 MB or so for the high and then bump to 150 MB or whatever. You could then set the schedule on CleanMem to clean more often, like every 5 minutes instead of every 15 as it's set by default.

CleanMem will get you started down the road to resolving your problem with PaleMoon...at least I am fairly certain so...

 

conceptualclarity...

Just noticed your post about WinPatrol. Add it to the "Ignore" list (and your anti-virus) for CleanMem...

In Process Lasso:

Options->ProBalance settings...->Configure excluded processes...

Add WinPatrol to this list and PL will ignore it and thereby won't reduce its processor use. Another good one to add is explorer.exe.

If you pay for the pay version of CleanMem (assuming you can use the pay features to trim individual processes to a certain setting), you should add it to the list to be ignored by PL, too, I think. I have explorer.exe, Kiwi Applications Monitor.exe, and mini_monitor.exe (CleanMem Mini Monitor).

To set up CleanMem to run on boot, right click the Mini Monitor icon in the system tray and select "Monitor Settings". You'll see the check box there, and you can check out the pay features and decide if you want to spring for the Pro version. Looks worth it as you will be honestly able to say you have complete control over the optimization process of your PC if you are able to trim individual processes using CleanMem. If I didn't already have Kiwi, I would spend the $4.95 to find out...

 

@ altBo : Thank you for all the advice.

Since I posted what you responded to there, the last time I was using Pale Moon, it was constantly crashing and then, to my great frustration, bringing back all the tabs that I had clicked out before the crash. I know I need to cut down on the tabs in my browsers, but I have to be able to use the browser to do that. So I had to retreat to temporarily making Opera my default browser while I looked harder into memory options.

I also made a trip to Google Chrome. Because I had a mere SIXTEEN tabs up (mostly Extension Store entries I was mulling over) Chrome had a first class crisis. It took more than an hour to become usable. I was talking on another MG thread about Chrome's memory hog failings; a Chrome advocate bristled. This illustrates what I'm talking about. I went on to use Chrome for some time subsequently. In the early and latter parts of my Chrome session, there were strange unresponsiveness deserts I ran into. The CPU Usage was low for a good while, yet the system was pretty much unusable. Eventually the latter low CPU Usage / unresponsiveness desert ended with Chrome crashing with a wimper, just disappearing.

I did add CleanMem several days ago, and I went through the wizard. I left Clear System File Cache enabled, Log File disabled, All Processes as default, and 5 minutes as the memory cleaning interval. Will the boosting of GBoost and JetBoost be hindered if they aren't ignored? Why ignore explorer.exe?

Maybe you can give me some help with something. In Opera I somehow managed to get my tabs showing as elongated tubes (would be tall boxes if I had fewer). That has the annoying effect of robbing me of much of the screen, like somebody who has eight toolbars on IE. I have looked and looked on Opera's interface for a way to get the tabs back to just showing as tabs. Can you advise me on that?

Actually what bothered me was not the effect on WinPatrol per se. WP is a program you can bring up to check on a number of things including what's running now, scheduled tasks, autostarts, current cookies, hidden files, and services. Most of its usefulness is the notifications it gives you about changes made to your system, offering you the option to accept or reject them. (I reject a lot of changes.) My concern was that Process Lasso was going after this small-footprint program when it should have been going after my browser.

Is there any advantage to giving WP ignored / excluded status instead of just giving it high priority in PL as I have (in order to deflect attention back to the browser)? Would that spare it possible disruption of its system monitoring duties because of PL's restraint exercises?

I have also set Opera and Chrome to Below normal on Default priority on Lasso, and that seems to be serving me well.

Just before I acquired CleanMem I also acquired a program called All Browsers Memory Zip 1.4.3.
http://crackgrabber.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/All Browsers Memory Zip 1.4.3
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/easily-o...bases-with-speedyfox-portable/#comment-568760
Already I am swearing by it. I brought up Opera with CleanMem configured as I mentioned above, and I found the MemUsage still unacceptably high. Then I brought up and configured All Browsers Memory Zip 1.4.3 and wow!--what a dramatic difference in browser CPU Usage with no increase in VM Size. I see no problems so far in using both programs simultaneously. It has made using Opera far easier.

 

conceptualclarity...

Just a little bit on the difference between PL, GBoost, and JetBoost and CleanMem. PL, GB, and JB are process restrainers, which means that they restrict the processor usage of a program. This doesn't have anything to do with reducing the "footprint" of a process. For that you want to restrict the RAM memory usage of a program. This is what CleanMem can do.

The only problem with CleanMem is that you can't target specific processes to limit. By default it trims the RAM usage of all processes. That's where the "Ignore" feature can help. This feature enables you to trim everything but the processes you decide to use with their full memory allowance. The processes you "ignore" have all their RAM. As it mentioned, I am ignoring a large number of processes and am still getting a 10% reduction in RAM usage.

In order to get PL to exempt WinPatrol from being restrained by PL, add WinPatrol to the following:

Options->ProBalance settings...->Configure excluded processes...

This will stop PL from restraining WinPatrol. If you see programs being restrained in the GUI log of PL that you would rather have free usage of the processor, add the program to this same menu, and PL will ignore it (not restrain it). You especially will want to keep an eye out to see if your browser(s) are being restrained and then add them to the list if so. That's because you will need the processor for net browsing.

I noticed that Explorer.exe was being restrained and immediately added it. Also, CleanMem and Kiwi Applications Monitor. I need these programs to have access to the processor at the appropriate times, so the programs can function fully as designed. In effect, I have then set them up as system processes, exempt from restraint.

One thing on high priority. That's a good idea, but if you exempt the process in PL, you might find that it won't need the extra processor usage that it gets by making it a high priority process. Just an idea. Basically, this way it will just run normally.

OK...I may have sent you off on the wrong tangent here about the defaults. Apologies if so. Here are my CleanMem Mini Monitor Wizard settings:

Clear System Cache: Disable-This will be very important for you. Since you have a limited amount of RAM and limited processor resources for so many tasks, you will really need the PC to access the system cache. Basically the system uses the cache space (it's on your main hard drive) as supplemental RAM. It's much slower than RAM, but the overall effect of having use of the system cache brings stability. Got to have first stability.

Log File and Settings: Disable-No need to keep a log for CleanMem.

Operating Mode: Ignore List-This will give you as much flexibility as possible using free CleanMem. Even if you use the pay version, this will be the choice.

Yes, they will be hindered. This is where I use Kiwi Applications Monitor. I have, using Kiwi Applications Monitor, set GBoost to run at no more than 80K of RAM memory. When it gets to 80K, it is automatically trimmed to 50K. KAM gives me this ability. I also have JetBoost set but much lower at 50K and 20K. I find this is enough RAM for them.

Ignore explorer.exe so that it can have its full compliment of RAM. Explorer.exe is the part of Windows that will give you good mouse control and will cause programs and folders to open as fast as possible. Don't want this process' memory clipped. If you don't "ignore" it, you will lose much of the benefit of GBoost and JetBoost.

Back to Kiwi Applications Monitor. I just looked, and you cannot set RAM limits using CleanMem...only set it up to clean specific processes on specific intervals. Kiwi is $34.95. I recommend it and can help you set it up, but it does have one annoying quality. At least for me, on boot it loses its settings for high and low RAM for the processes I have it configured to manage. This is no big deal for me as I don't even boot the machine more than once every two weeks or so. The rest of the time it just stays on in "Sleep" mode. Anyway, if you would like to find out more about Kiwi, here is the link to the developer's site:

http://www.kiwimonitor.com/

You need something like this in order to be able to limit the RAM usage of GBoost and JetBoost without robbing the programs of their effectiveness (which CleanMem will do if they aren't ignored). Until you have something like this, I recommend you ignore them, even though GBoost does use alot of RAM...

This sounds promising for you. Maybe for the short term you can find balance "ignoring" GBoost and JetBoost in CleanMem and then using this program to further limit RAM usage with your browsers. Perhaps you will be able to avoid purchasing Kiwi (or something like it) that way.

I think the problems you are having could be related to the fact that you have set CleanMem to "Clear System Cache". On your system, you will need the system cache. Matter of fact, almost all PCs, even high powered ones need the cache at least a little bit. Highly recommend disabling that feature in the Mini Monitor Wizard...

Yes, I have had this happen before too. I can't remember how I fixed the problem. Try:

Settings->Preferences->Advanced->Tabs->Additional tab options...

Take a look at these settings and see if you can get things straightened out. If not, you can find help here:

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/tgr.dml?id=5

 

.

I know that CPU Usage and Mem Usage are not synonymous, buti t does seem like there is a strong relationship. When I see surges in Mem Usage for a specific process I tend to see surges in CPU Usage as well.

In regard to my annoyance about Process Lasso going after WinPatrol, I didn't really remember seeing WP's CPU Usage going above 6% or so, and that not very much of the time.

Done.

I followed your advice on CleanMem settings, including ignoring GBoost and JetBoost.

I just did a search for free alternatives to Kiwi. I found something called ProcessWatch. http://www.technize.com/3-free-tools-to-manage-and-monitor-processes-and-applications/
I wonder if it would do the same thing.

I followed your suggestions concerning Avast and shopathome.com. Even after that it was still blocked. I called Avast support. A woman went on my computer, warned that the large number of temporary files I had at that point was a security risk, but didn't find the problem. I subsequently stumbled upon the HOSTS file. It turns out that I had run an immunization with my trial of jv 16 Power Tools, and it added shopathome to my HOSTS file. The program HostsXPert recommended by Major Geeks did not help me because it would not allow editing of the file. So I went to alternativesto.net, a great site to bookmark. I found a program called HostsMan which allowed me to delete and put on an exclusion list, and finally shopathome.com was liberated.

The Avast woman did me the courtesy of calling back later, and I told her how I resolved the problem. Of course she wanted to sell me the one-year support package.

I am thinking of adding Spyware Blaster. Apparently I will have to learn to deal with CSLIDs.

