Tech/PC question

[aam1234]

This might sound like a silly question for some people, but I don't know the answer to it. If you load a memory intensive program, say PS, then close it...will all the memory it took be freed, or would the available memory be reduced even after it has been closed.

Thanks

[Kinger]

There is always a slight loss of available memory after closing a program. Even if Windows tells you that the memory is still there, it isn't. I am one of those people that never turn off their main desktop, but what I do do is restart it once a day from the start menu ( I also turn off the monitors when I am not home). Rebooting will free up that memory loss.

[Pekka]

Try a RAM defrag program: http://www.handyarchive.com/free/defrag/

[JX]

aam1234

Kinger is right. The explanation as to why this happens would be to detailed to post. Using restart after using a memory intensive program is wise.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Even with a GB of ram available.. after intensive use of PS I often need to reboot to get PS back up to speed. In fact last night.. memory was so short of hand that all my cursors turned off in PS :lol:

[KO_300D]

I'm guessing you're using Windows.... and it does tend to hold on to just a little bit of memory after closing an app *just in case* you might want to open it again in an hour or two's time, so that it can load it .85 of a second faster for you :lol: :lol:

[aam1234]

Is there a way to clear the memory short of rebooting (yes KO_300D, it's a win XP :D )

[ChrisN]

aam1234, you can do a heap dump.
Simply open up a new file in notepad, input the line Mystring = Space(16000000), and save the file with the .vbs extension. Double click it to execute it.

What is actually occurring when one 'defragments' the system memory is a dumping of main memory to the page file, forcing the computer to reload all of the active information into memory. In computing terms, this is called Heap Compaction, or Garbage Collection. You can use a small, Visual Basic program to perform this action.
Assuming you have the Visual Basic runtime libraries installed on your computer (they're installed by default by Win2k and XP), when you execute this file it will flush the system memory.
This is particularly useful after running a program with a known memory leak - it can be used to discard the leaked space and allow other programs to use that portion of memory again. If you have a large amount of system memory, you may wish to consider using a higher number within the brackets of the visual basic script - I have tested values up to 80000000 without any problems on my system. Using a higher number should more effectively purge the system memory of leaked space.

Good Luck with it. It is non-intrusive to the system but will take up a considerable amount of CPU time while it is processing, but afterward you will have more memory to play with.