What apps can i shut down?

[brocher]

Hi, running vista x64. My memory load is always above 40%, i have attached a screen shot of what is running normally. Which progs apps can i shut down safely to reduce the load?

I am running a net work through a netgear router and need this to be enabled

 

[fitz]

This is by design in Vista. Vista claims more memory "usage" than XP because of some of the background work that Vista does in the background (namely SuperFetch)

Superfetch is an "enhancement" to the old "prefetcher" in XP - namely, it stores program information of often-used programs/processes to make them launch and run quicker. In Vista, prefetcher has become much more aggressive (and Microsoft would have you believe, more intelligent) and thus uses more memory to cache it's info.. thus the new name "superfetch"

If you want to default to the old XP style, you can disable superfetch service..

A much more detailed write up can be found here

The question shouldn't be "Why does Vista use all my memory?", but "Why the heck did previous versions of Windows use my memory so ineffectively?"

 

[madmatt]

You can defiantly disable Nero Indexing (NMIndexingService.exe, NMIndexStoreSrv.exe, and NMBgMonitor.exe).

 

[LeeJend]

It may not be what you want since you bought Vista but try switching from AERO to the old XP desktop.

There was nothing else in the list using enough memory to worry about that is not needed.

The best app to shut down to conserve memory is VISTA. :dead:

 

[fitz]

*grumble*

Does no one read what I post?

This is an issue with how Vista was designed. It was designed to use up more memory and to treat memory like a cache since access to data in memory is worlds faster than access to data from disk. So Vista/Superfetch pushes a lot of data that you access often into memory so when you run that program, it can pull the data from memory instead from disk.

Most of the time, it works well. If a program requests more memory that superfetch is using, it will release the memory to the program..

And, as I mentioned, if you really wanted it to look nice in your task manager (since most people are used to seeing a lot of free RAM) you can disable the superfetch service in Vista.

And, again, a more detailed writeup can be found here

 

[madmatt]

I always read it. That's why I commented on Nero!

 

[Aprox]

I believe when you open a game or a similar computer intensive application it starts removing things from memory as well. Vista does not use the same style memory management as XP.

 

[American Zombie]

Black Viper had a great list of what you can shut down on XP. His site is back and he has been working on what services you can shut down it Vista.

Vista Services

 

[LeeJend]

*grumble*
Does no one read what I post?

We read it. We just wanted to annoy you.

Actually, if this is truly the case why does VISTA recommend twice the memory that XP recommends? The claims are inconsistent with the "recommended" configurations.

 

[Perris Calderon]

fitz hits the nail on the head

contrary to polular believ, you want your os using as much memory as is available\

the more memory in use the faster the os plain and simple, idle memory is wasted memory

a good the memory management system will put on standby the data that is least likely used and that memory is gonna get claimed when the os needs more memory

if it were my box I would be doing whatever is possible to get as close to all memory mapped as possible

 

[LordOfLA]

It always strikes me as funny that when Microsoft uses memory managment similar to the highly priased linux way of doing things it gets criticised for using too much ram, yet the same critics will turn around and praise linux for doing the exact same thing

 

[NetRyder]

Actually, if this is truly the case why does VISTA recommend twice the memory that XP recommends? The claims are inconsistent with the "recommended" configurations.

One of the reasons why the recommended memory requirement for Vista is higher is because when you have more RAM, more data can be prefetched, making the system more responsive. The less RAM you have, the less beneficial Superfetch will be, because there simply isn't enough space to cache everything.

There's nothing inconsistent about it - all it says is that Vista actually makes better use of free memory. Free RAM is wasted RAM.