Making sense of Windows' confusing RAM stats

Topic

New Reply

	LANGALIST PLUS[/size][/font] Making sense of Windows’ confusing RAM stats[/size]
	By Fred Langa “Available RAM” statistics can be confusing and even lead to poor hardware decisions.But once you know what the numbers really mean, you can make an informed judgment about your PC’s RAM requirements.[/size]

---

The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/2010/09/23/05 (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

[/tr][/tbl]

Reply | Quote

Replies

In your article entitled “Best way to clean out unneeded program files” you recommend CCleaner and jv16PowerTools to completely uninstall programs. I couldn’t agree more. However, I would like to hear your opinion about the free version of Revo UnInstaller for this purpose. I am starting using it, and I am very satisfied.
Cheers,
Jorge

Reply | Quote

In your article entitled “Best way to clean out unneeded program files” you recommend CCleaner and jv16PowerTools to completely uninstall programs. I couldn’t agree more. However, I would like to hear your opinion about the free version of Revo UnInstaller for this purpose. I am starting using it, and I am very satisfied.
Cheers,
Jorge

Revo was already covered in an earlier newsletter, so yuo should be able to find the review.

Reply | Quote

I use north-america.pool.ntp.org for my time server. See http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/ and http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/use.html.

Their suggestion to use the “net time /setsntp” command to set Windows to use more than one server doesn’t work on Windows 7 to. Instead do

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:”0.north-america.pool.ntp.org 1.north-america.pool.ntp.org 2.north-america.pool.ntp.org 3.north-america.pool.ntp.org”
net stop w32time
net start w32time
w32tm /resync
w32tm /query /peers

Reply | Quote

Fred, one more reason that available memory can appear small: the display adapter. We often forget that just because a display adapter has lots of on-card memory doesn’t mean it doesn’t gobble up some main memory. My 256 MB ATI adapter says it uses 1700 MB!! of “shared system memory.” And there’s apparently no way to decrease that, either.

Reply | Quote

With regards to Fred Langa’s article “Keep your PC’s system clock unerringly accurate” of 9/23/10 (issue No. 259), one does not have to accept the default sync schedule of 7 days.
See this article for more details:
http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1118

Reply | Quote

Re: Resetting the PC system clock (9/23/10).

As a retired employee of the NIST Boulder Laboratories, I have to respond to the statement that ‘the NIST timing signal originates with the U.S. Naval Observatory’s U.S. Master Clock.’
I asked a long-time NIST colleague, Dr. Judah Levine, who is the person in charge of operating the NIST Internet Time system, to comment on the NIST system:

Dr. Levine’s reply:

“First, there is a NIST-operated server at Microsoft. It is time-nw.nist.gov. However, we do not operate the time.windows.com system, and I, too, have noticed problems with it.

“Second, the time reference for all NIST services is an ensemble of atomic clocks located at the NIST facility in Boulder, Colorado, not at the USNO.

“Third, the accuracy of a network-based time service is usually limited by the stability of the network delay, and so it depends on the details of your network connection. It is possible to realize an accuracy of a few microseconds, but most users will not be able to do that well. An acccuracy on the order of milliseconds (0.00x seconds) is more common.

“Fourth, the clocks of most PCs are relatively poor time-keepers, and it is difficult to keep a PC clock within a few milliseconds of the correct time even if it is set exactly on time to begin with. It is quite common for a typical PC clock to gain or lose a few milliseconds in 1 minute and a few seconds in 1 day.”

From Collier:

More information about the NIST Internet Time Service is at http://www.nist.gov/physlab/div847/grp40/its.cfm .

If you need time more accurate than a few parts per thousand, don’t rely on your PC to provide it. NIST offers other solutions and services — see http://www.nist.gov/physlab/div847/grp40/index.cfm for details.

(N.B.: I am informed that an upcoming reorganization, after the beginning of the next fiscal year, will likely change these organization names and numbers, and eventually the changes will be propagated to the website URLs.)

Reply | Quote