Every day we offer FREE licensed software you’d have to buy otherwise.
Fresh RAM was available as a giveaway on June 11, 2009!
Fresh RAM is a software which can effectively improve the situation, optimizing the ways your system and applications are using memory, and, therefore, fastening entire work without any additional hardware expenses.
Fresh RAM has fast and complicated memory analysis algorithms under the hood; but the appearance of the software is simple, understandable and attractive: you always see the overall situation about your system memory, you can select analysis algorithm complexity (speed vs. effectiveness selection) and run optimizations; in a few minutes you’ll feel how fresh the air in your system is — all running things are running like a breeze!
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
4.84 MB
$14.99
I downloaded & installed this on the day it was available on GaOTD, and it seemed to be properly registered -- at least, it never said anything about being a trial version before, and I've used it a few times to try it out, definitely for longer than the 30 days of the free trial. However, today when I started it up to compare it to another RAM cleaner, it says that there are -288 days remaining in the trial, and gives an button/link to continue evaluating the product for free; when I clicked to continue "evaluating the program" the program simply quit. (I tried that a few times, just to be sure it wasn't a fluke, and it seems consistent behavior.)
From curiosity, I went to the "Register Full Version" button/link, and the code I'd entered the first time was already in the entry field. Clicking "Activate" didn't seem to have any effect, but when I tried starting Fresh RAM again, it worked fine as if there'd never been a problem.
I can't complain for a product that I'm using on an extended "free trial" through GaOTD, but I'd hope that pay customers don't have to do go through this.
Figured I'd come back and add a note, in case it helps anyone else, or in case the developer wants to look into the issue.
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I downloaded it and it said that I only had a 30 day trial and I needed a serial code!!!
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Well if it works, I haven't figured it out....
or how to find it after it installed.....
and I sure haven't seen a change with my
Pent4 3Gb system....oh well
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#169, watcher13, you have some very serious misconceptions about computer science and how Windows handles memory. You're the only one making assumptions. A major point of virtual memory is that things which are presently in RAM, but not being actively accessed, can be paged to disk. However, it would just slow down the computer if that RAM isn't needed for something else, so even if it isn't currently being accessed, it remains in RAM until some other process needs more RAM than is presently free. So yes, as you put it, "holding as much as possible in RAM" speeds up Windows, it doesn't slow it down. What good is free RAM? It's doing absolutely nothing. If you can use that RAM to prevent current or future disk access until such time as that RAM would be better allocated to another process, then yes, it absolutely makes sense to keep that RAM in use because it will speed up the computer. Only a few things absolutely have to be kept in RAM, such as critical parts of the operating system and some things associated with device drivers.
You're confusing memory with RAM. A program or process allocates memory, not RAM, in its own virtual address space. In general, it has no idea whether that memory currently resides on disk (paged out) or in RAM. It's not the process which controls RAM allocation, Windows virtual memory management decides what pages should be in physical (RAM) page-frames.
Leaking (a misnomer) is when a program or process loses track of memory (not RAM) which it has allocated. It isn't a "necessary evil" at all, it's a programming error. That memory is allocated in the process's own address space, no other program or process can fix that situation, and the memory is freed when the process terminates, because XP and higher will free that process's entire address space. As to when Windows gets around to reporting the freeing of RAM associated with that process is up to Windows, but it knows the RAM is no longer in use and will use it for other processes as needed. "Leaking" is generally pretty harmless. The process's allocated memory will continue to grow, but that's in its virtual address space, so it will wind up on disk if RAM is needed for other processes. And as I said, it will all be deallocated when the process terminates.
How Windows handles virtual memory has nothing to do with the age of the application or how it's coded.
As for the particular Mark Russinovich article someone linked, it only costs $6 for a monthly pass. As for their privacy policy, it's the usual "We respect and value your privacy. We only give your personal information to our carefully selected partners, which are anybody and everybody who pays us for your personal information."