 

Hi AltBo,

I'd like to call to your attention a couple of programs that are supposed to improve speed by working on the hard drive.

http://download.cnet.com/SystemBoosterXP/3000-2086_4-10415692.html
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/SystemBooster.shtml
http://systembooster.software.informer.com/
http://forum.worldstart.com/showthread.php?t=86754
SystemBooster is no longer available on its company's own site, just on the download sites. The company website is now entirely devoted to the below product

http://www.disktrix.com/index.php
http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/UltimateDefrag-Review-38721.shtml
http://download.cnet.com/UltimateDe...00-2094_4-10582157.html?tag=main;dropDownForm
http://download.cnet.com/UltimateDefrag/3000-2094_4-10840834.html
I don't see info on the difference between the free and paid versions of UltimateDefrag.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/232418/ultimatedefrag_free_public_domain_edition.html
It does seem some features have been recently added to the trial version which won't be in the old free download.
http://happyharry.net/pdf/How.HDD.Really.Works.pdf the user's guide

 

conceptualclarity...

SpeedBoosterXP might be worth a look for you. Looks to me like there might be somewhat of a "counter effect" to some of you other programs in using SBXP, though. The reason I say this is that it actually places information into RAM memory rather than freeing memory as with CleanMem. It's prefetch data, which would be nice to be able to configure if you knew which programs (files actually) to include in the settings. I think some of it happens automatically though (as by default). Also, it costs $24.95.

I would say if you are willing to pay for a program that you might be better off with one like Kiwi Applications Monitor. The only problem is having to reset the maximum and minimum RAM allotages on every boot for the programs you regulate using Kiwi. Just a glitch I guess. It's $34.95, but you could potentially use it to trim GBoost down to 80K and any other real memory hogs (browser is going to need the memory so it really can't be trimmed, although I do not have Opera set to "ignore" in CleanMem (so it is being trimmed by CM), and it runs fine on this PC). I use Kiwi to trim Rainmeter and GBoost. GBoost runs right around 80K on my PC as it is set and Rainmeter at right around 50K. Normally, they are 130K and 100K respectively.

As far as defraggers go, I recommend taking a look at this one:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/iobit_smartdefrag.html

I use this program, and it is awesome. It just sits in the system tray and every once in a while defrags for a little bit. It never interrupts work though, which is great. Defragging is a big step forward, and this one is automated and free. Can't beat that combination. Ultimate Defrag may be great, but I haven't ever used it, so I just don't know...

How is your PC running with the adjustments you have made? I'm still noticing smoothness improvements on this one after going on 4 months of this setup I have. It's seems sort of like smoothing ice with a Zamboni. The setup constanly melts and and then refreezes the system, keeping the ice smooth so to speak...

 

Thanks for weighing in, AltBo.

For me it's all about taming the browser. I'm not aware that efforts toward that end have worsened things by depriving it of needed memory. However there could conceivably be symptoms that you might be able to read while they escaped me. Of course, my tabs are a big deal, but the browsers seem awfully heavy on my system even apart from that. I was on a Chromium browser, Comodo Dragon, not many hours ago, and with only 16 tabs it was running at 100% CPU. (I don't care what the Chrome enthusiasts say--Chrome browsers are fatally flawed because they just can't handle tabs, and Mozilla browsers can handle tabs. I'm not impressed by how "speedy" a browser is when it only carries one tab.) The system tends to be pretty smooth for me between the end of the startup sluggishness and bringing up a browser, or if I click out of a browser before I've been on it a really long time. When I've had a really long time in a browser, clicking out may swiftly bring high system responsiveness, or sometimes I may fall into one of those "deserts" where the system is unresponsive even when CPU and Mem Usage are modest.

I would like to know what you think is the Priority Class which will get Process Lasso to do the most in terms of restraining the browser?

Actually I'm really not all that interested in defragging for defragging's sake. I don't know if it will surprise you, but I have never really found fragmentation to be much of a problem on my system. Ultimate Defrag is promoted as far more than a defragger.

THAT is what interests me about UltimateDefrag. Of course, what's being discussed there is virgin territory for me, but maybe you can shed some light on it. Also, it has that feature of letting you position the more-and less-used files in such a way as to boost the system.

Sometimes it's going quite badly, then I remember I forgot to bring up All Browsers Memory Zip. I bring it up, and Mem Usage quickly goes down by about 80 or 90%. You better believe I would pay for that piece of freeware if I had to. It's a godsend. I do feel that Lasso makes a difference, but I don't understand its behavior. I don't know why it goes after the browser sometimes, and at other times with equal browser provocation, it goes after System Explorer and WinPatrol, which I do not perceive as problems.

Have you ever used Spyware Blaster? I'm thinking about getting it, but I'm worried about the false positive problem. Last night I got a very interesting freeware utility set called Kingsoft PC Doctor. It has a memory feature which I'm about to look into. But the program's FAQ page is blocked by all my browsers. I first checked the HOSTS file, and it wasn't there. I painstakingly programmed Avast to leave it alone. Then I got an e-mail response from Avast denying they had blacklisted that page. That leaves Comodo DNS. I have an inquiry in to them to see if they're doing it. But Comodo has identified itself in the past when it blocked a page. I get nothing but :

"403 Forbidden
nginx/1.0.5"

All the other pages on the Kingsoft Security website are accessible to me.

I have running in real time small pieces of SUPERAntispyware Free (SASCore.exe) and Iobit Malware Fighter (IMFsrv.exe), but my experience with them doesn't jibe with responsibility for this.

 

Jumping in here, my main browser is SRWare Iron, http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/srware_iron.html.

This is my defrag, it is fast and optimizes,( if you choose,) all your files for a faster and better performing computer, and I never have slowdown from my browser are system. I also use CCleaner, http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ccleaner_standard.html,

I also use Kcleaner to get what CCleaner missed, http://www.kcsoftwares.com/?kcleaner.

Also once a week I use PrivaZer to deep clean, http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/privazer.html

 

conceptualclarity...

NickT is a very good source for information on Pentium 4 based PCs. He has a ton of experience working with them.

What I am trying to do is get you around your tabs problem, so that you can see what your computer will actually get you. I think if you ignore your need for multiple browser tabs for awhile and just run this setup with the settings I have mentioned (or that are working for you):

GBoost
JetBoost
Process Lasso
CleanMem

You will find the limitations of the PC. If you can get around the price and the fact that you have to reenter a few settings on boot each time (IDK, this may be something that is just happening on my PC and wouldn't on yours), Kiwi Applications Monitor would be the final piece of the puzzle for you. Once you had this set up established and ran it normally for a couple of months, then you could try stressing the PC a little bit more to see what it will really do.

Honestly, for what you are attempting to do, I would say you need at least a top rated i5 processor and 8 GB of RAM memory. Even then the above setup would help that kind of PC...the setup will make any PC better since it's based on addressing inadequacies of the OS and not the PC.

I seriously don't know how you got 200 tabs to even open on a P4 PC with 2 GB of RAM. Anyway, just think it's something to keep in mind about your PC's limitations. What you are doing will help immensely, but every PC has limitations...

 

I like SRWare Iron better than Chrome. The other day I brought up Chromium for the first time in ages, and on my computer at least it seems as though Chromium has merged with SRWare Iron.

Could you elaborate?

Thank you for those suggestions. I will look into them. I really like CCleaner's allowing me to choose on cookies. In an abundance of caution I exclude all sites where I'm registered. After using CCleaner, I like to follow up with ATF-Cleaner. It clears away almost as much junk.

I have not ruled out Kiwi. But if what it is about is controlling RAM usage, my real problem there is with the browsers, and I'm getting pretty good help there for free from All Browsers Memory Zip. When I don't have a browser up, there's not much RAM stress according to the CleanMem monitor.

It's all about what browser you choose. Opera it seems begins to stink when you've got 30 or more tabs up. A dozen tabs is enough to make Chrome stink. But Mozilla browsers can literally handle hundreds of tabs, even on an old system like mine. I know that from a lot of experience. People on non-Mozilla browsers, I believe, are not going to try to run three digits of tabs because it will prove impossible before they get that high.

Also, I am not a rare aberration in being a person who tries to run dozens or even hundreds of tabs. I've seen enough discussion online to verify that.

I do experience not understood inconsistent performance from my computer. Sometimes it runs very smoothly, and sometimes it infuriates me. I do seek to reduce tabs.

I've been on Opera with 43-45 tabs trying to reduce. Even though the CPU Usage and RAM have seemed OK, I've been seeing the right-click to e-mail not work and pages opening but not loading, stuff like that.

 

It did get better after I clicked out and started all over again and waited for it to load the pages. I hate the box that often comes up asking me if I want to restore my last session. I've already told Opera in Options that I do. Sometimes I forget about that box and go off and do other things thinking it will be starting up. Then I come back and see the darn box instead of loaded pages.

I did go on the forum and get the help I needed to get rid of mytube-shaping of tabs.

 

conceptualclarity....

Had to think about this for a little bit. I think I can see where you are coming from on this in your situation. If you use GBoost, at least on your Pentium 4 PC, you are probably benefitting from using all of its capacity. I managed to strike a good balance using GBoost on a core 2 duo PC using Kiwi to lower its RAM usage to around 80K. Kiwi uses some RAM, so that would have been more or less a wash on my PC if I weren't using it for a Windows 8 type start screen knock off that is prone to chewing up RAM, too...

If you consider a new PC at any point:

Here are some passmark benchmark ratings for processors. There are processors that will give you the ability to do what you really seek to do with 200 internet pages. You will need a machine with I estimate at least 8 GB of RAM to really have a good experience with that large of a task. You should do your homework with the PC, however, if/when you buy a new one, and make sure the power supply is sufficient to run a decent graphics card (350 watts or better). Also, check the passmark rating of the processor of any PC you look at buying. Just because it's i3 or i5 or i7 does not mean that the processor is faster than an older core2 quad, for example.

