86% of Windows PC’s Maxing Out on Memory

Citing data from Devil Mountain Software’s community-based XPnet, Craig Barth, the company’s chief technology officer, said that new metrics reveal an unsettling trend. On average, 86% of PC’s running Windows 7 are using 90-95% of their ram, as a  result there is bottlenecks and decreased performance as systems are forced to turn to disk-based virtual memory to handle tasks.

While Vista was known for using a lot of RAM while it was idle, Windows 7 hasn’t been plagued with the same issues. However according to the pool of  XPnet computers, the number of  Windows 7 PCs using 90-95% of RAM is double that of the number of XP computers that run at memory “saturation” point. XPnet have more than 23,000 PCs in their pool and a recent snapshot shows that only a mere 40% of XP machines were using high amounts of RAM.

The vast majority of Windows 7 machines over the last several months are very heavily-memory saturated,” “From a performance standpoint, that has an immediate impact on the machine.”

said Barth today. What is also more worrying is that Windows 7 PCs generally have more RAM than XP Machines. The average Windows 7 Machine sports 3.3GB while Windows XP machines have approx 1.7GB on average.

“Windows 7 machines have almost twice as much memory to work with, but the numbers show just how much larger and more complex Windows 7 is than XP.”

However, there is another side to this data collected by XPnet.

Barth acknowledged that XPnet’s data couldn’t determine whether the memory usage was by the operating system itself, or an increased number ofapplications, but said that Devil Mountain would start working on finding which is the dominant factor in increased memory use.

It may just be that the Windows 7 machines running at the time were using more RAM because of the number of applications they were running etc…. Also if your machine has 1GB or 20GB of ram, I think you will find that there is a good chunk of it being used. No it’s not because the Operating System is a resource hog, it’s just being sensible.

You see RAM is “Random Access Memory” which means it’s used for “Random” tasks. Your computer doesn’t know that you are about to open up your browser or that you want to open up a photo editing program. So instead it stores information in the RAM which can be quickly accessed once you call for that program. Allowing your PC to load up a application quicker than it would straight from a hard drive.

So basically just because your system happens to be using a lot of RAM doesn’t mean it your PC is a resource hog, it’s just being sensible, any unused RAM is just going to waste. It’s when your RAM is maxed out that you get system bottlenecks and crashes, which has never happened to me to date on my laptop. I’m running Windows 7 64 bit with 4GB ram, and I do plenty of multitasking. Right now I have a browser with 10 tabs open, iTunes, Messanger, Microsoft Word and a Photo Editing program and my RAM is just at 50%.

I rarely notice any slowdown with my system since upgrading to Windows 7, and I when my system is idle I generally use about 35% of my RAM. Only on rare occasions like when playing Call Of Duty do I see it spike up to about 75-80%.

So to wrap it up, I wouldn’t be worried in the slightest if your PC is using anything up to 70% of your RAM, Windows will automatically reallocate RAM to where it’s need as you approach 100% and it’s only on systems with very low amounts of RAM that you will get system crashesand freezing if it fails to do this.

I would take this data from XPnet with a pinch of salt, unless I hear different from you guys. What is your current RAM usage at and how much available memory do you have installed? What is it at Idle and do you ever max it out?

Let us know in the comments

Dell Reviles “Future Proof” Desktop

We all know that the future is great, and that technology is advancing exponentially. The issue is that a product you buy now will most likely be outdated a year from now. Dell has decided that they are not going to be bullied around by constantly advancing technology, and has developed a “future proof” Vostro 430 desktop PC. This innocent looking box is fully configurable with the most advanced tech out there which includes, your choice of Core i5 or Core i7 processors and ATI or NVIDIA discrete graphics, along with up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, an optional Blu-ray drive, a 19-in-1 memory card reader, a couple of PS/2 and serial ports to support your older devices and, of course, plenty of room for further expansion (including no less than 10 USB ports). Surprisingly this powerful box starts at $699. You can get the high end options for under $1,000, Lets just hope all that tech does not end up like the rest of them; Outdated!

First Photo of Microsoft Store Construction

The first photo of a Microsoft Retail Store under construction basically confirms the the leaked store planes. These photos come to us from Microsoft’s official twitter account. The first stores will open in Arizona and Mission Viejo, California this fall.

Apple Demands Microsoft Stops Laptop Hunter Ads

Microsoft's Chief Operating Office, Kevin Turner told audience members during his Worldwide Partner Conference keynote told his employees about how Apple's lawyers wanted Microsoft to take down their Laptop Hunter ads. Here's the story he told.