Mark Russinovich is a very smart guy, but comparing him to Einstein? Russinovich has spent his career reverse-engineering Windows, since nobody at Microsoft knows anything about Windows. He provides all the tools that Microsoft should have written. So they hired him. He's a solid nuts-and-bolts programmer who's based his entire career around Microsoft Windows. Is he one of the programmers who created a new programming language, operating system, or something creative like webmail or social networking software? No. He's a good programmer, but he isn't great. Einstein merely a visionary who screwed stuff up? Scientists generally rank Newton #1 and Einstein #2 among the greatest scientists in history, and the more I learn about Einstein, I think that he ties for #1. Physicists are limited by the knowledge and technology available during their lives. Both Newton and Einstein made some mistakes, as everyone does. Einstein definitely wasn't "wrong in many of the particulars". Despite some claims to the contrary, he was a great mathematician. Experiments during his lifetime and since have matched his mathematical predictions, completely supporting his theories, upon which all of our modern technology is based. It's been said that at any time there are only around a hundred people in the entire world who can fully understand Einstein's math (and I don't mean plugging values into the end-result simple equations). Einstein's ability to explain things in a way that the rest of us can understand is an amazing part of his genius, but only a part.
Apart from the links that #132, da, provided, there are Mark Russinovich's technical blog posts on
Physical Memory
Virtual Memory
Paged and Non-Paged Pool
in addition to various Microsoft articles, which I've linked in the past.
More detail on what I posted earlier about Vista pagefiles (also applies to XP): Use fixed-size pagefiles. Telling Vista to manage the pagefiles itself causes it to delete them upon shutdown.
#160, Spiritwolf, increase the size of your pagefile(s).
Turning off paging is a very bad idea, and will generally adversely impact performance, even if you have a lot of RAM.
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Actually, though, the lifehacker article exhibits the same trap that many people who comment on this issue fall into. Though, overall, it's fine article. I mean painting with too broad a brush. Looking at only one part of the issue, rather than digging down deep. The lifehacker author is aware of the Empty Working Set method, however, the logic breaks down because of on simple assumption that all the naysayers make: That everything in your RAM at any one moment is either essential at that very moment, will be used momentarily, or will even be used again in that session. That's a hot one! There's even an example of a small bit of .net framework code modules that are called when initially opening some of the framework's functions that Windows holds on to, even though it will very likely not be used again in that session. That's because Windows, in it's effort to increase fetch speed by holding as much as possible in RAM will likely not close the functions that the code opens. Only an example, though, since the amount of stuff loaded is quite small.
That's the whole point of leaking. A phenomenon seen less and less, but that even Russinovich acknowledges in at least one of the links that have been posted here in the past. Leaking is a necessary evil caused by the need to make intelligent decisions about what code/functions/modules - regardless of term used, you get the idea - need to be close at hand. Windows has become better and better at managing this, especially with the implementation of virtual memory. However, older software and some software that isn't coded in a way to take advantage of Windows' recent innovations can still leak. Though, again, this is an ever decreasing problem.
So, whether you get RAM back for any length of time, depends on what was purged to the page file in the first place. And those who say it will always slow you down by constantly thrashing the hard disk, again, don't look deep enough. Again, it all depends on what's been purged. As hard as it is for some to grasp, Windows will NOT waste time pulling code back out of the pagefile that you're not using anymore, and won't be using for the rest of the session. That's why is so difficult to predict whether this will work for you at any particular point in time.
Also, the Russinovich link that everyone posts is to a fragment of an article that requires a subscription to read. Does anyone actually have such a subscription? Has anyone actually read the whole article to check, an hopefully learn from, his logic? Don't be too swayed by authority folks! Russinovich is execeptional. I've been referring to him for years, even before I realized HOW exceptional he was. As a former journalist, among other things, I can tell you that you should read every article to try and evaluate whether it's logic makes sense. Does it's bucket hold water? For example, many physicists will admit that Einstein was actually WRONG in many of the particulars. His brilliance lay in his INCREDIBLE vision.
Also, to clarify. The claim that this will speed up your system is indeed bunk. I've never said that, myself, even when I used these softwares in the past. The BEST it can too is help hold off the slowdown that results from being very low on RAM. But, as I said in my first post, there are better ways to do that.
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WHY are people coming here to whine about the price? IT'S BEING GIVEN AWAY FOR FREE! My God, if you don't like something move on. Save your comments for if it doesn't work/is buggy.
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#111, ODella, I'm responding to your comment because I briefly looked at your blog, and it appears that you want to learn things. Downloading, installing, and uninstalling software doesn't impact your RAM, except while that software is running. Your system has over a gigabyte of free RAM. Did it not occur to you that you couldn't possibly have a RAM problem? Now, many of the other people are completely brain-dead. "I have a tons of free RAM, and I run this, and now I have even more free RAM, therefor my computer must be faster." How so? "Um, I dunno, because some guy who wants to make money selling software says it optimizes my computer, therefor it must be faster." If you're not running low on available RAM, you don't have a RAM problem, and kicking out stuff which should be in RAM for faster execution will only make your computer slower.
