new users confusion

[Buddha1234]

this will seem like a silly question for experienced users,but i was told that as my PC has a 128mb that i would never need to upgrade that.Is that right?If all programms go to the hard drive,what takes up memory?...Excuse my ignorance....

 

[Rockn]

Your memory is a temporary area that your CPU uses to store information before it's processed the more memory the better. Depending on what you are doing with your computer 128MB might be enough and for something else it might not be. At one time PC manufacturers said you would never fill up a 400MB hard drive.....Look how far things have come.

 

[TonyKlein]

There are 3 different things:

- Disk Space (this is what you're talking about when you say all programs go to the hard drive)

This has nothing to do with the following:

- Memory (the amount of RAM, or physical memory that is internal to the computer.)

and

- System Resources: areas of memory that are used by the input manager (USER.EXE) and the graphic display interface manager (GDI.EXE) for keeping track of all of the windows that are open in a session and for drawing objects on the screen.

Each application that is loaded, and each window and child-window that is open, consumes system resources. Typically an application consumes 2-8% of system resources, and each child-window consumes 1-2%. Closing an application should release its allocated system resources, but some software is not as well behaved as it should be and this release may not happen. If the free resources fall below about 10-15%, serious problems may be encountered and Windows should be restarted as soon as possible.

As you install and use more and ,more demanding applications, not to mention operating systems (XP), it's entirely possible you may need more RAM in the forseeable future.

Interesting article: <A HREF="http://www.aumha.org/a/resource.htm">Resources vs. Memory FAQ</A>

 

[Buddha1234]

tony,how do i know if my resources fall below 10-15%?And,as a WinME user,how much RAM would i need to upgrade to XP?

 

[TonyKlein]

Windows will tell you...

But do this:

Go to Start/run, and type Rsrcmtr; Click 'enter'.
The Resource meter icon will appear in your system tray. Doubleclick it, and you'll see your System, User, and GDI resources.

Explanation: System Resources

If you'd like, you can drag C:\WINDOWS\RSRCMTR.EXE to your Startup folder with the RIGHT mouse button, and choose 'create shortcut here'.
Resource Meter will then start up automatically every time Windows starts, so that you'll have it in your system tray for easy reference.

Good luck

 

[Buddha1234]

Thank you very much.I will do that..