Speeding Up your Booting and Minimizing RAM Usage

Runtime

Although the title “runtime” seems like it has to do with basic working under Windows, such as surfing or working on documents, it’s actually most interesting to gamers. Games nowadays are notorious for their overall strain on the computer in terms of all components – including memory. In order to give them some breathing space, you need a way to disable anything you don’t directly need during playing, such as printer control, the keyboard language indicator, or any utilities or desktop toys you use.

Again, as with bootstrapping, care is needed – some programs can be closed off even when they shouldn’t, while others are locked out when they should be removable. Of course, the core files are completely locked and they should remain that way, unless you wish to see your computer hang in limbo until the next reset button.

On a very basic level, using your Task Manager (available through CTRL+SHIFT+ESC) is a good way to both detect and end all but the most persistent processes. Looking up each process in an online search engine will help you get the idea of what program or Windows component it belongs to – if you already know, so much the better, as you’ll be able to end it right away and be certain it won’t be missed until the next restart.

However, occasionally a component will resist ending its task, even though it’s something you definitely do not need, such as your antivirus runtime module (those usually hang around in memory even when switched off), your printer poller, or your soundcard manager, or even your firewall if you intend to play offline. In instances like these, a tool like EndItAll 2 is very handy, because it’ll be able to terminate even some of the more hardcore items.

By using both the Task Manager and EndItAll, it’s possible to get the machine in a very slim shape before launching the game – as little as 250MB of RAM used under Windows XP, and an even smaller 150MB of RAM used under Windows 2000. Obviously, you can crop the memory usage to such a small amount the game will be able to fully expand its lungs – and hopefully will net you a couple of FPS, less stuttering, or at the very least, faster loading times.

Resolution

Speeding up your computer operation is obviously a mixed-complexity task. While it’s relatively easy to follow the basic steps, the more advanced ones are sure to land you into trouble if you deactivate something you shouldn’t. Learn from other people’s experience and their own set-ups. If you aim for speed alone, you’ll probably get overtaken by someone with more money to upgrade their machine, giving them a hardware boost from the very beginning. Aim yourself to have the best compromise of speed and stability. It’s the best way to keep your computer in shape.

 
Written by Boris M