As for your particular performance issues, see my comments #123 and #125. By default, Vista "deletes" the pagefile, in Microsoft's words, "for security". This is bunk. Microsoft doesn't overwrite the pagefile, which would provide security, and eliminate the need to delete it. Why does this matter? Because the pagefile can't be defragmented while Windows is running. My impression is that Vista re-uses the "deleted" pagefile, which can't be defragmented in the deleted state, therefor it remains fragmented. Set Vista to keep the pagefile, and use a defragmenter which defragments pagefiles. Vista itself has a defragmenter, but it doesn't do pagefiles. There are some freeware defragmenters, but the only defragmenter I trust is the commercial Raxco PerfectDisk, which is often available at a discount (I haven't posted them lately). Their code quality has gone downhill, I'm going to have to get on their case, but that's related to scheduling and other issues, it won't screw up your PC. You can download a trial. Set your security software to scan on execute, not file access (at least during the defragmentation). Do a full defragmentation of your drives first, then do a boot-time defragmentation of your system files (after telling Vista to keep the pagefile). I'll bet your performance issues evaporate. Some things can still cause brief pauses; I sometimes experience a brief pause when my security software updates.
#166, CharlesKane, that's an excellent article for the many GOTD users who clearly don't know what they're doing and commented on this giveaway. I disagree somewhat with some of the article's comments on disabling services. SuperFetch is useful. Windows Defender is useful and doesn't interfere with other security software, so I'd only disable it if you're really low on resources. Windows Search (especially 4.0) is great, but if you're using another search solution, it would make considerable sense to disable it. However, it's unlikely that you'd notice any performance increase. It operates at low priority during idle time.
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Missed the great link: http://lifehacker.com/5033518/debunking-common-windows-performance-tweaking-myths
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Not only this program but any like it are pure snake oil. This whole idea has been thoughourly debunked.
Windows expert Mark Russinovich agrees: "At best, RAM optimizers have no effect, and at worst, they seriously degrade performance."
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It's actually has some useful Windows tweaks that you can apply - I'd download it more for that then the memory bits
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But, with reference to my previous comment (#159), after opening Acrobat Reader, and just doing a little normal word processing and printing, within 20 minutes, I was back down to under 370 Mb RAM, so, indeed, this appears to be primarily a very temporary fix.
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I actually found the program useful on an "older" HP desktop that I am (physically) now unable to upgrade the memory on. I have found major memory leaks with even the latest release of firefox and the idea that Windows manages the disk based page file properly is quite humorous.
The problem I have is that after downloading Microsoft's latest group of patches, I have twice rebooted my computer and found that the Fresh RAM program shortcut brings up an installation dialog looking for the original .msi! Hopefully (after dragging it out of the recycle bin and reinstalling) it won't happen again.
As for the spelling and grammar problems with the software, not only do programmers get a chance to have a large audience test their software here in exchange for feedback as well as the free publicity, but quite a few programmers (including me!) have been known to, ermmm, "gloss over" that part of a program and concentrate on the actual coding.
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@110--Open the extraction folder and you should see the .msi file, which is the installer. Run it and it will install the program itself.
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I downloaded and installed this on both my XP and Vista machines, and had no trouble at all with its registration. Upon closing and reopening it, it still was properly registered in both XP and Vista.
When I have memory problems though, its usually not RAM causing it...it's usually Windows complaining that virtual memory is too low.
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I compared this to TweakRAM (also a GAOTD) (1 Gb RAM XP). Ran TweakRAM and it took my available RAM to 238 Mb. Immediately ran FreshRAM (Max Optimization) and it took my RAM to 584. But within 30 seconds, no new apps opened, just task-switching, RAM had dropped to 560. Ran TweakRam again, it took the RAM to 580. I.e. suddenly TweakRAM could find the RAM that Fresh RAM had freed up, and also confirmed that the FreahRAM report was accurate). Ran FreshRAM again, took the RAM to 700.
So, on this small experiment, it certainly looks as if FreshRAM beats TweakRAM.
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Downloaded and installed w/o problems.
Before Leakage Optimization I had 82% free RAM. After 79% ...
Where are the 3% now??
No keeper, uninstalled!
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ok, number 36, Phil, no its your lack of real world knowledge that is showing, yes the "memory classification" for a Compact Disk is ROM, but as was mentioned, your computer also has a ROM chip on it which is preserved by a small battery that you obviously don't even know exists in your computer; and as was also said, it holds the basic OS to component instructions for your computers motherboard.
you may have herd of those instructions, there called your BIOS, and another term, the "CMOS" which is a type of chip used for this ROM.
