Minimem is available as a portable and installer for the Windows operating system. It can optimize all running processes of a Windows operating system. Unlike other programs of its kind it offers the user the choice to select the processes that should be memory optimized.

Minimem will only display processes that use more than 15 Megabytes of computer memory. It is possible to change the value to predefined values between 5 and 100 Megabytes. The memory limit can be turned off as well to display all processes in the interface.

Some or all of the active processes that are shown in the interface need to be moved to the left side which indicates that Minimem should optimize them. This gives the computer user excellent control of the optimization process.

Minimem will optimize the computer memory of the selected processes ever 30 seconds by default. This can be changed to several predefined values between 5 and 1200 seconds as well. Minimen will not optimize the active process by default. The program will also skip optimization of the available computer memory is larger than 300 Megabytes. These settings can also be changed in the program interface.

The memory optimization works surprisingly well. Users will see huge memory drops for some of the selected processes, e.g. a drop from 230 Megabytes to 90 Megabytes for a Firefox process or a drop from 33 Megabytes of computer memory to 9 Megabytes for the Winamp process. All of that without a noticeable drop in performance or a rise in virtual memory.

How does the optimization work?

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, though uses an advanced pooling mechanism to ensure the CPU usage of Minimem remains low at all times. This then optimizes your applications which can load those pages back whenever they need, and makes your overall system perform much better whenever it is memory limited.

Not all applications benefit in the same way from the computer memory optimizer. Web browsers and other memory hungry programs will benefit the most. Minimen is available for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0. It is a highly recommended computer program for users who want to optimize their computer memory.

Related posts

• Computer Memory Optimizer (3)
• Youtube Video Search Is A Barebone Youtube Downloader (2)
• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Networking Software Homedale (13)
• Windows XP: Default Internet Browser Per User Profile (0)

What if there was a tool that would optimize the computer memory without using the virtual memory trick? A tool that would use the Windows API to reduce the computer memory use of any running process without interfering with system performance or stability?

Cleanmem (via Easily Reduce Memory Usage on All Running Processes in Windows) is that software program. The software developer provides a portable and a installation version of his computer memory optimizer on his website. Both versions work fine on 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

If the user installes Cleanmem it will automatically add itself to the Task Scheduler in Windows running in 30 minute intervals. The portable version would have to be executed manually which is also possible for the installer version. Simply entering cleanmem in the command line will do the job. The file will be stored in the system32 directory during installation.

The first screenshot below is a snapshot of the Windows Task Manager. The second a snapshot of the same Task Manager after executing Cleanmem.

A process that needs more memory than it has after memory optimization will simply allocate additional memory. It is not uncommon to see the computer memory of some applications rise to about the level that they have been before. Many however will keep a reduces computer memory size, especially those that are currently not in focus of the user. It basically frees up the memory of applications that are currently running but not in use.

The software developer provides an ignore list with the software program that can be used to exclude applications from the computer memory optimization.

Related posts

• Computer Memory Optimizer Minimem (13)
• Windows Task Manager Replacement DTaskManager (7)
• Windows 7 Like Taskbar In Windows XP (10)
• Set File Associations Without Writing To The Windows Registry (6)
• How to add functionality to the Windows Explorer (2)

Windows Memory Diagnostic (link, via Vishal) is a dos tool which has to be installed on a floppy drive or CD. It can only be run during system start and not from within Windows. Many users will feel uncomfortable with this procedure but those affected by crashes might probably be inclined to try everything in their might to get to the reason of the crashes.

The tool will start the computer memory check instantly after its interface has been loaded during system startup. It will run test passes and it is important to perform at least one full test pass before quitting the software program.

The first test pass is the most important one. If no errors are found it is unlikely that additional runs will find errors. If errors are found you discovered a possible source for the system crashes, bluescreens and stop errors.

The installation should not pose difficulties for anyone. Buttons to create a startup floppy disk and to save a CD image to disk are provided upon execution. The first will create a bootable floppy disk containing the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool while the latter will create in ISO image windiag.iso that has to be burned to CD or DVD.

An alternative to Windows Memory Diagnostic is Memtest86+ which is highly recommended by computer professionals to check ram of computers. It has also be burned to CD and run during system start.

Related posts

• Safe Computer Memory Upgrade (6)
• How to test your RAM for errors (11)
• Increasing the performance of Windows Vista (6)
• Zoom It (4)
• Zip Repair (3)

The tool that does this is called Crucial System Scanner (via Shellcity) which is a tool that can give you the information for a safe computer memory upgrade. It is however deeply connected with the Crucial store which sells computer memory.

When you start the tool it opens a website in your default web browser that is showing you your computer’s specifications.

It displays the number of RAM banks, the banks that already contain computer memory but more importantly than that the supported DRAM Types, the computer memory frequencies and the maximum that can be installed on the computer. In my case it would be DDR2 SDRAM with PC”-5300, PC2-6400 and PC2-8500 frequencies and a maximum of 8192 Megabytes of computer memory.

If the software is not able to detect the information properly you could enter the motherboard information manually to receive the same kind of information for the computer memory upgrade. Oh, and you do not have to buy from their store obviously.

Related posts

• Windows Memory Diagnostic (5)
• Why 2 is better than 1 (5)
• How to test your RAM for errors (11)
• Computer Memory Optimizer Minimem (13)
• Virtual Memory too low (5)