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Rambooster. Junk?

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siouxdax:
Hello all:
I've noticed recently that my laptop (and my desktop) will often slow down and not release RAM after closing RAM-hogging programs. Firefox will hog a lot of RAM if it's been open all day, but when I close it, it doesn't give back the RAM it was hogging. So I was reminded of an app that I used a few years ago, RAMbooster.net, that freed up RAM.

So I was told by a tech-savvy friend that programs such as this are junk and don't do what they claim to. Is this true? The only method I have been using is restarting my laptop/desktop, which is a method that I don't revel in at all. So I'd like your opinion about this. I still have the license key for RAMbooster.net, so I could reinstall. Good idea? Bad idea? Again, your opinion is greatly appreciated.

f0dder:
When you close firefox you will get back the hogged-up RAM, but sometimes it can take a while for FF to shut down cleanly. On my (pretty beefy) workstation, it can take some 20-30 seconds after a day of using FF, and I'll have a single core maxxed out while memory is being cleaned up.

And yes, programs like that are generally junk - they don't do anything Windows doesn't do by itself automatically on a as-needed basis, and most of the programs use very dirty methods that are pretty counter-productive.

Steven Avery:
Hi Folks,

Thanks f0dder for the Firefox closing tip.  It would seem that proper closing should close all fine (I think even killing harshly in Task Manager .. DTaskManager here .. should do so - experts ?) and a reboot becomes not necessary. 

And I will add that if you have a good bookmark system (e.g. Linkman) you are more likely to bite the bullet and not reopen the "saved session" windows.  And note that the Session Manager extension with 3.0 now gives you the ability to see the individual windows and tabs if you want to remember that way.  We tend to think what we have open is so important .. usually just start clean is best.

======

Now for the memory programs and tweaks ins and outs, the good, the bad and the optimized.

siouxdax, I am no expert on PC memory usage (nor how to keep Firefox from taking and hogging) however I read up on this lately.  Generally these programs cannot do much for XP memory management, yet CleanMem made a case for his methodology that is reasonably interesting (below).  And other programs give their own little special reasons.

Oh .. first ..  can you purchase more memory ?  You do not mention your current size. (I am just in the process of upgrading from 1gb and made sure a work puter was upgraded).. likely it is good to have 2 Gigs .. or more up to 4Gb (to get about 3.5 usable for programs) .. on an XP system.  If you only have 512 or even 1 Gb, that would be the first big improvement, far more important than the time and effort of tweak-city.  Second might be to check whether there are any pagefile tweaks, although on that the techies will comment.  Note that Outertech (Linkman) has a Cacheman XP tweaking program, Linkman shows they are very good programmers, note that while they are very responsive they do not have a web-forum.

Also you can search and ask in the mozillaZine forums (and other places) about memory usage in Firefox. e.g. The Raymond page below mentions a  config.trim_on_minimize setting.  There is probably a lot on mozillaZine.

Then we go to the controversial RAM programs.  There is a freeware program originally developed for Firefox.

Minimem
http://minimem.kerkia.net/

Raymond mentions this
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/08/06/automatically-lower-optimize-or-reduce-the-memory-usage-for-any-running-program-at-interval/

(Note: bypass the google ad plague, imho google ad sites that are behind good software should block the ads to scamware and can do so with a little time and effort with google and checking. I have been trying to help mozillaZine and Noscript clean up their sites in this way.)

And freewaregenius

http://www.freewaregenius.com/2008/08/07/minimem-reduce-the-memory-footprint-of-individual-programs-on-demand/
Minimem: reduce the memory footprint of individual programs on demand
(more google scamware-ad plague)

Interesting, although not compelling.

Now, note that Gizmo is reasonably pro for a few programs and mentions Rambooster 2. That is different than your Rambooster.net.  CNet reviews say that Rambooster.net is a Chinese ripoff of Rambooster 2 that doesn't work.  And the web site inspires no confidence, looking like the cookie-cutter spamware sites.  Similarly Fileforum and CNet have a 2003-2004 date, indication it is abandonware, sell-anyway-ware (even the source code for the gullible newbie programmer).