And so we've been running these PC value ads. Just giving people saying, hey, what are you looking to spend? "Oh, I'm looking to spend less than $1,000." Well we'll give you $1,000. Go in and look and see what you can buy. And they come out and they just show them. Those are completely unscripted commercials.

And you know why I know they're working? Because two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, hey -- this is a true story -- saying, "Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices." They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business. (Applause.)

I did cartwheels down the hallway. At first I said, "Is this a joke? Who are you?" Not understanding what an opportunity. And so we're just going to keep running them and running them and running them.

The whole keynote is available on Microsoft Presspass.

The most recent Laptop features Matt and Olivia, who were looking for a $700 laptop that they can use to share photos. It needs to have a large screen and great battery life, and of course they find their dream machine:

Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 Upgrade Rules

As October 22 quickly approaches, Microsoft is releasing starting to release more details about Windows 7. The latest tidbit about Windows 7 is about upgrades. A company spokesman confirmed that users of the Windows 7 Release Candidate will not have to "reinstall an older version of Windows before using a Windows 7 upgrade disk.” Unfortunately, people who choose to do this will  have all of their files put into the folder “windows.old” when they upgrade. Interestingly, if you need to do a clean install of Windows 7 using your upgrade disk, you'll need to install and activate Windows Vista.

Critical Security Hole Found in Windows XP and Server 2003

Microsoft is warning users of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 of a security hole in Internet Explorer that allows hackers to remotely install malicious software on computers.

The hole, which is caused by Internet Explorer and ActiveX, has been used for about a week to install viruses on users who click certain links in spam emails. Microsoft’s solution is available here is used to disable the video software. Microsoft is working hard to fix the problem.

Microsoft Makes Windows 7 Packaging Easier to Open

Microsoft has attempted to make everything in Windows 7 easier to use, including the packaging.

One of Windows Vista’s biggest criticisms was its insanely hard to open packaging. In an effort to prevent theft and piracy, Microsoft created boxes that required their own set of instructions to open.

In a blog post Microsoft said Windows 7’s packaging would be similar to Vista’s packaging, except that it would open like a standard DVD case.

 

The case will be recyclable and will contain only the Windows 7 DVD and starting guide. Microsoft said that overall it reduced the packaging weight by 37 percent.

Windows is scheduled to be launched on October 22 although pre-sales of the product as well as a free upgrade program for new PC buyers have started.

Official Windows 7 Video Tours Released

Microsoft has published video tours of Windows 7 which provides a great view of the new features in Windows 7. There are four videos in total which are embedded below.

So far I am very impressed with the PR campaign for Windows 7. Microsoft has not yet spent a huge amount of money on Windows 7, and have instead let Windows 7 sell itself. The Windows 7 Pre-Orders have been a huge success, making it Amazon’s most sold item on Monday.

Windows 7 Build 7264 Leaked – But It’s not the RTM

Build 7264 has been leaked earlier today, and is available on several 2P2 networks. Both 64 and 32 Bit versions are available. You should know that this is not the RTM. The build string tells us that this build was compiled on June 22. There have already been confirmations that build 7265 has been created two days later. We do not yet know if build 7265 is the RTM.

Here are the information about both versions of build 7264:

File Name: 7264.0.090622-1900_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD
Size: 2,444,688 KB
CRC: 0B916606
MD5: 44F04E9E5762714C3D75A3C9C88DE251
SHA1: 59BA011913B00A820A1E002B9BEDEF139AE15B07

64-bit Windows 7 Build 7264 (x64) ISO File Details

File Name: 7264.0.090622-1900_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD
Size: 3,150,518 KB
CRC: 05F87B79
MD5: 670818DB149170C652414E1F75E9390C
SHA1: C6FE386E97944511820291F515A8CBB3DDA329A6

Is Windows Installing Updates Without Your Permission?

Several reports say that Windows XP and Windows Vista are installing updates, at system shutdown, when the user configured the computer to ask to install updates first.

This Windows Secrets article explains it all. The problem comes up when Windows is configured to use Automatic Updates either to (Vista terminology here) "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" or "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them".

Now every tech know-it-all you talk to will tell you that you should have automatic updates set to “Install updates automatically”. There have been times when Automatic Updates shut down internet access to Zone Alarm users, but that is rear and the risks outweigh the benefits. People in the aggregate are better off installing updates automatically.

Scott Spanbauer in Windows Secrets explains what might have happened. The June 9th update was a rather large update. which addressed 10 updates and 31 vulnerabilities. Microsoft Knowledge Base explains how some problems can occur when a traffic is heavy on the update server. 