Passmark benchmark ratings for older processors
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.66GHz 269
Intel core 2 duo E6400 2.13 GHz 1171
Intel Core2 Quad Q9650 @ 3.00GHz 4254

The newer i3, i5, and i7 processors are generally rated higher than the quad core, but they can often be found in affordable new computers. Some of them are rated significantly higher than the quad core. I think you could find a new desktop with say an i5, 8 GB RAM, and equip a decent graphics card for around $800...less if you go with a used PC. This type of setup would dramatically improve your experience with PCs, especially when combined with the tweaks you have learned for maximinzing the optimization routines of the PC and the OS...

 

Sorry conceptualclarity, this is my defrag, it degfrags then moves the files so Windows can find and load them faster for you. It really improves speed quite a bit. http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/auslogics_disk_defrag.html

 

Sounds interesting. Thanks.

Thanks for the info, AltBo. Any chance I could find a laptop with the kind of power you're talking about? Because I'm thinking now I may need to get a laptop. I definitely plan to get a new computer this summer, after getting good redundant forms of backup for what's on my current computer.

I am puzzled by some things. As a short term measure I've been using a Mozilla browser named Wyzo. It was performing pretty well for me with dozens of tabs. Then in the last couple of days with less than 20 tabs, it has been absolutely stuck on 100% CPU Usage. System Explorer and Lasso made it quite clear Wyzo is the culprit pretty much all by itself. The RAM readings, on the other hand, were OK, I believe. I don't understand this inconsistent performance.

Then tonight I switched back to Opera. It did pretty well for a while. Then while CPU Usage remained quite reasonable, XP got up to over 90% RAM utilization according to CleanMem, and it became very difficult to use. I looked at Task Manager, paying careful attention to the whole Mem Usage column. I just couldn't see any process, including Opera, that was displaying inordinate RAM usage. I just couldn't see where that up to 99% Memory Used reading on CleanMem was coming from. I have clicked out Opera several times and brought it back up. Now, with about 48 Opera tabs up, the CPU Usage is reasonable, mostly under 50%, and RAM is at 53%. Performance is satisfactory. But I have had a lot of these instances where the aggregate RAM was high and slowing me to a crawl while the processes on Task Manager seemed to show no perceptible problem.

I would appreciate it if you could shed any light.

 

Sounds interesting. Thanks.

Thanks for the info, AltBo. Any chance I could find a laptop with the kind of power you're talking about? Because I'm thinking now I may need to get a laptop. I definitely plan to get a new computer this summer, after getting good redundant forms of backup for what's on my current computer.

I am puzzled by some things. As a short term measure I've been using a Mozilla browser named Wyzo. It was performing pretty well for me with dozens of tabs. Then in the last couple of days with less than 20 tabs, it has been absolutely stuck on 100% CPU Usage. System Explorer and Lasso made it quite clear Wyzo is the culprit pretty much all by itself. The RAM readings, on the other hand, were OK, I believe. I don't understand this inconsistent performance.

Then tonight I switched back to Opera. It did pretty well for a while. Then while CPU Usage remained quite reasonable, XP got up to over 90% RAM utilization according to CleanMem, and it became very difficult to use. I looked at Task Manager, paying careful attention to the whole Mem Usage column. I just couldn't see any process, including Opera, that was displaying inordinate RAM usage. I just couldn't see where that up to 99% Memory Used reading on CleanMem was coming from. I have clicked out Opera several times and brought it back up. Now, with about 48 Opera tabs up, the CPU Usage is reasonable, mostly under 50%, and RAM is at 53%. Performance is satisfactory. But I have had a lot of these instances where the aggregate RAM was high and slowing me to a crawl while the processes on Task Manager seemed to show no perceptible problem.

I would appreciate it if you could shed any light.

 

conceptualclarity...

Yes definitely on the laptop. Actually, I recommend you post in the hardware section here at Major Geeks to see what others are recommending. You can find laptops with very high performance specifications...and at reasonable prices too. Because of Windows, I still recommend the optimizer programs though.

I think what is happening is that your computer is struggling to meet your performance requirements and struggling to adjust to your usage patterns.

The problem in my opinion after years of studying this issue is that, without added optimization such as PL, GB, JB, and CleanMem, Windows is completely incapable of responding to changes in usage. Basically, it just can't adjust even to the changes that come from changing net pages (such as when you open a saved net location page but the content has changed from the previous time you opened the page). This is further complicated if you use for example office software such as MS Office and so on. Mostly it's the browsers, though. So inadequate is Windows at responding to changes that it will basically cave in to a browser that is used extensively with numerous tabs. I have seen it over and over. I think almost all the problems encountered to do with PCs can be traced back to the poor optimization characteristics of Windows based PCs.

That's why PL and so on are so great. They force Windows to respond to the maximum of its potential. Yet you are using them and still having the problem, so that brings up the question of why. I believe the answer is that there is simply no research in optimization and therefore new PCs aren't equipped with any sort of "out of the box" optimization routine. Left on its own without PL, GB, JB, CleanMem, and the like, it is for all practical purposes reasonable, therefore, to assume that a new PC (or one with a fresh installation of Windows) can never be optimized. It will break from the strains of mismanaged data long before it ever optimizes.

This is why the optimizer programs don't save you initially from problems. I still have some myself...little things...but the system is ironing them out. That's what happens. While the optimization programs are churning in the system tray, your system is developing optimization routines that will work. But it is a somewhat painful and slow process. Really, these are the routines that should be on a new PC (or a fresh OS installation) in some sort of generic form. Even if new PCs had this ideal setup, some form of optimization boost such as is found in the optimization programs is necessary over and above what Windows provides...so that the system can adjust. Even with solid 'pre-optimization', Windows by itself would break the machine over time. It's just a horrible OS honestly. It's also the only option...

The long process of developing a solid optimization routine on a PC has been made pretty clear to me. I've had this setup on my PC for 5 months, and it's been clear sailing the whole time for the most part. Just a couple of minor hiccups like misbehaving Flash video in a browser, leading to a reboot, and so on. But I still see the improvements every day, and I honestly think the PC is very close to being about as good as it will ever be with the current equipment.

On your P4, the process is a much more rigorous one. It's much more of a war for you than it has been for me. I think you can expect more dramatic problems and challenges along the way with your PC. If and when you do get your new PC, perhaps you might find it interesting to keep your current desktop to see how this process develops and plays out over the years. I think it would be fascinating to be able to look back in 20 years and chronicle the improvements in the performance of the machine over that time. I find the subject very interesting, so I definitely plan to keep this core2duo for the very long term as an experiment, even when I get a new PC.

 

Interestingly, I am finding that I can have 20 tabs on Wyzo and have CPU and RAM stable at medium levels if I run it in private browsing mode--which I definitely don't prefer.

There are things about Windows that really provoke me, and I would love to leave it for Mac or Linux. But the fact that I'm a good way off from being an advanced user, and the drastically greater amount of software available for windows compel me to stick with it.

Disabling Shockwave (and Silverlight for good measure) makes a big difference.

I have found a program that could be a free alternative to Kiwi. Minimem.
http://main.kerkia.com/tools/minimem/description.aspx
http://www.freewaregenius.com/minimem-reduce-the-memory-footprint-of-individual-programs-on-demand/
http://main.kerkia.com/tools/minimem/description.aspx

Since I have gotten away with running CleanMem, Memory Fox, and All Browsers Memory Zip simultaneously, I wonder if I could add Minimem.

There is another RAM program, FreeMem, that is an odd German-American collaboration. The American version, by 3B Software, is heavier than the German version, but they are basically the same product.
http://www.3bsoftware.com/products/freemem.asp
http://promo.3bsoftware.com/pl/110904PMFMC/index.html $9.99 special
http://download.cnet.com/Freemem-Pro/3000-2094_4-10235510.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/freemem_pro.html

http://www.meikel.com/en/products/freemem/comparison.php
http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/FreeMem-Professional-Review-52526.shtml
http://www.freemem.de/en/company/
http://www.pcworld.com/product/946774/freemem-.html
http://freemem-professional.software.informer.com/

I would be curious to know what you think of these programs.

 

conceptualclarity...

MiniMem-I have actually used this one. It doesn't have the flexibility of being able to manually define which processes you would like to regulate. It's also somewhat flaky...more of an old school RAM trimmer without any of the knowledge that was put into CleanMem. CleanMem gives you the ability to "ignore" processes which is as good as I have seen other than Kiwi. The difference is that Kiwi also gives you the ability to set a specific high for the RAM and a specific low ("rrim to") amount of RAM.

The reason I like running CleanMem and Kiwi together is that CleanMem addresses a weakness in Windows by automatically trimming in a general sense Windows processes that by the nature of the Windows OS infringe on the productivity of a PC. I then have the ability to "ignore" programs I use alot. Kiwi then gives me the ability to regulate processes of programs I use alot in a very specific way. In other words, if I think a program is using too much memory, I might choose to "ignore" it in the CleanMem dialog, because I think CleanMem trims too much of the program memory, and then use Kiwi to define how much it should be regulated. Also, by running both, I don't have to add 100 Windows processes to the Kiwi dialog to regulate them. CleanMem just handles those in bulk.

As I mentioned, the only problem with Kiwi is that the minimum and maximum RAM levels for regulated programs must be added with every boot. IDK, maybe this is just on my PC, but it's not a problem for me. I keep the PC in standby at night so tasks can run automatically on a schedule. I almost never turn the PC off. As a result, the numbers stay in place for me.

FreeMem-Haven't tried this one. WOT has it down for a red flag. I didn't read why, but I am guessing that it's disgruntled users. Being an older program, I am guessing it's just a simple trim by a percentage. I did notice that it definitely does not give you any ability to regulate the RAM of individual processes.

 

Its website says : "can be set up to optimize as many proceses [sic] as you'd like, using a very intuitive graphical interface. Unlike other memory optimization tools, it gives you full control over what applications you want to optimize, when and how often, as well as the possibility to only optimize memory when required and relevant.

It optimizes memory by removing as many non-necessary memory pages as possible from the selected processes. It does so at regular intervals which can be user-defined as well and every 30s by default..."

The article at freewaregenius.com says "Minimem: reduce the memory footprint of individual programs on demand."

I don't understand. Did you use Minimem quite some time ago?

