The Computer Oracle

How do I make Windows 7 less aggressive in caching memory?

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Chapters
00:00 How Do I Make Windows 7 Less Aggressive In Caching Memory?
02:23 Accepted Answer Score 10
03:08 Answer 2 Score 4
04:17 Answer 3 Score 0
04:57 Answer 4 Score 0
06:08 Thank you

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Full question
https://superuser.com/questions/173838/h...

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Tags
#windows7 #windows #64bit #memory

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 10


The Standby memory is not a problem, it is considered "free" and will be reallocated on request - it just contains memory recently used by programs, but is now freed. If another program requests more memory than is "Free" the system should allocate from the Standby set seamlessly (since "standby" memory isn't really in use at the moment).

Your excessive Modified memory is your problem, because it cannot be reallocated easily. See here. It's likely to be caused by either a memory leak (which seems to correspond with your first paragraph - what programs are leaking?) or a page-file being too small (is your page file fixed size or deactivated?).




ANSWER 2

Score 4


The SuperFetch pre-emptive caching is not your problem. Windows 7 will use as much spare memory as it can to pre-emptively cache what it thinks you are going to need next. If it gets it right, it saves you a bit of time and your applications appear quicker and more responsive.

If it guesses wrong, and you need some other data, Superfetch will release some of the memory it has, to enable you to load the data you really need. See: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/behind-the-windows-7-memory-usage-scaremongering.ars

If you are getting 'low memory' problems, it isn't going to be because of SuperFetch - as it will relinquish as much memory as necessary if applications demand it. You available memory (550MB) is what is being used by superfetch, so clearly you haven't ran out of memory yet. Even when you do use up all your RAM, your machine will fall back onto virtual memory, though you will want to avoid this because of the performance hit...

So it suggests you are 'low memory' problems are due to problems elsewhere - perhaps one of your leaking apps is consuming (and not relinquishing) other types of resources...

Either way, the solution is more likely to be found by tackling your buggy applications, than by messing about with SuperFetch...




ANSWER 3

Score 0


Since you don't think the issue is being caused by a program with a memory leak, the alternative would be to increase you page file size.

While the page file is not your main memory, it will allow the operating system to swap more data to the hard drive, and hopefully, stop the "out of memory" message. The only other option would be to remove the program associated with the process that has the huge 13GB foot print, though I have no idea what program would need to page that much memory, unless it was some high end PC game or 3D rendering software.




ANSWER 4

Score 0


From my experience Standby memory creep is a real problem. For example, if I run Snagit in rolling-windows mode for a lengthy article there will be portions of the article that were not captured when running on only Standby memory. In any case, I find that my computer runs sluggish on Standby memory.

To solve the problem I use the memory optimizer out of the free Glary Utilities. My computer has 6 GIG of memory. When I first boot up I have about 2 GIG of In-Use memory, 2 GIG of Stand-by, and 2 GIG of what I call Free Free memory according to Windows' Resource Monitor. Within a half a day or so all my Free-Free memory would turn into Standby memory whether I was using the computer or not. Now I have Glary Utilities memory optimizer start up with Windows and can keep my computer running indefinitely having the full 2 GIG of Free-Free memory available.

Every time I sit down for another session I first double click the memory optimizer tray icon and do an optimize; asking for my original 2 GIG of Free-Free memory to be freed up. I can ask for more but that's the maximum it will free up regardless. It takes about 30 seconds for the optimizer to complete which is much less than that required for a re-boot. It has an auto-optimization mode but I haven't been able to figure out how to make it work.