Spanbauer puts forward one possible avenue for users who really want to avoid this problem:

If you consider it important to research patches before they're installed, one possible workaround involves selecting AU's option 2 or 3. Then, run Microsoft Update (a superset of Windows Update, both of which require IE) and specify every patch to be installed or not installed -- every time you plan to shut down or reboot. Running Microsoft's updater should eliminate any queued downloads that might install unexpectedly.

This doesn't seem quite right to me in a few ways. First, neither Windows nor Microsoft Update on Vista use IE, but they do on XP. Second, I have at least one system where running Microsoft Update does not eliminate queued downloads, and in fact Microsoft Update fails in that case; I have to let Automatic Updates proceed. Third, this sounds like a major pain.

Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade Package is a HUGE Waist of Trees

Most companies sell software in ridiculously large boxes now of days, but now Microsoft is selling Windows 7 anytime upgrade in a huge box. The only thing that is in the box is a piece of paper with a product key in it.

If you are not familiar with anytime upgrade, it allows users to upgrade to a more powerful version of Windows by just typing in a product key. The key is just random numbers and letters, on a piece of paper.

Microsoft is not the only company who does this. Apple’s Mobile Me also comes in a huge box, which is just filled with air. Shame on them.

The Blue Screen of Death Over the Years

The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is an error message that appears when Windows experiences a fatal error. The error message can show up at any time, but it is still quite rear. I’ve compiled the BSOD of all the versions of the Windows, and they are shown below.

Windows XP, Vista and 7

The Windows XP Vista and 7 BSOD

Vista’s Unique Blue Screen of Death

A unique Blue Screen of Death with only one line of error code as seen in Windows Vista, which is an ACPI-related error.

Windows NT

In Windows NT-based operating systems, the blue screen of death (displayed in 80x50 text mode as opposed to 9x/Me's 80x25) occurs when the kernel or a driver running in kernel mode encounters an error from which it cannot recover. This is usually caused by an illegal operation being performed. The only safe action the operating system can take in this situation is to restart the computer. As a result, data may be lost, as users are not given an opportunity to save data that has not yet been saved to the hard drive.

The text on the error screen contains the code of the error along with four error-dependent values in parentheses that are there to help software engineers fix the problem that occurred. Depending on the error code, it may display the address where the problem occurred, along with the driver which is loaded at that address. Under Windows NT and 2000, the second and third sections of the screen may contain information on all loaded drivers and a stack dump, respectively. The driver information is in three columns; the first lists the base address of the driver, the second lists the driver's creation date (as a Unix timestamp), and the third lists the name of the driver.^[1]

 

Windows 2000

BSOD from Windows 2000. The red portion highlights the error that crashed the computer.

Windows 98/95/ME

Perhaps the most famous instance of a Windows 9x BSoD occurred during a presentation of a Windows 98 beta by Bill Gates at COMDEX on April 20, 1998. The demo PC crashed with a BSoD when his assistant (Chris Capossela, who is still working for Microsoft as Corporate VP in the Information Working business unit) connected a scanner to the PC, trying to demonstrate Windows 98's support for Plug and Play devices. This event brought thunderous applause from the crowd and Gates replied after a nervous pause: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet."^[3]

 

Windows CE

The simplest version of the blue screen occurs in Windows CE except the versions for Pocket PC, which appears similar to the ones found in Windows 9x/Me.

 

Windows 1.0

The very first Blue Screen of Death happens in Windows 1.0 if a computer fails to boot up properly, it will show random letters and symbols ^[4] If Windows 1.0 encounters any (MS-DOS related) critical system errors, it will instead show a Black Screen of Death.

Windows 2.0's BSOD is the very same thing.

Microsoft May Sell Windows 7 on Flash Drives for Netbooks

Sources have told CNET, Microsoft is planning to consider selling Windows 7 on flash drives, which would save netbook users lots of headaches. Windows 7 was designed to be a netbook friendly operating system. There are no further details at this time.

Windows 7 is Microsoft's Most Affordable Version of Windows Yet

Windows 7 is Microsoft's least expensive version of Windows yet and is a bargain compared to Windows Vista.

When comparing prices to previous versions of Windows most editions cost approximately $200, with exception to the Vista price spike. When you adjust for inflation you can see that pricing has become a downward cascade (with the exception of Windows Vista Home Premium).

The Pro versions of Windows have also has a decrease in price.

Windows 7 Final Build Completion Rescheduled.