I'm a hardware tech, and build computers for other people, so i do know what i am talking about, since diagnosing and replacing bad batteries is one of the things i do, along with installing RAM, getting new motherboards installed (the only thing i can't do myself is run the primary leads to the mother board, and read the numbers off the back of the battery, which is simple to resolve, i take it in and say i need one of these... since when i get to them there dead anyway), installing/replaceing hard drives, CD units, DVD's and etc.
when you point that "you don't know what your talking about" finger, you had best look at the three pointing back at yourself.
I have my doubts about how well this give away is going to perform myself, but I'm not going to give it the thumbs down, until and unless i have tried it.
BCU
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I've tried many Memory Tools in the past and many of them fail to do the job they claim to do. Now I have been running Free Ram XP Pro for about 2 Months and haven't had one Problem with it or my System. In fact my System have been running Error Free every since I Installed Free Ram XP Pro. I use it together with Smart Defrag and they are a Team together. Thanks anyway but I see no need in Downloading Today's Giveaway with the Performance I get from Free Ram XP Pro.
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I rarely submit a comment except to say thanks,however, this time I am presenting my observations. I, too, experienced registration problems, even after trying the suggestions made here. I went ahead and ran it as a trial version. I found a minimal improvement in RAM optimization, not as much as with other optimizers. The same result with the system tweaks and, additionally, had the same display problems as #54. I want to thank those who acknowledge that there are some who have maxed out on upgrades. I run XP SP3 with 512MB RAM. Thank you GOTD for continuing to find these offerings. Mr. Bugeja, perhaps this product needs more work to be ready for 'Prime Time'.
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Well, I've used this all day on my laptop with Windows XP SP2 512MB RAM 1.6 Centrino and can honestly say that I perceive absolutely no increase in performance.
My system was recovered yesterday with my favourite apps running.
Firefox does consume more than it should but again it could not tame that.
I would recommend something more along the lines of Process Lasso which actually helps keep programmes in check while they run.
Just my dime,
Damian Spooner
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Nice software, ( except for few spelling errors) application works fine.
Thanks to giveawayoftheday team. Good job
Ravikiran
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Bottom line - RAM boosters do NOTHING. repeat NOTHING - except take up HDD space and use...more RAM. Avoid like the plague- worthless.
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pity me.. everyone else are having a good discussion on this software but my computer cant install the software having "error 1931.. need to upgrade the operating software..
can someone help... please
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The softpedia review said it doesn't work if you have over 2 GB of RAM, and there are compatibility issues with Windows Vista, but otherwise, it works great. I am using Windows Vista with 3 GB of RAM, so unfortunately, this is a nogo for me.
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Help please?
I installed it, but it's vanished.
So I can't find it to register it?
Where is it hiding? Certainly none of the usual spots.
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Ever heard of SmartRAM, the RAM optimization program bundled into Advanced SystemCare? Totally free, simple, and it works.
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Sorry again, David, but you still haven't said anything. I know you don't want to reveal your secrets. But I don't see how anyone can endorse your method based on generic language. I wasn't endorsing or casting apersions on your software. I was just trying to give folks some background regarding the ongoing and heated discussion here that comes up when anyone offers a memory optimizer.
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good for what it is .however www.iobit.com offers a better one have used most of them out there them
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Ok. My CPU meter was at 62 (due to Vistas sidebar leaks.) I installed Fresh RAM and ran ALL optimizers. The CPU went down to 58. Not good.
Then I ran WinUtilities Memory Optimizer. It took the CPU from 58 to 45.
For me at least, Fresh RAM does not work. A big thumbs down.
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What I want to know is how you get this to run! I've installed it but it won't let me enter the key....and then it just closes. What do I do?
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What a disaster. The page formatting was so screwed up the registration code could not be entered. Once the 'free trial' was activated there was no way to enter the reg code. I use FreeRAM XP Pro and this program gained nothing. Fresh RAM was de-installed!
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This one is free for the 24 hour period and I don't see much merit in general with criticising the cost on other days of this or the other GAOTD offerings. If there are (other) free programmes that perform better than the offering, of course it would make sense not even to bother with the GAOTD downoload, and use the other programme - and it would be insane to purchase lesser performing software ahead of free software (support issues aside).