Could you give me some examples of the levels you set for some important programs?

I believe I know what's behind that. I am really increasingly disgruntled over the rampant false positives in what I would call the cyber-security subculture. I know something about 3B Software, because I have had their program Windows Registry Repair Pro for about 6 or 7 years. Somebody put 3B Software on my HOSTS file, and I have been at times blocked from their website this year. Some people evidently have decided to brand them a malware site. I have also had to defend it from my own some of my own securiity programs.

I have a vague memory of when I acquired WRRP. I remember I felt snookered into parting with my $9 or so by the tactics of the person on the phone at the time I acquired it, but the details of why are lost to me. I made my peace with it, and I have enjoyed having that software and have removed a huge amount of junk with it.

The false positives thing gets really disgraceful. I have spent lots of time this year looking at Virus Total scan results. There are some companies, like Norton, that are chronic false flaggers. I have seen companies give a malware rating to a program because it was from one of their rivals. :tas One of the best software developers, Nir Sofer, is routinely false-flagged.

I have used a 3B Software product for a long time, and I know it's not malware. Cloudeight, a computer newsletter I subscribe to, has taken a sour swipe at Web of Trust.

I have had two fatal freezes on Wyzo. It is nonstop 100% CPU in normal browsing, even when I've cut it down to 6 tabs, while the CPU is OK on private browsing. Do you have any insight on that?

I have felt so beleaguered on the CPU front that I have decided to go with Process Lasso and Process Tamer simultaneously today. So far it seems to be working all right.

 

conceptualclarity...

Apologies. I had to go back and reinstall the program. Yes you can add specific processes to be trimmed, but the amount trimmed can't be adjusted. In that way it's like CleanMem. I had problems with the program. It caused a good deal of instability. I wish I could remember what the exact problems were, but I think they primarily had to do with Minimem trimming too much. CleanMem was much better for me since it trims system processes and services by default, while Minimem apparently only trims selected processes other than system ones.

For you I suppose it might work. It's a simple enough program that's for sure. I only remember working with it for less than a day before I had to give up on it. The problems whatever they were were pretty bad on my PC.

Some Kiwi levels:
GBoost-Normal 160K CleanMem trim 4K Kiwi setting 80K High/50K Low
Rainmeter-Normal 100K CleanMem trim-20K My setting 50K High 20 K Low

These are the only two that really mattered for me other than a Windows 8 knock off program called Newgen. It's a sliding "Start" screen with tiles. I set the trims for it the same as GBoost.

I don't know exactly what you have on your PC. Maybe Minimem will help you. If all you were to use Kiwi for would be GBoost, perhaps the price is a little bit over the top to regulate just the one program. For me, it's indispensable. Just that little extra flexibility the program gave me did the trick.

The only problem you might run into is, assuming you ignore GBoost with CleanMem, that Minimem might knock it down too low and strip it of most of its optimization operability. That's what happened to me when I first tried CleanMem and before I set GBoost to "ignore". It was knocked down to 4K memory use, and I noticed a real negative difference in the performance and stability of the system. That's why I have Kiwi, so that I can limit the trim.

This is partly your PC...not only but it's a large chunk of the problem. It does partly depend on the content of the pages too though. Overall, P4 processors are pretty much hopelessly overmatched by the internet now. However, if you fight through the difficulties, you should see a serious improvement over time with the PC using PL, GB, JB, CleanMen, etc. Actually, the PC should be running much better now overall, aside from the browser problems. Again, I think the processor power is the largest part of your problem there. Browsers are tough on PCs until you get up in the i5 range. This core2duo is great up to 15 or even 20 tabs...I haven't tried beyond, so I don't know, but the real performers are the i series processors...

 

I have some knowledge of RAM and hard drives, but I must admit I am totally ignorant about processors. When you get a computer are you forever stuck with its original processor, or can it be changed or upgraded?

I have been frustrated by Process Lasso's performance today. I am running at mostly 100% CPU Usage, and it's all the browser's fault. Yet PL was not restraining the browser. It was going after programs with minor CPU Usage, Win Patrol and All Browsers Memory Zip. I finally put Win Patrol on exclude from restraint, and PL started restraining the browser, albeit not as effectively as I need. Why doesn't it have the sense to go after the real problem without my having to do that tinkering? Is there an optimal Priority Class setting for me to put the browser at in order to get it restrained? Right now I have it set at Always Normal, but it is at Current Idle.

If I got paid PL would that give me any meaningful help with my problems?

By the way, on an earlier-discussed matter, I found TrendMicro does a lot of false positives as well on Virus Total Scan.

 

conceptualclarity...

If you get a chance go by this site and look at the benchmarks and see the differences in the horsepower of the chips:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

I think your processor is somewhere around a 400-500 benchmark at Passmark. I have a core 2 duo, and its benchmark is around 1150. Keep in mind, there are processors up around 17,000 right now. Also, it's important to know that a processor benchmark is a pure measure of the capabilities of a processor, because they indicate how much information can be processes by each given process. This makes them suitable for comparison when purchasing a PC.

For what you are trying to do with so many tabs, you really need a processor that is in the 5000 range. The problem is that as things are your processor becomes a bottleneck for information. It just can't match your internet speed. When that problem is combined with Windows' inefficient handling of information, you get the 100% CPU usage, the sticks, the freezes, and all the rest of the bad stuff.

Process Lasso and the others will help you with the operating system (Windows) problem by restraining certain processes. This is good, but in order for Process Lasso to have its effect, your PC has to get on a good rhythm. This is because Windows, with the prodding help of PL, will make rules that cause your machine to run better (ALOT better)...so long as it is being used normally for its class of PC. The other programs (GBoost;JetBoost/CleanMem, etc.) help here, too, but not if your machine is completely bogged down trying to perform the requests you make of it. That's not PL...that's the equipment. It's simply overmatched.

There has to be some leeway with your processor for PL to really have its effect. Recall, it uses the processor too (only a tiny amount), but also the rules that it causes Windows to create faster, don't get written if the PC is constantly overburdened. The good part of the optimization code in Windows isn't written for that scenario. It's written for multi-tasking with room to spare on the processor. The bad part...well it's basically non-existent. That's why PL is such a Godsend.

By the way, on most PCs you can upgrade so long as you don't have the most powerful processor available for the motherboard you have. In your case, it wouldn't be much of an upgrade, however. You would be much better off putting your money toward a i5 or i7 PC. Remember, you will get better/faster RAM and hard drive(s) in a new machine, too (better graphics too), compounding the usability improvement of the much faster processor.

You should look into a new PC. As I mentioned, you need a processor in the 5000 range at Passmark...

No...paid wouldn't solve your problems. It has mostly to do with assigning PC standby rules and something called "core parking". Not sure what core parking is, but you only have one core, so it wouldn't help you there.

One last thing...honestly, you really don't want PL restraining your browser. You want the browser to have as much of your resources as you can, including its own and those from other places so it will perform better...not to cut back on what it has to work with. I recommend you add your browser to the excluded list in PL. Then do not add it to the CleanMem ignore list (make sure it's not in the ignore list) and let CleanMem have its way with the RAM usage of the browser. See how that works...

 

I want to say something about the issue that started this whole thread. Unfortunately, I am still having freezes that cause me to lose e-mails. But I have found a lot of help from Clipboard Help and Spell, a program from donationcoder.com that I have on auto-start. Whenever I put a link in an e-mail, it's recorded there, and I go back to the program when I lose an e-mail after a freeze. Donationcoder is a fine program developer I highly recommend. It's the source of Process Tamer and many others.

@ AtlBo :

(Apologies for transposing letters in your username:-o)

Thank you so much for the information about processor power and that link. I downloaded their application.

I have purchased six books on computers in order to prepare myself for buying the absolutely right new computer. ($71 incl. S+H on Amazon, eBay, and half.com.) At the rate things are going, I'm afraid that's still a couple of months away. uke

Sometimes high CPU usage crashes my session. Sometimes high RAM usage crashes it. And lately there is a third problem. I see on a little Kingsoft PC Doctor monitor that CPU usage and Memory are both looking fine. But the browser goes into "Not Responding" mode. I try to start clicking other applications out. I try to kill the browser from Task Manager, but it's so unresponsive it won't go away. Then the e-mail goes unresponsive. The unresponsiveness spreads to yet other programs. Finally, the Start button becomes unresponsive, and I have no choice but to hit the power button. What do you think is causing this? And why can I sometimes not terminate a program, which seldom if ever happened in the past?

Also, for the last several weeks I have been using Process Lasso and Process Tamer together. I can't prove there is no harm, but it's not apparent to me.

 

conceptualclarity...

Get back to you on number 3 of your problems. I'm testing a little something I dreamed up after reading your most recent post. Let you know how it goes.

On the new PC. I can only add that if you can get 8 GB RAM, do it. Browsers are brutal on PCs, especially as many tabs as you are using. Also, go for as high end a benchmark processor as you can get. If you have to save a little bit longer, I should think it would be worth the extra effort for your purposes. I also think I would recommend Windows 7 if you can find a PC that has it, because I think it's more known and manageable than anything else.

 

Hmmm, the quote isn't working tonight.

Thank you for thinking about me. I look forward to hearing about your experiment.

I will not consider buying a computer with less than 8 GB RAM. Really, I want 12 or 16 GB, upgradable. A few days back, I was at my neighbor's house. She showed me her new hand-held Kindle, and told me it had 16GB PAM. I thought, good grief, they're putting 16 GB in that, and yet they're still selling laptops--which I consider "real computers"-- with only 4 GB! The problem will be finding high RAM and processing power in a Windows 7 computer.

I agree jumping from XP to 8 would be a bridge too far. I don't like 8. I think just like I'm skipping Vista, I will skip 8 and wait for a hopefully better Windows 9.

I found a program for improving performance in a system with adequate RAM.
http://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk/

 

That might be a long wait. Microsoft's next release will be Windows 8.1. It will be a free update to Windows 8 users.

