Memory Usage With Modded Windows

I just recently modded my XP to look a lot like a mac (ya know, the usual, theme/skin with Style XP, Y'z dock, etc.).

I really should have looked more carefully at my machine before I started modding... I am trying to compare how much memory these mods add and it seems that my memory is being used up much quicker and much more than it used to be before I modded my computer...

Not quite sure really if my system memory usage is out of the "normal."

I'm wondering if anybody who uses Windows XP and has their comptuers modded to look like a Mac (with a dock and everything) can tell me how much their Page File Usage and their Memory usage normally runs at...

I know that now, running the way I'm running my system, I can easily go up to using 300mb of memory, and hit a Page File Usage of about 280 without any problem...

This seems a little high to me... Anybody else have any input? Suggestions on lowering memory usage?

512mb ram has done me fine for a very long time. I fail to see how a dock and a skin/theme can really add all that much memory usage to my system.

#35889

Do you feel your system slowing down at all?

If not, dont worry about it. Memory usage is not a real way of measuring performance. If your system doesnt feel any slower, then its just idle memory.

If it is slower, we may be able to help you. Check out "msconfig" and uncheck any programs you dont need at startup.

#35895

The theme files are usually about the same size as the default luna theme.

All the .bmp sizes are pretty much the same so depending on the number of substyles a theme has the file size does vary.

Although I don't think windows loads all the substyles at once.

The Y'z applications don't take too much memory either.

When idle the dock removes all the icons and graphics from memory so the memory usage comes down to <1mb most of the time.

Shadow and toolbar applications take about 3-4megs each.

Additional little apps like Tclock take up somewhere around 3megs.

Overall if you run a whole bunch of applications and themes I'd guess the impact on memory usage would be no greater than 20mb.

I'm not really familiar with ObjectDock and other Stardock applications so I can't comment on them.

And if you disable some unused services you should be able recover some memory.

#35901