XP Pro Memory Usage in Task Manager

[Doc Q]

I'm a new user of XP professional. I noticed that my
available memory continually declines throughout the day
and the cuplrit appears to be "explorer.exe". This app
appears to run in the background and every time I
open "windows explorer" then close it, the "Memory Usage"
grows.. by the end of the day, the Memory Usage amount is
4 times what is was at bootup. Any idea as to why it
doesn't release memory?

[Ron Martell]

"Doc Q" > wrote:

>I'm a new user of XP professional. I noticed that my
>available memory continually declines throughout the day
>and the cuplrit appears to be "explorer.exe". This app
>appears to run in the background and every time I
>open "windows explorer" then close it, the "Memory Usage"
>grows.. by the end of the day, the Memory Usage amount is
>4 times what is was at bootup. Any idea as to why it
>doesn't release memory?

"available memory" should more accurately be referred to as "useless
memory" because that is what it actually represents - memory for which
Windows has so far been totally unable to find any potentially
beneficial use for.

Windows will always attempt to find some use, anything that might
conceivably be of some benefit, for every bit of the installed RAM
rather than just leaving the RAM sitting there idly going to rot.

And just as soon as some better use comes along for some of that RAM
Windows will instantaneously drop the more trivial usages so as to
free up whatever is now required.

Hope this clarifies the situation.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

[Doc]

Thanks for the reply.. one question: why does
the "explorer.exe" app even show as running process? Even
after booting up it shows up.. shouldn't this only launch
when I execute Windows Explorer?


>-----Original Message-----
>"Doc Q" > wrote:
>
>>I'm a new user of XP professional. I noticed that my
>>available memory continually declines throughout the day
>>and the cuplrit appears to be "explorer.exe". This app
>>appears to run in the background and every time I
>>open "windows explorer" then close it, the "Memory
Usage"
>>grows.. by the end of the day, the Memory Usage amount
is
>>4 times what is was at bootup. Any idea as to why it
>>doesn't release memory?
>
>"available memory" should more accurately be referred to
as "useless
>memory" because that is what it actually represents -
memory for which
>Windows has so far been totally unable to find any
potentially
>beneficial use for.
>
>Windows will always attempt to find some use, anything
that might
>conceivably be of some benefit, for every bit of the
installed RAM
>rather than just leaving the RAM sitting there idly going
to rot.
>
>And just as soon as some better use comes along for some
of that RAM
>Windows will instantaneously drop the more trivial usages
so as to
>free up whatever is now required.
>
>Hope this clarifies the situation.
>
>Good luck
>
>
>Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
>--
>Microsoft MVP
>On-Line Help Computer Service
>http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
>
>"The reason computer chips are so small is computers
don't eat much."
>.
>

[Ron Martell]

"Doc" > wrote:

>Thanks for the reply.. one question: why does
>the "explorer.exe" app even show as running process? Even
>after booting up it shows up.. shouldn't this only launch
>when I execute Windows Explorer?
>

Windows Explorer is what displays your desktop and the icons.

It is the Graphic User Interface Shell for Windows.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."