That's fine if your budget gives you the freedom to buy whatever you want. But, here's a point to keep in mind - with practically all computers, additional RAM can be installed after purchase and at quite low cost. I bought an HP laptop at the beginning of March 2013; it came with 4GB but I added 4GB more.

You're comparing apples and oranges. Kindles have no hard drive, so the memory in them is needed to store books downloaded.

 

conceptualclarity...

get back to you on problem 3...

This looks interesting. If you had enough RAM, this would be the equivalent of creating a very small SSD drive. SSD drives are built on the premise that RAM memory is fastest, so manufacturers build the hard drive out of RAM memory chips. Anyway, this is how I understand them.

It would be key to know what to store there, however. For sure this looks like something worth looking at for you, but I think you would need more RAM than 2 GB to be able to place for example your temporary internet files there, because a large amount of temporary internet files in your RAM would mean less available for applications and run-time management.

I'd like to try this out, but don't think I'll have much time real soon. Thanks for supplying the link. Hopefully, I will be able to get a look at it at some point. Maybe a little bit of a learning curve for using the program I think...

Just a note on what I am doing. I don't know if it matters, but I have added smss.exe and csrss.exe to the ignore list of CleanMem. smss.exe is the session manager (optimization) portion of Windows. csrss is client server run-time sub system. Best I can tell this supports use of server shells that have command line operations. Don't think it's important for most people, me included, but the PC won't run if it's off, so I added it to the ignore list. The idea here is to make sure that CleanMem isn't trimming the session manager (smss.exe) for the most part.

I'll let you know if it helps. I also added smss.exe to Process Lasso in the excluded processes list...

 

I still can't use the quote button. I think maybe it's a browser malfunction.

@ usafveteran
"That might be a long wait. Microsoft's next release will be Windows 8.1. It will be a free update to Windows 8 users."

With Microsoft's greed and pattern of not going too many years between new OS, I don't think the wait for Windows 9 will be all that long.

"You're comparing apples and oranges. Kindles have no hard drive, so the memory in them is needed to store books downloaded."

Interesting to know that. My preference for traditional books is too overwhelming for me to consider a Kindle.

@ AtlBo :

"This looks interesting. If you had enough RAM,"

Oh believe me, I know I don't, LOL. This is with an eye to the future.

"I think you would need more RAM than 2 GB to be able to place for example your temporary internet files there, to be able to place for example your temporary internet files there, because a large amount of temporary internet files in your RAM would mean less available for applications and run-time management."

I'm pretty sure it said that the temporary files on RAM are killed on reboot, so it would work well for daily rebooters.

Yesterday I actually reclaimed 1/2 GB for my hard drive just by using the Google Chrome temporary files feature on Advanced Uninstaller PRO (a pretty good multi-functional free program). It was all from one session, too. And they were actually generated by SWare Iron / Chromium rather than Chrome itself.

You said something a good while back that with all my tab usage I might be better off not cleaning Mozilla temporary files. Could you revisit the pros and cons of that?

 

conceptualclarity...

Yes, sure...removing temporary internet files:

1. Pros
-More hard drive space (they are stored on the hard drive)

2. Cons
-Internet pages load slightly more slowly (they must be downloaded again rather than loaded from your hard drive)

Temporary internet files are automatically removed over time, but removing them regulary is a good idea for most users I would say. I run CCleaner on a nightly schedule, so they are cleaned out every night automatically.

No matter what you do, your internet pages will end up in RAM memory, even though they are placed there from the temporary internet files folder. Again, this is so your net pages will load fastest. This means that removing TIFs won't free any RAM. Freeing RAM would make it worth the effort to remove them for you I should think, since your RAM is on the low side (for your heavy duty browsing).

Your post got me interested in seeing if it is possible to turn off temporary internet files, but I couldn't find anything about the subject. Again, since you have limited RAM, I could see how you would like to have the temporary internet files out of your RAM, but the internet pages would be loaded into RAM, anyway, once you opened a session and the content was downloaded for the pages. I guess I would say, I don't think you're losing any RAM by keeping your temporary internet files and just letting the system handle them normally.

Honestly, TIFs just aren't all that necessary for most users with today's fast connections. Pages load quickly, anyway. For my purposes, I just can't think of a reason to not remove them as long as I don't have to do anything special. Since CCleaner runs on a schedule for me, it's nothing to get rid of them and reclaim a little hard drive space. For me, the practice is a good one. For you, with all your tabs, not so sure, but opening 200 tabs at once is a pretty good bit of material to download. Keeping your TIFs and having some of the content already on your hard drive should make your pages load faster...so long as you don't need the hard drive space.

 

conceptualclarity...

Think I'm ready to say that adding smss.exe to the CleanMem ignore list is for sure beneficial for the PC. I don't have crashes with this setup, but the little tiny kinks seem to be removed now that I have added it and now that CleanMem isn't trimming the process. Since csrss.exe is a critical process of Windows, I recommend adding it to the ignore list too.

I have also added smss.exe to the exclude list in Process Lasso in the ProBalance settings. This means that PL won't restrain the process.

This whole idea started around some curiosity on my part about how to preserve mouse and keyboard functionality from the CleanMem trims. smss.exe is the session manager for Windows, and it references all kinds of OS related Windows content and regulates the functions of the OS, so I decided to give it a try. Seems to be almost immediate improvement. After several hours of use, no more live stream stutters with live video that I had been having in the internet browser and things seem snappier. Didn't have many mouse catches, but the few I ever had seem to have disappeared. All of this is without even a reboot of the PC. Actually, I am on an almost 10 day boot now (I don't like to boot any more than I have to so I use stand by).

Hope this works for you...

 

Thank you. I will implement that if I can.

Can you give me any insight as to what exactly is going on in the type of freezes I described above?

I had another such freeze that infuriated me tonight, killing some e-mails on my taskbar into which I had written a lot. Is there any way after the next boot I could hunt down and retrieve those e-mails from some temporary files folder?

 

conceptualclarity...

You may want to try this

http://softwaresolution.informer.com/Free-Autosave-Edited-Text/

These are text editors that have an autosave feature. I assume you can set the interval for the autosave function to as short an amount of time as you like. You could compose your e-mails in a text file which autosaves, then copy/paste them into the e-mail.

Of the ones at the link, yEdit looks to me like the best one...

 

I really appreciate that, AtlBo. I downloaded yEdit. It looked pretty good. Then I found there is no pasting into it. A dumb feature that ruins it for my purposes. For me, e-mail is the ideal kind of text. it's very lightweight, whereas word processors are ponderous. The text goes all the way across the page and it isn't broken up into pages like in a word processor. I have a huge amount of data stored in folders of e-mails I mailed to myself. Right now my primary work with this is a great big e-mail in which I keep links and blurbs about computer information pages and software programs I could be interested in installing at some point, mostly after I get a new computer with a bigger hard drive. One of my plans is to construct a real-time security portfolio far superior to what I have now.

Right now I believe my hard drive is much more fit than my RAM and processing. I keep it fit with cleaner programs like CCleaner and by exercising restraint about downloading programs that interest me.

Would it be best for me to be clearing my prefetch cache?

I made those three tweaks. Unfortunately bad trouble has continued, many fatal freezes. Tabs are no longer the culprit. I am working on Maxthon with single digit tabs and getting freezes. Last night I got a fatal freeze when my computer was stressed by me trying to join alternativesto.net. Later I got a fatal freeze when a link called up the ponderous ogre Internet Explorer 8 while Maxthon was open. Today I felt my computer was in full crisis when it froze with nothing notably stressful going on. It was just a page from an e-mail link going on loading too long. As I said, what happens is unresponsiveness starts in the browser. Then it spreads to the e-mail and other applications. Finally the unresponsiveness spreads to the start button, and nothing is left but the resort to the power button. As this process goes on, I look at my Kingsoft PC doctor min-monitor. CPU usage is low, but fluctuating. RAM settles on a number in the 40s or 50s (%) and freezes there.

I am surprised that I have had a number of unfrozen hours today after that seemingly unprovoked freeze.

Do you think I need to do more malware scanning? Or checking for disk errors? Should I be pondering possible software conflicts?

 

conceptualclarity...

I haven't scanned in over a month, so I don't think it's necessary to run them very often. I think they're most useful for analyzing problems other than crashes and freezes such as unexpected popups or strange behaviors like strange messages, etc. It doesn't hurt to run them though. Your A-V humming in the system tray should get you by I think for the most part. However, come to think of it, you do use the internet a very large amount, so maybe it is a good idea.

Seems to be working for me. I wouldn't say so, but maybe this could be playing a part in your freeze free session (?).

MORE FROM TESTING WINDOWS SYSTEM PROCESSES WHICH MIGHT INTEREST YOU SOME:

I have added also csrss.exe, System.exe, and svchost.exe to the ignore list in CleanMem and to the exceptions list for ProBalance in ProcessLasso. I sort of expected RAM memory usage to go up, which it has done. Makes sense, since, basically, doing this has allowed these processes, which govern RAM alotments for a host of other Windows processes, to have their full compliment of RAM (they now aren't trimmed by CleanMem). That causes some other Windows processes to go up a little bit. Overall, though, I am still getting some of the CleanMem RAM savings, and the PC is running a little bit better.

For you, I would especially recommend trying doing the same thing with svchost.exe at least. Here is wiki on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svchost

This is the subsystem of Windows that regulates how the PC interacts with the various Windows and other .dlls (dynamic link libraries). These files are critical to optimization. In them are references that tell the PC what is actually on the PC and where to find it. Definitely a very important interaction being governed by svchost.exe. By the way, it is normal for it to appear in multiple instances in task manager if you were wondering.

I think these smalll gestures that I am giving to Windows are helping the PC. Some of it I don't need to add to CleanMem ignore or ProcessLasso ProBalance exclude, like csrss.exe. csrss.exe is a subsystem used by corporations and other institutions with large networks and so on. However, I am learning quite a bit with these most recent looks at these Windows processes, and I can't see a reason why csrss.exe shouldn't be fully available to Windows, irregardless of who is using the PC.