Installing was less easy than some, but I eventually figured it out and initial testing (on XP Pro) looks positive (I'm monitoring the results in Task Manager). In particular it has consistently freed up the physical proportion of available memory.
I guess a lot will depend on OS settings that people have adopted and other factors peculiar to each machine.
I believe this one is at least worth a try. I like the feature that enables 4 layers of optimisation to be tried, each taking longer than the first.
It has crashed occasionally on the deepoest level but is easily restarted
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OMG I thought these programs were written as useless when I had my 486 machine running windows 3.1 This doesn't do anything more then shutting the machine off and on.
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110 the same thing happened to me I extracted and then it dissapeared nothing else happened. I had to go into drive c: and look there for file named FRESH RAM (this is the extracted file to drive c ) , clicked on it and the programed installed fine with windows installer.
U have to look in drive c: for the extracted file.
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Hi Folks - I MAY have the solution to the NON-Registering problem.
Once U've downloaded the setup from GAOTD - use the site link at the top of this page to go to the Software developer's site & download the 30 day trial version of THIS SOFTWARE - IT IS STILL THE FULL VERSION !!!
Now copy the serial No. from the GAOTD Read Me.txt file ( WITH NO SPACES AT START OR END )
& hopefully this should register properly - IT DID FOR ME !!!
By the way I USE FreeRAM XP PRO - I've used it ever since it first came out many years ago - IT DOES WORK BRILLIANTLY - I'm only downloading this software to trial run it - see if it has any advantages over FreeRAM XP PRO
ALSO - MUCH RESPECT to the Developer of this FreshRAM software - regularly monitoring & answering on this forum !!!
They are obviously A GENUINE 'Customers Come First' Outfit -
WE COULD USE A FEW MORE LIKE THIS !!!!!!!!
Cheers FOLKS !!!
- Mike -
( Macs-PC )
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Memory managers are built in to Windows so are generally useless, but I thought I give this one a try.
The program downloaded, installed and registered fine on both XP Pro SP3, and Windows Server 2003 SP2
XP Pro: I tried optimizing the system using each option. Each went thru their processing, but none made any difference to system memory whatsoever.
Windows Server 2K3(which is part of the XP family): tried optimizing with the 3rd highest optimization and it locked up the entire machine requiring a reboot.
Uninstalled!
Thanks for the variety of great things you offer GAOTD... even when they aren't keepers!
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My RAM always stays at the exact same amount each time I run this program. Though another program called "Memory Cleaner" that GiveAway offered recovers memory without a problem.
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works fine for me...some people would complain if they won the lottery!
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Greate program i have installed it on my laptop and desktop works fantastic i will install it on my daugthers desktop as well i think
it is a very good program Thanks.
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It worked great for me. I went from 31% available RAM to 72% on an old laptop. It runs like brand new. I'm happy. Thanks!!
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I've always been looking for ways to free up my RAM resource, so if this giveaway can make that happen, it's worth giving a try.
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memory optimizers, boosters, enhancers etc are not needed. reference;
http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/41095/the-memory-optimization-hoax.html
http://www.bitsum.com/winmemboost.htm
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Guday from New Zealand, FOR BAFFLED NOVICES RUNNING XP:
1 Just because something is free, you don't have to have it, as you may not need it, so relax you are not missing out on anything.
3 Read posts 12, 17, 19, 20, 90, 101, & 102 to learn, but they are very sophisticated; perhaps copy and past them to Word Pad, to make up your own little computer manual.
2 Google Advanced system care, for a wonderful, necessary, free servicing program, that everyone agrees is brilliant. This has a memory optimizer called Smart Ram, that can be switched off, if you find it slows your computer down. The time spent learning it, won't be wasted as its free. Finally, servicing XP solves a lot of maladies.
3 Without knowing what computer the comments are being made on, you cannot decide if they are relevant to you, and that's why you are wondering what to do, before the giveaway time runs out.
4 If you feel that your computer is slow, it really is worth the time and $, to hunt round to find a good tech, perhaps friend, to advise on improving your computer setup. There are just too many variables to advise here. There are no single fixes.
5 Very simplistically. If you run XP, with a 1.7 GH or greater processor, and have 500 MB of DDR400 ram, with a 1500 MB Page File ( Swap File, Virtual Memory ), you will be OK, and you will not need a memory optimizer. With 1 GB of ram, and no Page File, you will be flying.
