How do I Get Rid of High Computer/Virtual Memory Usage?

Question

Firefox is using up a big portion of my memory and virtual memory, almost 200,000K (Memory and Virtual Memory)

I do have other programs open, like Photoshop and other firefox windows, sometimes I have more than one IE open, those use up a lot of memory by themselves also. So how do I fix this high memory usage?

The task manager shows other programs using up 1,000+ memory
svchost.exe 2,000+/9,000+
winserve.exe 2,000+/1,000+
explorer.exe 5,000+/6,000+
winlongon.exe 1,000+/5,000+
etc.

Even as I type, it goes up to 100%
What is the best way to deal with this?

Answer 1

Virtual memory is simulated RAM. When you have use up all your RAM, your computer will shift data to an empty space on the hard drive. Computer swaps data to the hard disk and back to your RAM as needed. When you increase your virtual memory you are increasing the empty space that is reserved for your RAM overflow.



You can easily increase virtual memory by following the steps below.



1.Click Start, and then click Control Panel.



2.Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.



3.On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.



4.On the Advanced tab, under Virtual memory, click Change.



5.Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.



6.Under Paging file size for selected drive, click to Custom size check box. You can enter the amount of memory you would like to reserve for Virtual memory by entering the initial and maximum size.



7.Click Set

When you are prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.

Special Note: You should choose the same amount for the initial size and maximum size. This will Stop your CPU from constantly changing the paging file.

Answer 2

your biggest hogs are photoshop and ie.... i would install more RAM... the reason firefox would take up so much RAM would be cause you have multiple tabs open... modern versions of windows are notoriously inefficient and memory-hungry, especially vista, which requires a minimum of 2Gb RAM to run smoothly with apps open, and XP needs a minimum of 1Gb to do the same, though the minimum requirements staste that they need 512 and 128 Mb, respectively.... the best thing to do would be to upgrade your RAM to the maximum supported by the motherboard (though Microsoft's x86-32 (32 bit) OSs will only see a maximum of 3Gb...



though if you have a virus, especially one hidden as a rootkit (i.e wormed its way into the boot sector and is not easily detectable) it would hog ram like nobody's business...email me with any questions!

Answer 3

Those numbers are all perfectly normal for those processes. I am not sure how typing makes your memory usage go up. For that matter, the task manager doesn't relate memory usage in %, so I am not sure where you got that number.



I think you need to install more RAM.

Answer 4

Install the maximum RAM supported by your motherboard / operating system.