The rest of this (System.exe and svchost.exe) is something I think amounts to giving back to the above Windows processes each its full Windows functionality and its full compliment of RAM access for better OS functionality. However, there is I think a difference with PL and CleanMem present on a system in that these processes now somehow have an added layer of protection that comes from being added to the PL ProBalance exclude list. Maybe it's just the increase in the speed of PL refresh optimization to the 8 ms setting in the PL configuration .ini file that causes this, I don't know. At any rate, using PL correctly appears to me to mean that the intrusion of other processes, such as when a processor becomes wickedly overloaded by a browser and so on, now are MUCH less of a problem to keyboard and mouse functionality. Honestly, this type of intrusion, seems to have been all but eliminated for me with the PC just humming along.

I can testify a little bit more to this in that I accidently found myself running Process Lasso the other day at a 100 ms refresh rate rather than the 8 ms that I use typically. Somehow it had reverted to 100 ms on its own, I guess during a system blink or something (one of those strange refreshes that happen sometimes). Anyway, I noticed the system was beginning to struggle a little bit. I tinkered around some and then decided to check the PL configuration .ini to see if the reversion had taken place (happens on boot sometimes, so I always check it then), and I noticed the reversion and changed it back to 8 ms. Within seconds I could tell a difference in the responsiveness of the PC...much improved. Within 10 minutes the sluggishness was gone.

Well, the improvement sort of enhanced for me the value of adding the most critical system processes to the ProBalance exclude list in PL and to ignore in CleanMem. Those important processes are now immune from having their access to the processor and to RAM restriction by PL and CleanMem. Yet (the best part is that...), I am still not having the freezes and crashes that come normally from processor access being handed over to heavy or weighty programs and system services (the ones that seem to cause loss of critical system functions such as mouse or keyboard or shutdown/restart, Task Manager, etc.). The undesired reversion of PL governor refresh to 100 ms and the subsequent change back to 8 ms accentuated this fact for me. I could sort of watch the PC balance itself with the new processes (smss.exe, System.exe, and svchost.exe) added to PL exclude and CleanMem ignore after I changed the PL configuration for the refresh back to 8 ms.

This tells me that even adding the practically all encompassing system processes above to the exclude list in PL ProBalance settings and to the ignore list in CleanMem settings is safe to do. Somewhere in those processes I would surmise is the logic for regulating the mouse and keyboard (and for protecting their functionality along with other Windows functions), but, evidently, the elements of the OS that do cause problems aren't causing a problem when these processes (smss.exe, System.exe, and svchost.exe) are excepted in PL and CleanMem. PL is still fighting off background "noise" as it should, and this is still enough for the PC to function well. Also, CleanMem is still trimming at least some memory. Well, anyway, whatever does cause the problems normally is not being activated by ignoring and excluding smss.exe, System.exe, and svchost.exe...that's the most important and best thing I guess.

Wish I wasn't losing RAM by doing the above, but I honestly think I am getting a fair look at what Windows should be (at least in my opinion) by allowing for more access to RAM and processor from these 3 Windows processes. If I needed all the things they regulate, those things would run correctly as designed. Couple this with the fact that regulation for the mouse and keyboard functions are likely in these processes somewhere, at least to some extent, and I think giving them this treatment is well worth a look and a try. For me, it seems to be making the PC perform better in spite of the RAM losses and slightly higher processor usage.

All this together leads me to believe that there is some sort of code in Windows that is flawed someplace that when unrestrained leads to or allows for the freezes and crashes. As far as I can tell, it must not be regulated by default by any of the processes above (smss.exe, system.exe, or svchost.exe) or it would seem to me this process would take over after being excepted in PL and/or ignored in CleanMem. I was actually concerned that this scenario might happen when adding smss.exe, system.exe, and svchost.exe to ignore and exclude (PL and CleanMem). I thought that whatever in Windows causes freezes and crashes might be free to cause them if it were governed or controlled somehow by one or more of the three. Apparently, this is not the case. Even after adding the three, whatever process the rogue or problem one is, PL and CleanMem are still keeping it at bay. Again, luckily, it's not controlled by these ones I that I have given full access.

Yes, again, the ignores and excludes for these Windows processes cause RAM to be reclaimed by Windows and a little bit of processor usage, but still none of the all too standard Windows freezes and crashes are occurring. The situation I had with PL running at 100 ms verified this for me. Back to 8 ms, and no sluggishness at all. If whatever the rogue process is was being allowed back into its full functionality by excluding and ignoring smss.exe, system.exe, and svchost.exe, the system would be losing ground to failures, freezes, and crashes, and I would have been able to notice this. All in all, I really believe the system is performing more reliably in spite of the RAM losses to Windows and slightly higher idle processor usage. Most importantly, the whammy process in Windows, whatever it is, is still being restrained somehow from causing freezes and crashes.

Let me know if you get a chance to experiment with these and/or if you can see how manipulating these processes is affecting things for you. It's really interesting to hear how these sorts of changes affect things on your P4 PC. You are really down there where little positives mean a lot...and little negatives. Great place to learn about PCs very quickly as I can testify too...

 

I just had a rather depressing crash. Things were going smoothly. The Kingsoft monitor showed moderation in CPU and RAM. I had twelve tabs open. (By the way, this Maxthon Cloud Browser takes some significant virtual memory but is exceptionally light on RAM, even when I forget to configure All Browsers Memory Zip. Maybe has something to do with the cloud?) Then one tab started loading. (I get this on the tabs of all browser families, a tab that already landed on its page long ago going insane and resuming loading. I can tell a big difference in system performance when that is happening.) The tab just went on and on loading, and I couldn't scroll in the adjacent tab. I saw trouble, so I began trying to click it out, but it was invincible. The same pattern of responsiveness spreading to the whole system ensued, this time quite rapidly. The CPU fluctuated significantly, while the monitor showed the RAM stuck at 39/40%. Again, a freeze that registers at the RAM figure, but not a high one. It is very frustrating to have a mere one rogue tab kill a session. It did seem like until recently, if my system was going to go down, I would see on the monitor either CPU or RAM was sky high. I'd be interested to know if you have any speculation about the nature of this development.

Remember a long way back I set quite a number of settings in Process Lasso according to your recommendations. With the constant updating, is PL keeping the settings? I know there was a period where it was putting them back to its default with updates.

It didn't take when I thought I had added smss.exe to PL's ignore list. By the way, if you ever see an article that explains wild cards and regular expressions, etc., please forward me the link.

Thank you very much for taking the trouble of writing all this out. I have followed suit. I checked Lasso again after closing the window. It did OK without any asterisks.

You think I ought to go for Linux someday? Right now I feel my level of computer skills calls for sticking with the OS that has the lion's share of official and unofficial support and programs available.

By the way, it turns out there are a lot of RAM Disk programs to choose from. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAM_disk_software

 

I think what you tried to change might be something different than what I have changed. In PL go to the program menu and select Options->ProBalance settings->Configure excluded processes... Add smss.exe to the list, then if you want to try add System.exe and svchost.exe. Some others I was going to mention are alg.exe, dllhost.exe, and spoolsv.exe (if you use your printer on this last one). I have all of these added there. I also have used the ignore feature of CleanMem on them.

While you're hanging around ProBalance settings you can go to Options->ProBalance settings->Configuration dialog (General ProBalance settings)... There you can check to make sure that the settings that you put in there earlier are still there.

Once you get done with that, go to File->Manually edit the configuration.ini file... Open the notepad file and use "Edit->Find" to find the second instance of the word "speed". It should be there as UpdateSpeedCore. If I recall correctly, I think you were using 20 as the number there. Remember to save the file when you close it if you have to make a change.

The number in the .ini file is a pesky annoyance. Every once in awhile I will notice it has changed, so I just keep an eye on it sometimes. When I boot I always check to make sure it's still correct. Not sure what the problem is, but I only boot rarely, and so it a relatively rare thing for me to check...maybe every 3 or 4 days I'll have a spare second or two and take a look...

I wouldn't say so. I think you're on the right track to getting everything there is to get out of Windows. That should be plenty good enough. Linux is sort of a trap. It might run well enough, but there isn't the software support for it to suit my tastes.

Whatever is wrong with Windows, it would be nice if they fixed it, but I really believe I have brought out everything it has to offer for this PC. I'm working on a 15 day boot...not a record or anything, but everything is stable over these long stretches without a boot. And this is just on Windows XP. I think you're getting pretty close to the same thing for your PC. Still believe you need a more capable PC hardware-wise to do as you are seeking on the internet. Otherwise, if you keep going, I think you'll find that ideal where you can say you're getting everything possible from the hardware.

I think everyone more or less gets these to one extent or another. It's just that for most PCs or for most people this doesn't lead to a crash. In spite of this, I think you're on the right track. Actually, I think you're very close...

PS-You mentioned an asterisk for smss.exe. I haven't ever seen this before. Can you tell me exactly what you did and where the asterisk appeared? As you said the smss.exe change didn't take. Not sure what you meant by that. It's really just as simple as adding it to the menu there in the ProBalance "Configure excluded processes" dialog...

 

@ DavidGP:

When I was unable to use the quote I was working on CometBird, a good Mozilla-kin browser. Right now on Maxthon Cloud Browser the quote works fine.

@ AtlBo :

I have indeed got those in the Exclusions box.

If you look at the top of the Exclusions box it suggests using an asterisk or question mark in the process name. That's why I asked

My entering it with an asterisk the first time left no result. Maybe I forgot to click add, but I don't think so.

Can you tell me what those two are?

I checked, and those six are the same as what I set to them to and reported to you way back on 05-11-13. I went back and looked at our discussion then, and you said on 05-03-13 :

Given your awareness of my current functioning, do you think some more tinkering would now be in order on those settings?

Also, my current governor refresh interval is set at 100ms. The GUI refresh interval is at 1s (default). I don't remember what we were intending for there.

I checked back, and 20 was indeed what you advised. For whatever reason I found it at 100. I reset it to 20, closed it, and confirmed I got 20 saved by re-opening it.

