I can't get XP to use less than 40 MB RAM...

[spystyle]

Hello from Maine,

I have managed to get XP down to 40 MB of RAM usage, this OS is for an arcade machine and works excellent for it's purpose, but I wonder if I can get it lower.

Any tips?

I have attached my lastsession.ini

Thank you,

Craig

LAST_SESSION_from_MAME_XP_rev_4.INI

[Jam3s]

It would help if you showed what services & processes you had running. Try disabling all but the core services :

Event Log

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

Windows Audio

Make sure you know what you are doing if you decide to do this...

[spystyle]

It would help if you showed what services & processes you had running. Try disabling all but the core services :

Event Log

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

Windows Audio

Make sure you know what you are doing if you decide to do this...

Thanks for the reply. As for services : I removed all services in Nlite. I integrated MinLogon and driverpacks. Here are the services I have running:

Thanks,

Craig

Edited April 28, 2008 by spystyle

[DL.]

How many processes do you have with that config? An image of the processes tab in taskman would be nice to see.

To temporalily get even lower you could kill explorer too.

Wasn't there some project where someone had managed to remove the GUI (replace it with a commandline-interface) to make it extremely slim?

[spystyle]

How many processes do you have with that config? An image of the processes tab in taskman would be nice to see.

To temporalily get even lower you could kill explorer too.

Wasn't there some project where someone had managed to remove the GUI (replace it with a commandline-interface) to make it extremely slim?

Oh yeah, that rings a bell, there are "alternative shells", alternative to explorer that is. But what good is windows without explorer? We may as well all use Linux. Isn't explorer what Windows is all about? I tried one of those shells before, a while back, it didn't knock my sox off.

As for taskman - mine doesn't work. I stripped too much apparently. What are taskman's dependencies ? Can I just drop it into my Nlite windows from my actual windows ?

Thank you,

Craig

[DL.]

If your target is lowest possible memory use then some replacement may be nessecary.

But yeah, I know what you mean.

I'm not quite sure what taskman needs to work, I think some service had to be running.

Did you try opening it with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Esc, since Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't work with Minlogon.

But you could try using Process Explorer instead.

[Octopuss]

What the.... 40MB

I can't get under 120

(but I wanna keep some functionality, too)

[pcalvert]

I don't know if it would help you, but have you tried Emerge Desktop?

Phil

[jmbattle]

The integrated graphics on my laptop eat up a considerable amount of memory, however I seem to recall getting the memory usage for a very barebones Windows XP installation down to aroung 35-40 mb - this was with more or less everything removed.

I used to use the minilogon replacement also, but had problems with new USB devices not being detected when first connected, so reverted back to the original winlogon. This was a few years ago, however, so the issue may have been fixed. In addition, I believe that a small program was included with the minlogon pack that allowed the CTRL+ALT+DEL combination to work.

Cheers,

James

x

[spystyle]

I don't know if it would help you, but have you tried Emerge Desktop?

Phil

Thanks for the tip, though it didn't work. Apparently it requires some component from windows that I already removed in Nlite. I don't think it's a completely standalone program.

If your target is lowest possible memory use then some replacement may be nessecary.

But yeah, I know what you mean.

I'm not quite sure what taskman needs to work, I think some service had to be running.

Did you try opening it with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Esc, since Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't work with Minlogon.

But you could try using Process Explorer instead.

OK, thanks for the tip. Here are the screen shots from Process Explorer.

Edited April 29, 2008 by spystyle

[amigafan]

I used to be able to get XP gold (no service packs) down to about 28MB using XPlite.

[spystyle]

I used to be able to get XP gold (no service packs) down to about 28MB using XPlite.

That's good

I was able to get Win98se down to 15 MB of RAM usage.

But I am more interested in using XP SP3 than older software. The compatibility and stability of the most recent software is the whole point of using XP SP3 rather than DOS, 98, Linux, ect.

For example, I'm bet I could get DOS down to 3 MB RAM usage (with drivers and everything) but it's not "out of the box" compatible with USB ThumbDrives and not compatible with driverpacks. Hardly and software and driver support.

I put an "optimized" 98se computer in my brother-in-laws arcade machine, eventually the OS completely broke (after about a year). I just re-did it with this custom XP SP3, we'll see how long it runs stably. I am confident it will just work and work, no problem.

In my experience, old software on new machines can be tricky.

Cheers,

Craig

[godfromdfo]

It shows you have 12 proccesses running, I can get mine down to 10 (excluding task manager) umm, odd...

[amigafan]

@spystyle

The point I was trying to make was that XPlite may help (up tp SP2 anyway, no news about a SP3 compatible version yet). XPlite has a few options that nLite doesn't, can disable and re-enable SFC whenever you want, and can reinstall a component if you require. I don't get much lower than 40MB myself these days, but I'm using different hardware and software now.

[Happy-Dude]

Heya!!

Nice job doing *litening* your OS !! So, you want to get lower ? Well, seems that you've gone way beyond me in terms of processes (less than 15 !? I could only go to about 30 and keep speed and functionality!!)

Some helpful sites (though you might've already surpassed even them):

http://www.blackviper.com/ --> awesome services configurations (and dig even deeper to check more dependencies)

http://www.techreviewer.com/viewpage.cfm/pi/9 --> general visual+performance setting tweaks (don't use the services configurations, its a bit outdated; use blackviper's)

http://www.theeldergeek.com/ --> check it out for registry tweaks and services configurations

General tips for lowering resource usage:

-don't use and real-time security software (seems that you have that covered anyway), use on-demand

-configure services (many to manual, except be wary of networking issues) and startup

-configure visual settings and folder options (visual you've got covered, folder settings: disable most of the little tibits of information that Windows XP hids by default as put by http://www.techreviewer.com/viewpage.cfm/pi/9 )

-defragmentation of hard drive and registry and cleaning and uninstalling of files (to get performance boost, but may not lower resource usage) --> try third party software (in addition to Windows built-in tools)

-tweak the settings of other programs and stuff, like internet browser and others for speed and performance (generally, firefox has memory leaks and internet explorer memory usage jumps with add-ons)

***- Just for the heck of it, to see the lowest you can possibly achieve, try a good RAM cleaner. I currently use the one in Advanced Windows Care Personal, but that's not completely specialized (its more for quick uses), and clears about 60 (of my like 300-350) general MB usage.

-- try http://www.download.com/Startup-Optimizer/...cdlPid=10529547

http://www.download.com/FreeRAM-XP-Pro/300...cdlPid=10516960

--> from download.com's review and such

-- other's that I've searched for you (TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK, I CANNOT VOUCH FOR THEM OR RECOMMEND THEM), but, for trusts stands, I would stick to the ones on PCWorld and Snapfiles. I've used programs from them before.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/memoptimizer.html

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/foptimizer.html

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,...escription.html

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/FreeRAM_XP/freeramxp.html

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/BySoft_Fr...oftFreeRAM.html

http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/system/fwmemory.html --> general search page for RAM tools

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/freeramxp.html

http://www.download.com/FreeRAM-XP-Pro/300...cdlPid=10516960

--> these looks pretty good, start here

Well, have fun and good luck !! Keep us posted and the results

P.S.- Can you give us a better look at your system (specs, boot time [generalization], etc.)? It would be interesting to see where your system stands .

Edited April 30, 2008 by Happy-Dude