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-memory-optimizer.htm
Best Free Memory Optimizer -
An easy-read article and notes at bottom, CleanMem begin the "Best".

Similarly Freeware Genius, who actually liked another called SweepRam.

On the other hand, Lifehacker, quoting Mark Russinovich, says ferget about all this.

http://lifehacker.com/5033518/debunking-common-windows-performance-tweaking-myths
LifeHacker: Debunking Common Windows Performance Tweaking Myths
Clean, Defrag and Boost Your RAM With SnakeOil Memory Optimizer

DonationCoder posters tend to be similarly aghast.

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=14332
LifeHacker: Debunking Common Windows Performance Tweaking Myths

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=14487.0
CleanMem - apparently a memory optimizer with a difference...

For balance, Shane from CleanMem gives his explanation/response here:

http://www.pcwintech.com/node/145
CleanMem v.1.3.0

And watch this discussion

http://groups.google.nu/group/alt.comp.freeware/browse_thread/thread/2eccb0ffc206d89d/56b9768faf4ec63f?lnk=raot
alt.comp.freeware - CleanMem Memory Cleaner   

Here I emphasize CleanMem because the developer, Shane, seems to be more ready to mix-it-up in explanation and discussion.  

In summary.

1) Close the program in the most precise way occasionally and reopen clean.
2) More memory on the system if possible.
3) Firefox tweaks
4) Pagefile or other tweaks. Consider the Outertech shareware trial for simplicity.
5) CleanMem or Minimem or other .. and report back to us :)

While I would like to hear if #5 really helped, probably if you do some of the earlier numbers it is not necessary.

Incidentally, for my rebooting I like Karenware's ShowStopper, rarely does it have a problem getting closed and to a restart and I simply keep an icon on the Start tab which I call Karenware Force Reboot (her program makes it trivial to set up such an icon, now I simply want to add a cordial Eudora close first, in case downloading is in process).

Shalom,
Steven Avery

PS.
To be bypassed.
Firefox Ultimate Optimizer
http://www.ghacks.net/2008/01/12/firefox-ultimate-optimizer/

siouxdax:
Wow. I've got a lot of reading material to go through.  :) You asked about RAM: I have 1GB on both machines. Unfortunately, I can't afford to upgrade right now; maybe later in the year.

f0dder: Yes, I do let Firefox shut down cleanly; I've watched it several times in Process Explorer. I'm guessing that after I see the process close I move on and don't check back to see if it freed up that RAM.

Steven: I'll have my more tech-savvy friend tweak my pagefile and/or Firefox, then work from there. I'm no PC moron, I just don't know much about tweaking stuff other than using TweakUI. Also, Steven, thank you for including such a well of information on the topic; it is much appreciated.

I'll try to remember to report back here with some results, in hopes of making this thread useful to others. :) Thanks again!

f0dder:
Well, once FireFox terminates (and that means all firefox processes - if you use "minimize to tray" or the likes you need to get rid of that too), memory is freed. After a day of browsing, this usually means around 800MB or more on my system. Keep in mind that FireFox isn't the only memory-hungry/leaking application out there, though. Also keep in mind that "System Cache" reported in Process Explorer can basically be though of as free memory - if there isn't enough free memory to satisfy a memory request, cache will be dropped before paging things out to disk.

None of the memory "optimizers" can work magic, none of them will do anything windows won't do by itself. Windows should actually be targeting the least-recently-used applications when it decides it needs to trim working sets, whereas the memory "optimizers" are generally pretty dumb and trim everything (and the majority don't trim processes, they try to allocate as much memory as they can, thereby being much more likely to cause pagefile activity).

The ability to trim individual processes might sound appealing, but in reality you're better off restarting an application than trimming it - that will get rid of leaked memory, reduce memory fragmentation, etc.

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