Hey, I want you to know that after this tinkering the graph is drastically different. I've never seen it like this before. It's almost solid green with process restraint, and the Actions log is spinning, which I also have not seen before.

Thanks again for your help.

 

conceptualclarity...

alg.exe has to do with the Windows firewall. I chose to ignore/exclude it because I want to get an idea of what in Windows is safe to allow to run its natural way. This one is safe:

http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/alg.exe.html

dllhost.exe has to do with the interface between programs and the .NET framework for one example. Another important Windows process I am happy to let run at its natural levels. Anything run-time is very important:

http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/dllhost.exe.html

Not sure. I haven't added the asterisk, and I am not sure what that is supposed to accomplish. Apologies there. I would like to know too, Don't know if this will help, but, apparently, this is just a way of including all processes that have similar names without adding them all. For your purposes, the asterisk isn't necessary:

https://bitsum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2913.msg11738.html#msg11738

I don't think so. I recall going over them, and I think they were good based on my experiences.

This is the big one. You should see a remarkable improvement in your system, over time especially. If you like you can experiment down to say 8 where I have had mine for the last 4-5 months now. I have found that 20 is best for the P4 PC I have mentioned to you. 8 ms starts to crowd the processor with requests from PL it seems.

Let me know how this goes once you get down the road some. Really looking forward to hearing about it.

Give this awhile and see how it goes. Definitely it's nothing to worry about, although you may want to exempt some other processes than the ones that you mentioned you have added. If you get a chance, post the processes you have listed in the ProBalance excluded list and then a list of the ones showing up in the log the most. I think I can maybe help you get rid of some of the activity in the log and quiet things a little bit.

 

I'm not concerned about it at all. I'm happy to see Process Lasso be busy, actually.

Maxthon, ALL Browsers Memory Zip, svchost.exe (rpcss), Process Explorer, Task Manager, Clean Mem, System Protect, the same things over and over.


I have good news and bad news. I thank you for giving me the idea about auto-saving text editors. I thought about a program I had downloaded on another techie's advice but then forgot about because my mind was geared toward word processors. It's Jarte. It's wonderful freeware. Just want I want, more like the body of an Outlook Express e-mail than a bulky system-heavy word processor with all of its huge amount of dead space in the document. It took a lot of work to actually configure it to auto-save and do backups after I thought I had accomplished that with a few clicks.

The bad news is frequent freezes have continued. It has been days since I have been able to shut my PC down with anything but the power button. It seems that I can't do anything that really stresses the system without starting the unresponsiveness contagion. I have never had so many consecutive efforts to use my Turn Off Computer button that dissolved in unresponsiveness. Bringing up the window in the middle of the screen to finalize shut-down is too much of a stress even when the start button has been seeming to hang on well to its responsiveness. I froze once because I tried to save my big e-mail file with computer info on Jarte while Maxthon was open with a few tabs. Maxthon itself has been starting the unresponsiveness derby often, even without a inordinate amount of tabs.

I think the power button shutdowns are having a hurtful effect. After the freezes I typically experience a startup freeze and have to power button again. A couple of days ago this happened three times in a row. Then I started in Safe Mode. All I could do was a little minor tinkering through Win Patrol, but the next boot was successful. My startups are horrendously protracted. I blame Windows' processes. I have been careful not to let many programs go startup, and with most of the elective startup programs I have used WinPatrol to delay and stagger them so they are not coming forward all at once.

This is really upsetting to me. For some reason my system is dramatically going downhill. And I'm still probably a couple of months away from really being ready to buy a new computer. I do not want to spend hundreds of dollars for a machine that will start making my life bitter again in only a few years' time. I also have a strong desire to be freed to put as much as I want on my computer. Scans have shown that many intruders have gotten past AVG, MSE, and avast! I have plans for a layered multi-faceted formidable system of real time protection.

I want to ask you, first of all, is there a means for peaceably shutting down Windows from just your keyboard? I have looked in vain for it in my new computer books.

Why am I getting this new phenomenon of fatal unresponsiveness starting with one application and spreading to others when CPU and RAM are both at reasonable levels?

Is it possibly my punishment for running Process Lasso and Process Tamer together? It seemed to me like they were coexisting well. For now i am trying going without PT for a while.

One real time program I have added lately is System Protect, which guards against file deletion. I like it, even though I have it in teaching mode now telling it this and that are OK from now on. I understand lots of programs are like that.

I have added enough programs (not letting many run real time) that my hard drive free space has gone down from 40 GB to 30 GB. But it doesn't seem like a problem I think the flash drive for page file space may be helping. It used to be that when I had been browsing a long time I would get messages from Microsoft that my virtual memory was low and they were remedying that. I don't think I have gotten such a message in the past year.

My next project before a new computer is getting a really good external hard drive for backup. Suggestions are welcome. Then I will go redundant by getting online backup.

There is a problem I have neglected out of busyness. Since March, .NET Framework updates from Microsoft have been failing over and over again. Something is corrupted. Is this possibly a much more serious problem than I have imagined?

I am seriously thinking about seeking paid remote assistance, probably from Cloudeight. I get their weekly newsletter and have a favorable view of them. I would rather be interacting than simply go leave my computer in the repair shop. If you have any better suggestions, feel free.

I have added the last two you just suggested, so it's the ones you have lately suggested plus WinPatrol. In CleanMem, it's been the ones you mentioned the last few days plus GBoost. I just noticed that I misspelled JetBoost as "JetBoot." So it hasn't been being excluded.

 

conceptualclarity...

Start off with one question...how large is your hard drive? I see you have 30 GB of free space.

Yes, I am sure moving the page file solved your virtual memory problem. As space on the hard drive shrinks, Windows starts throwing things overboard, so to speak. Virtual memory is one of the things it will start to ignore. PC performace goes completely to hell when this starts happening.

It's a rule of thumb with me...never use more than 40% of a hard drive. This is because data is added to a hard drive from the middle of the usable space on the circular disk and then outward in both directions. The laser reader which reads the data is attached to a rocker arm (exactly like an old fashined record player arm (the laser akin to the needle)), and the further out the data resides from the center of the disk, the more the rocker has to move side to side to find specifically requested data as the disk spins. This is stressful on the rocker arm (it's often the first thing to break on a hard drive), and it causes a fairly significant slowdown of data transfer statistically speaking.

OK...I'll look and think over your problems and so on, but I will start by adding some things you can add to the exclude list in ProcessLasso ProBalance settings. This isn't going to cost you anything to do for the most part. Your system idle might go up a little bit as far as your processor is concerned, but it will be as a result of giving healthy processes their normal access to the processor. I don't think you'll see much change, but if you, for example, add a program to this list, such as your browser, it should run better. This is especially helpful for some programs. Try adding these:

Maxthon.exe (not sure if this is the Maxthon process name...use whatever it is)
mini_monitor.exe
svchost.exe
Explorer.exe
jetboosttray.exe
gboost.exe
processgovernor.exe

You can also add any other brower processes to this list. When I first started learning to use this feature of PL, I left the browser off the list for about the first two months. I liked the performance better afterwards. This will also get your browsers out of your PL log, which is kind of nice.

Let me know how this goes. I am most interested in how the PC responds to the simple things like opening a folder and how fast the start menu pops open...this kind of thing...to start with...

 

It's an old hard drive of a mere 111.72 GB, so it's 74% filled. There's no way I can uninstall enough programs to turn that ratio around.

I ran Disk Space Analyzer on Glary Utilities. Documents and Settings came in at a whopping 43.56 GB. I see 3.28 GB to All Users, although I am now the only user on this computer. 40.22 GB goes to the account I use. The biggest chunk is My Documents at 13.69 GB. Application Data 7.33 GB. Local Settings 5.48 GB. Desktop 5.01 GB.

Thanks for confirming that for me. So do you think that would be a smart move even on my next computer?

It's really good to know all of that, since it underlines the importance of going for a really big hard drive.

I have no major complaints about those things now, except for when things are going wrong on my system as I have described. There is a very recent glitch with my accessing files and folders as I describe at http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=279202

I will say I have some troubles like this : I have a pretty good program called Screenshot Captor on my Quick Launch. Sometimes I click it, and it shows up in Processes on Task Manager, but it never shows up on my screen. I would like to know how to remedy that.

OK, but I am concerned about CPU usage by browsers. I thought restraining that was one of the best things Lasso could do for me. Can you elaborate a little more on this for me? If we're going to exempt burdensome Windows processes, Explorer, and even the browser, just what are we aiming to do with Process Lasso? Please let me know if you also suggest adding any of those to CleanMem's ignore list.

I am looking at the contents of my hard drive more closely than I ever have. Kingsoft Doctor tells me 1.3 GB is taken up by a folder with Firefox thumbnails. I don't really know what that's all about. 12.5 GB is taken up by what appears to be System Restore. "Common Files" is 2.4 GB. If I know what I am doing, it does appear I can reduce the weight on the hard drive. How much I don't know.

Over a GB is taken up by my e-mail backup. I look forward to being able to get that off my PC soon.

Glary Utilities is certainly a fine piece of freeware.

I mentioned Process Tamer, System Protect, .NET Framework. Something else I forgot. I have never updated drivers. I know very little about them. Major Geeks' updater says a bunch are updatable. A newsletter I get advised leaving drivers alone, saying you're likely to do more harm than good. A computer-savvy friend agreed. On the other hand, I know Major Geeks is big on driver update products.

Yesterday I succeeded in getting a couple of clean shut-downs by resorting to the Task Manager Shut Down tab soon enough when unresponsiveness started.

 

conceptualclarity...

I have dropped this down to about 6 GB. In Windows XP, to lower this:

Open Windows Explorer->right click on your "My Computer"->select "Properties"->select "Settings"->lower the bar until you are at about 6 GB.

This is for Windows 7. Apologies, I forgot which OS you are using:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/5482/make-system-restore-use-less-space-in-windows-7/

Check your cleaner program (CCleaner?) and see if it is set to clean out your Firefox "Internet Cache". Looks in the "Applications" tab to find Firefox choices in CCleaner if that's your cleaner.