Winfuture.de says that the completion of the final Windows 7 Build has been rescheduled.

Although the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) branch of development is said to have been ready on June 12, it was not possible to create the final version of Windows 7 - actually planned for June 19 - because of bugs. What kind of problem affected the development is unknown.

Furthermore the report says that Microsoft wants to decide on June 29, 2009, which Windows 7 Build will be declared to be the final version of the new operating system.

Windows 7 Running on a Pentium II Based PC

The moment I herd that Microsoft was designing Windows 7 to run on netbooks I was wondering what hardware it would run on.

A Windows Club Forum member that goes by the name of “hackerman1” has impressively installed Windows 7 on an ancient PC.  He installed it on a system packing a 266MHz Pentium II, 128MB of RAM and a 4MB graphics card. After succeeding, he decreased the RAM capacity to 96MB, which also handled 7. His experiment came to a temporary halt after dropping the RAM to 64MB. Hackerman’s fun won’t end there, though. He plans to try and get Windows 7 up and running on a 166MHz Pentium I and 1MB graphics card next.

Hackerman1 did not say how long it takes Windows 7 to boot or how long the install took. Other forum members said that on an ancient PC it took 17 hours to install, and 17 minutes to boot.

Ballmer Says Search is Microsoft’s Biggest Mistake

When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was asked if he could just have one do-over Ballmer said, "I would probably say I would start sooner on search."

For a few years now Ballmer has been talking about search and has said that Microsoft needs to put more effort into it. The Yahoo deal last year did not work out so now they are trying Bing.

More Morro Screenshots Leaked

A Windows enthusiast blog on Tuesday posted what it says are leaked screenshots of Microsoft's upcoming free security software, code-named "Morro," which is due for public beta release soon. Today another set of screenshots were leaked.

In November, Microsoft announced that they would no longer be selling or supporting it’s failed anti-virus software, Windows Live OneCare.

Microsoft says that Morro will be available in the second half of 2009. OneCare will be continued to be sold until June 30 2009.

Morro will be compatible with Windows XP, Vista and the upcoming Windows 7.

When OneCare launched 3 years ago it managed to make a dent in the security industry due to lower than normal prices.

Morro Screenshots Leaked; Will it be Cloud Based?

A Windows enthusiast blog on Tuesday posted what it says are leaked screenshots of Microsoft's upcoming free security software, code-named "Morro," which is due for public beta release soon.

Neowin.net has three screenshots apparently obtained by a secret source. Morro is said to be tested internally by Microsoft

ZDnet is reporting that Morro will be cloud based.

"Instead of scanning every file or network packet as they arrive into the computer from the Web or an external device, it creates a virtual tunnel between your incoming Internet pipe at the back of your computer to a Morro data center, which scans every byte and packet for malware," writes ZDnets’s Zack Whittaker

In November, Microsoft announced that they would no longer be selling or supporting it’s failed anti-virus software, Windows Live OneCare.

Microsoft says that Morro will be available in the second half of 2009. OneCare will be continued to be sold until June 30 2009.

Morro will be compatible with Windows XP, Vista and the upcoming Windows 7.

When OneCare launched 3 years ago it managed to make a dent in the security industry due to lower than normal prices.

"With a number of free products already available, McAfee has experienced more than three years of global growth. On a level playing field, we are confident in our ability to compete with anyone who might enter the marketplace."McAfee said.

 

"Microsoft isn't going to change the business dynamic. Freeware is really about customer acquisition," Dave Cole, Symantec's senior director product management. "Norton offers trialware as a means to secure customers and even freeware vendors such as AVG, Avira, and Avast recommend upgrading to their payware solution for more complete protection. The reality is that shareware and freeware vendors have been in the market for 20-plus years. The freeware space is crowded and Microsoft is just joining the fray." Symantec said

 

 

And this from Justin Priestley, senior vice president of consumer sales at Kaspersky Lab Americas: "Right now, Kaspersky Lab offers free access to our antivirus detection technology through our Web site, allowing consumers to scan their systems or suspicious files...and for the foreseeable future, that will be the extent of our no-charge offerings."

Here are the leaked screenshots obtained by neowin from an anonymous tipster. Morro is currently in testing and is subject to UI changes.

Windows 7 Build 7232 Screenshots

It has been quite a while since I last posted screenshots of Windows 7, because there has been a lack of changes in the builds. This build does not appear to have any major changes, except the new default wallpaper. I expect the final Windows 7 build will be completed a few days from now and will be tested for a few weeks. This is most likely one of the very last builds. Windows 7 is close to completion, so get ready!