Slow computer?

[WebJoel]

If your computer sometimes 'bogs down' and you need or want to 'clear the memory' to free-up some resources without having to shut-down and re-start, do this:

Right-click anywhere on the open desktop and chose "create new shortcut".

In the box that pops-up asking for the URL, enter this text (copy-&-paste this) :

%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

then, click "Next".

Give this shortcut an awesome name, like "More Memory" or whatever. Click "Finish", and you're done.

Whenever your computer starts to bog-down and you need to release more RAM, double-click this "More Memory" button and the unnecessary background processes will be released, leaving you with 'fresher' memory. Many programs that hog memory often do not properly 'release' it even when they have ceased to need it.

You can right-click the icon and choose "Properties - Change Icon" and browse for a better looking icon (instead of the generic 'sheet of paper' one that will be used by default). There will probably be several icons available in the same directory that comes up by default. I found several dozen nice ones.

Enjoy!

-Joel

[LiLcRaZyFuZzY]

Thanks Joel, neat trick

Just tried it, and ...it didn't work, but it might be due to the fact that i have quite a lot of applications running

[WebJoel]

It will only release the unnecessary things. Some graphics programs for instance, will 'retain' a memory of what you've done in case you wanted or intended to 'paste this into another program', even if you're shutting down said graphics program. A example: PaintPro. When shutting this down, it asks if you wish to keep the work you have down on clipboard for pasting into another program: YES or NO. Select YES, and you have a few MB of RAM tied-up with graphic images and such that will not be released until you either shut-down & re-boot the computer, or, re-start PaintPro and shut-down with the answer NO, to 'not save the cache to clipboard'. If having switched to another RAM-hog program, shutting-down & re-booting might not be a good option (you'll lose your current work-in-progress), and re-loading PaintPro will only exacerbate the low-RAM problem, some small benefit might be realised with 'clearing the Idle processes'.

I have this 'shortcut' on my desktop, and there are usually no more than one or two programs that are actually 'cleared'. I might only gain half or 3/4 MB of RAM otherwise unavailable. But I do have admittedly a very 'strict' policy on RAM allocation in place. Most of my programs clear cache/memDump on-shutdown.