You're right about the rest of this. You really can't do much other than the above. One thing you can do is turn off System Restore and then turn it back on. This will clear out all your restore points. When you turn it back on it will have your last one saved there, so you won't need to create one. If you have lowered the amount to be used for System Restore as mentioned above, that setting will stay, and your System Restore won't ever climb above the amount you have allotted.

Don't think you'll need to. I have my page file (virtual memory) set at 6 GB low and 9 GB high. It's on my main drive, and it's not using too much space on this 250 GB HD. I am assuming your new hard drive will be at least that large, but I recommend 500 GB or better. The bigger the better looking to the future and file sizes and so on. Whenever I get a new system, it will have much larger HDs than the 2x250 GB I have now.

I think this is a Screenshot Captor problem. I tried the program, and I recall being frustrated with it. I switched to a small utility called SnapCrab. It's a solid program.

OK...I understand what you mean by this exactly. I am finding that there is something to running system processes and other programs through Process Lasso and CleanMem. Here's what I recommend. Go ahead and add the Windows processes to the CleanMem ignore list, all 5 or 6, and throw in Explorer.exe if it's not in the ignore list for CleanMem already. When you get done reboot and once everything is loaded, check the PL .ini configuration file to make sure that it's at 20 as it should be (good idea to check this on boot).
At this point, see where your RAM usage is.

For me, my opening RAM usage is still at about 27%, even with all the exceptions I have placed in CleanMem (20+). I do NOT, however, have Opera (my default and main browser) in the ignore list for CleanMem. I did put Firefox there, because I mess around with QuakeLive (a game) that runs through the browser, and I choose to play it in Firefox. The graphics in Firefox seem more stable to me. If it weren't for QuakeLive, I wouldn't have Firefox.exe in the ignore list, so you may not need to put any browsers in there.

Overall, I am finding that PL does the job with restraint when combined with JetBoost and GBoost, even with the exceptions. It's something you will have to work with for a while to see what I mean. There's something to be gained by issuing a program it's access to the processor through PL.

Here are the ones I would add to CleanMem, if you don't already have them there:

alg.exe
csrss.exe
dllhost.exe
services.exe
spoolsv.exe (if you use your printer)
svchost.exe
explorer.exe
jetboosttray.exe
gboost.exe
processgovernor.exe

You can add to this list your cleaner software, defragmenter, and anything else that you use frequently but isn't open in the system tray all the time, including any backup software you might use. These will always give back their RAM when the are closed. I also have the Microsoft Office and MS Works programs in the CleanMem ignore list, so they will run at their peak when open...

Yes, I have also found this can be effective when things go wrong.

Best approach to this is to check with the manufacturer, but only if you are having a problem with your PC. I use one of the updaters to back up my drivers every once in awhile, but I have only changed the chipset driver. I updated it straight from HP. I did update the BIOS too, but none of this is necessary if you aren't having problems, so your friend is right I would say.

Let me know how adding the above processes to CleanMem works out. Also, stay on PL about the 20 setting for the "UpdateSpeedCore" in the configuration .ini file (remember to save if you change the number). It reverts to the 100 number, but the more you stay on top of it, the less it will revert...

 

conceptualclarity...

Finally got to mess around last night on the P4 PC I have here. It's been awhile since I have been able to find the time. I noticed many of the same issues on that PC you are facing on your P4. One thing I did while experimenting was add some more processes to the PL ProBalance exclude list on that PC. I opened the PL interface right after coming out of standby and then I took a look in the PL actions log in the GUI at what initiated during wakeup. There were some interesting processes being restrained by PL during that time. Anyway, I discovered if you right click on the process in the log, you will get the option to search the internet for information on its purpose. Best to have your browser open already, or it will open along with 100 pages or whatever, but this is very useful. Of the ones that started up after standby, I added these to the PL exclude list (and to the PC I usually use (the core2duo one)):

taskmgr.exe
wmiprvse.exe
rundll32.exe

Oh by the way, there is also a great option on the right click menu for each process in the GUI actions log area in PL to exclude individual processes from ProBalance restraint. Nice touch from the developer there I would say.

I think...just think...that I have identified how PL helps Windows optimize.

First the problem. If I am right, PL sends instructions to Windows containing data on how each process uses the processor. Not sure, but somehow I think PL does this faster than is normal for Windows optimization, prodding the native optimization routine to speed up. This is a very good thing. Anyway, Windows builds a profile of the use of each process from this information, which is used for optimization, so that the correct amount of RAM can be assigned to each process (many times in advance of the use of the process...some processes have elements of the process always in RAM). Well, adding 2 + 2, I think the freeze/crash problems occur because many of the Windows service processes (like csrss.exe, dllhost.exe and the others you added most recently to the PL ProBalance exclude list)) are not protected, so that they could be able to always run in a tiny and harmless bandwidth. This leads to a build up of a need for the process to run and wham all the sudden it runs in a huge gush. This chokes the processor and sends the message to the optimization routines of Windows that this how things are supposed to happen, causing an endless loop of failure as Window optimizes the processes to run in gushes. Boots help, so short sessions can be OK, but even then these problems can flood into even those quick sessions.

Now the reason PL helps. Best I can tell the Windows OS optimization routines have no defense for the type of event above. However, the lack of a defense is in my opinion justifyable, considering PL is showing us how managing the most important of these service processes (and system ones at least to one degree) on a faster routine, protecting them, is really all that is needed...not an after the fact defense for a freeze/crash. After the fact isn't effective, but, thinking about it, it's does sound like the talk we get from MS when we have problems with Windows. Eerily familiar. Anyway, PL forces Windows to leave open tiny bits of bandwidth permanantly for these processes to run as designed. Then PL forces Windows to optimize faster, sending the healthy message of how each of these now managed processes are designed to run to the Windows optimization engine. There a healthy profile of the processes is developed and the correct amount of RAM and page file is assigned and the crashes and freezes are eliminated. It's a cycle of positivity instead of a dysfunctional mess. The freeze/crash scenario is a disaster for productivity when it comes to a PC.

In summation, the way these services run without PL, the optimization portion of the OS gets the impression that the services are supposed to run all at once and choke the processor. Even PLs grinding proddings for the OS to optimize faster are useless once the PC is frozen and unusable. Nothing can happen. So what we are doing by adding these service processes to the PL exclude list is akin to using PL to tell the OS to protect these processes, so they can run a little bit a time whenever they need to run. No more of these services jamming up the processor.

Looking at the 3 processes above, I don't think it's necessary to protect their RAM from CleanMem, because CM doesn't go after their RAM usage, anyway (OK maybe Task Manager to be on the safe side, but I haven't as yet added it). This (after some testing and research) I believe is because their RAM alottments by intention and by design simply cannot be trimmed by CleanMem. Put another way, their use of virtual memory, the memory which CleanMem restricts access to, is of limited importance and basically non-essential, anyway. Nothing to be gained or lost by adding them to CleanMem. Yet, definitely, after the research, I can see how these could be definitely considered important enough to add to the PL ProBalance exclude list as I have. Again, I have not, however, added them to the CleanMem ignore list. Taskmgr and the others are going to get their RAM no matter what when these are opened or running.

If you are interested in the purposes of wmiprvse.exe and rundll32.exe, google and see what you turn up. Interesting to learn about these processes.

I guess the best thing to do in your situation (and mine...anyone actually), as you move forward testing and improving your PC's performance, is once in awhile take a look at the PL log and see what's being restrained. Chances are good in any case that you can go ahead and add a particular process found there to the PL exclude list, as likely it doesn't require any processor usage at all hardly to fulfill its purpose. That's the way it is with most of these Windows service processes thankfully. They don't clutter the processor when they're running as they should. Anyway, you can research new processes you see in the PL log on Google to see what they do...then make up your mind on whether to add individual ones to the PL ProBalance exclude list when you see in the GUI actions log one occupying PL alot. Then after that you can decide whether adding the process to CleanMem would help protect the process' need for access to the processor. Personally, I think we have added the system/Windows processes that need the protection of CleanMem ignore already, although I won't rule it out that there might be others.

Let me know how this works out for you if you decide to try adding the above three. It's working wonders on both the PCs I have done it for, when combined with all the other changes to PL exclude and CleanMem ignore.

Really appreciate you keeping this discussion open. It reminds me to take some time to look into things a little more that I really want to investigate but rarely find the block of time I need. I really enjoyed getting down on the 1.5 GHz P4 with all this knowledge. Wow is it running better...

Overall, these adjustments have all been positive on both PCs. I am really even more amazed at how this is going. PC is running so clean...and on XP. I am sort of stunned honestly...

 

Well, I'm glad you feel you are really onto something about XP optimization.

I have just added those on PL. I have also added on CleanMem the processes you suggested.

The 20 setting has been holding steady for me.

Are you definitive about thinking I should exclude browsers on Process Lasso? If so, I will.

Good suggestion, but I would prefer to hold off on that for a while to preserve the option of returning to a healthier earlier state. I suppose there is a way I could chop out a lot short of coming right up to the present?

I would like to know more about the pros and cons of clearing your browser cache before I start it. In the past it sounded like maybe something that wasn't for me. What are Firefox thumbnails?

Concerning clearing space on the hard drive, I posted a question that is important for me at http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=279320. No answers so far. A related question also lacking an answer is at http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=279313

Glad to know that. I will uninstall. I have found a very nifty screenshot tool with IM Tool Pack. It lets me easily select what portion of the page I want to capture, and it allows me to do colored highlighting after the fact. Pretty good.The product is from Crawler, which has its haters who claim it's a malware site and cite a bad Web of Trust rating. I suppose it's animus against the toolbar. Sure, I have to use WinPatrol to keep it from autostarting, but that's true of a lot of programs. Crawler has a major reputable program Spyware Terminator, the rare free real-time anti-spyware program which I plan to get.

Windows XP
Home Edition
Version 2002
32-bit
Service Pack 3

Dell DIMENSION DIM2400
Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
2.66 Ghz. 2.00 GB of RAM
Hard Drive Size 111.72 GB
Free Space 30.0 GB