6 Ram is very cheap if you hunt round, and I feel it is worth the investment, to maximize your computer enjoyment. Also, it does becomes old and slow, so after replacing my 1Gb of DDR400 ram, with some quality Trancend, my 6 year old computer just fly's now.
7 Google Services Tweak to speed up XP, but this needs to be done by an expert.
Regards Bill3
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to # 109 anewbe
To@#102 Giovanni from Italy – What part of Italy are you from? The word is “arrivederci” cheers is a British term. Can you say Busted…lol :)))))
Comment by anewbe — June 11th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Hi!!
I come from Tuscany, no far from PISA where lies the famous leaning tower: have you ever been there??
I never write Italian words here because unfortunately no one knows my language across the border...LOL!
Cheers is a British and not an American term?? Yes I know it...Are you from Britain??
Unfortunately I don't know the American English but just the British one as I used to live 2 years in London, even though London is not the best British city to learn a good English as second language, is it??
Too many foreigners there...LOL!!
Ciao!!
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Help! I downloaded the program twice from GotD, ran the installer (half a dozen separate times) and clicked on the "Activate" button. All I keep getting every time is that the program just *disappears*!!!! It won't run. It just goes away!!! What's going on?
Tried uninstalling, reinstalling, repairing the install, still nothing.
I'm using WinXP Pro, SP3. Any ideas of what's wrong?
Frank D
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There was nothing in the download, other than the read me file, and the activation file.
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I test a lot of software. I used to test a lot of performance-enhancing software (before I learned to tweak the registry, etc). There are only a handful that actually did anything that wasn't actually performance-reducing.
This product falls somewhere in the middle - it works better if you believe it works - but I clocked no speed improvements.
I actually do still run one of these little dudes, and have for well over a year - the only one that actually seemed to make things run a bit more smoothly (FreeMemPro - if only for the CPU/Ram graphs in my taskbar). But for the most part these are pointless - especially if you're running a quad-core and 4+ Gb Ram (and any version of Vista).
Also, I'm sorry but grammar is an indicator of someones level of intelligence and professionalism...and this Reohix.com site has some wicked bad typos.
I'm just sayin'.
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Lots of hot air here, lets deal with facts;
Vista Notebook 2GB Ram.
Fact: Before installation; Ram usage running at 1.15GB
Fact: After installation; Ram usage running at 755MB
Speaks for itself.
Thank you GAOTD and Thank you REOHIX
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#116, Steven Avery, instead of claiming that some bozos on Wilders know what they're talking about and the rest of us don't, you should take a look at your own PC. XP and higher have tools (on Vista, it's the Reliability and Performance Monitor) which will show you what your PC is doing. I never experienced any "RAM-crunch" or RAM-related "lock-ups" on XP, and I never use crapware like any kind of RAM or Registry boosters or optimizers. Serious performance issues are nearly always the result of a fragmented pagefile, that will kill your system's performance faster and more thoroughly than anything else. As I stated, if you have multiple physical drives, multiple pagefiles are also a good idea. Registry size doesn't impact Windows performance. Disk fragmentation and fraction of disk space used do impact performance. The problem with forums, including this one, is that the same comments and responses get made over and over, which is why most people stop participating. Microsoft's recommendations for virtual memory size are a load of crap. I've posted links in the past to many Microsoft articles on virtual memory, as well as from Mark Russinovich (Sysinternals, now with Microsoft since he knew more about Windows than any Microsoft employee) on physical and virtual memory (although even Russinovich got some things wrong, Microsoft supports multiple pagefiles per partition to get around pagefile size limits).
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For Firefox users who keep LOTS of FF windows open (I sometimes have over 80 in FF, 20 in IE, plus at least a dozen other apps open comprising at least 50 windows), look at TooManyTabs (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9429). FF manages open tabs even with static pages, and this add-on allows you to move tabs to a new row that that FF won't have to manage. Gets 5 stars from reviewers. I just installed so I can't comment yet.
Also, as #81 mentions, I was running out of GDI handles before running out of memory (XP SP2, 2g installed). Programs that were open all of a sudden disappeared (Windows dumped them as its limits were exceeded) so I up'd XP's default from 10,000 to 20,000. To change it, edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\GDIProcessHandleQuota.
I also modified HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems\Windows for number of windows open. In the original setting of SharedSection=1024,3072,4096 I changed "3072" to "8192".
These changes allowed me keep more windows open and I haven't run out of "memory" since. NOTE: if you change make multiple change your registry that you may want to undo later, I suggest you keep a file that lists the changes you made, the original settings, and the date.
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