Vista - Physical Memory

My memory usage (shown in task manager) is at a constant 80 to 90 used even
though I have nothing running.(cpu usage minimal)
What is causing the problem or what is using this much memory?
Any suggestions?

How about some details? How much memory do you have and which edition of
Vista are you running? Is it x86 or x64?

"kjrogers" <kjrogers@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CDF98F24-9148-4F1B-9218-27A36B56C059@xxxxxx

"kjrogers" <kjrogers@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CDF98F24-9148-4F1B-9218-27A36B56C059@xxxxxxHow much physical memory do you have installed? Start Task Manager
(Ctl-Alt-Del), click the Processes tab. Memory usage is covered by two
columns Working Set and Memory. You can order processes by the amount of
memory each is using by clinking on the column name. Clicking again will
reverse the order. This will highlight the background apps you are using.
The sidebar in Vista is a large memory hog as is Aero.
pbl

How do you figure that Aero is a memory hog? Unlike XP, the desktop is
rendered by the gpu. It uses the graphics ram and processor.

"pbl" <pblnews@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ek3vLMusIHA.5068@xxxxxx

You're correct Colin, Aero does use VRAM and the CPU. It also uses system RAM, like kjrogers has said. See it for yourself; open the task manager, disable Aero, and watch your memory usage fall.

Hi,

When you buy a car with a 6 cylinder motor, does it run on only 1 when idle?
Or only 4 when at cruising speed?

The point is that you want memory to be in use. By design, Vista will find
use for the physical memory wherever it can. When idle, it does maintainence
tasks like defrag, indexing, and anti-malware scanning. Memory being used
for these low prioirty tasks will be released on an as-needed basis for
programs when the user desires, but otherwise the operating system will keep
it busy.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"kjrogers" <kjrogers@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CDF98F24-9148-4F1B-9218-27A36B56C059@xxxxxx

Even if you disable Aero the desktop is still rendered by the gpu. It just
doesn't do it in 3D. Keep in mind that no matter how you cut it desktop
rendering requires more of the cpu's resources in XP than it does in Vista.

"Brian the King" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:6d8dcd7c40146bd978405ebdcaabda0a@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
Sorry about that!
I'm running Vista Home Basic which is a 32 bit system.
And only have 512MB Ram (which probably answers my first question)
From what I have read I should upgrade to at least 2GB

Vista runs very well in 2GB although I had no major problems running it in
1GB.
The memory you see as used is most likely mostly containing a lot of disk
cache so that part can be used by other processes if needed or it can be
written out to virtual memory if needed.
When Vista boots it loads a lot of processes into memory and does not
release the memory they are using unless required by other
processes/applications.

"kjrogers" <kjrogers@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:19129D9F-2DCF-4BDE-889A-26515A6F7051@xxxxxx

In article <e5AJ$$1sIHA.4476@xxxxxx>, rick@xxxxxx
says...As nicely said somewhere - "Free memory is wasted memory".