On 14 Apr 2002, at 19:01, Sue & Duncan wrote:

> Yes I did mean system resources. Thanks so much for the links.
> Sure is a lot of reading but I learned allot!
>
> Thanks
> Sue
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Hugh Vandervoort" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2002 8:26 AM
> Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Memory Problem
>
>
> > Do you mean 71% memory free, or resources? Resources in Win9x
> > are fixed, and not directly related to the amount of RAM.

  When a program requests ordinary memory from the OS, it is
generally allocated and belongs to that program, and can be
automatically recovered when the program ends -- even if the program
is ill-behaved and doesn't explicitly renounce its claim to the
memory.

  Resources, though, are another story.  The space for resources is
in memory that belongs to the OS, and it is possible (and even easy)
for multiple programs to be using the same resource.  If one of those
programs ends without telling the OS that it no longer needs the
resource, the resource remains "in use" and its space cannot be re-
used.

  Windows 95/98, though, were designed to run legacy 16-bit Windows
3.1 programs with little change, and so the resource region in the OS
is fixed, with no way to grow.  Every "orphan" resource left "in use"
reduces the amount of space available for resources needed by running
programs, and eventually there may not be enough space even for
system functions that happen to need resources.

  There are two basic ways to fix this:

1.  Replace program versions that "leak" resources with versions
where the problem has been found and fixed -- assuming such exist,
and that you can identify which application(s) have this problem....

2.  Move to an OS that does a more robust job of managing resources
(possibly at a slight performance or legacy compatibility penalty...)
such as NT/2K/XP.

David Gillett

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