Memory stuff ...
Your post shows a snapshot of your system's memory. DOS MEM tells me:
You have 128 meg physical memory.
DOS sees 636k out of a theoretical 640k.
Of this 636k, 84k is being used and 551k is available to your programs.
Your zero values for Upper and Reserved tell me that none of your memory is allocated for this use.
Your system 'sees' 64meg of memory as XMS memory, but also sees 126meg of memory as not being used.
This looks 'usual' for today's systems.
System Monitor, a Windows based utility, sees your memory as it's being managed by Windows. Currently, Windows has taken control of all your 128meg EXCEPT for 12meg, which gets reported as unused.
If you launch an application, Windows will provide that application with the resources it needs. It may take the needed memory from the unused physical memory, or it may re-allocate memory currently being used by Windows for less important matters: Shrinking a cache, for example. In a final effort to meet the memory needs, Windows will use your disk, slowing your system.
It may seem a bit round-about of Windows to grab so much memory only to release it later, but it's probably more efficient to dole out memory from its own stockpile than to 'go-outside' for some every time an application wants a few extra bytes.
Hope this helps, PW. |
