Max # of applications

[Terry]

hi

I am looking for other real world experiences with XP Prof running on a
2.4GHZ Dell with 512MB RAM workstation.

User has like 20 Word Docs open and 20 IE6 browsers open - and has
crashes when opening another (any) app.

How many concurrent Word Docs & IE browsers are reasonable?

Thanks

[Rob Schneider]

Terry wrote:

> hi
>
> I am looking for other real world experiences with XP Prof running on a
> 2.4GHZ Dell with 512MB RAM workstation.
>
> User has like 20 Word Docs open and 20 IE6 browsers open - and has
> crashes when opening another (any) app.
>
> How many concurrent Word Docs & IE browsers are reasonable?
>
> Thanks

At first glance, I'm surprised that XP got confused (and I'm surprised
the user is not confused). Check how much memory in use via Task Manger
Performance tab. Could be that either Word or IE get doesn't like
having so much open and they are the root-cause of failure.

If user likes 20 open pages ... suggest you use try Mozilla
(www.mozilla.org) which has the concept of Tabs and Tab Groups. Much
easier than IE and, frankly, is a better tool for complex web browsing
like this.

[Walter Clayton]

There's no hard fast number. That's more a function of VM and an
artificially constrained pagefile can cause some problems. Personally, I
just launched 25 docs and 25 IE instances along with 10 other apps (OL, OE,
MapPoint, BFP, AIDA32 etc. with active AV scanning and SETI running also) on
my laptop, running HE.
Just repeated the experiment on my desktop, this time loading 37 docs and 35
IE instances along with my normal load and extras above. No problem
launching anything there after either. Both machines have 512M of real, but
the desktop is running Pro.

Take a look at free space on the drive containing the pagefile and make sure
that it has no upper limit.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/default.asp


"Terry" > wrote in message
...
> hi
>
> I am looking for other real world experiences with XP Prof running on a
> 2.4GHZ Dell with 512MB RAM workstation.
>
> User has like 20 Word Docs open and 20 IE6 browsers open - and has
> crashes when opening another (any) app.
>
> How many concurrent Word Docs & IE browsers are reasonable?
>
> Thanks

[Donald Link]

What the heck is the reason for all the browsers open. Probably the biggest
reason for the crashes rather than the document. For the life of me I
wonder who in the real world would open 20 IE browsers. You could try
upgrading to 1024 MB RAM.




"Terry" > wrote in message
...
> hi
>
> I am looking for other real world experiences with XP Prof running on a
> 2.4GHZ Dell with 512MB RAM workstation.
>
> User has like 20 Word Docs open and 20 IE6 browsers open - and has
> crashes when opening another (any) app.
>
> How many concurrent Word Docs & IE browsers are reasonable?
>
> Thanks