System Resources Running Out?

Everybody who uses a computer will, sooner or later, run into the situation where their machine just seems to run out of steam. Sometimes programs will start running very slowly, or odd errors will start popping up - like having your mouse pointer disappear. These mysterious errors are often caused by a lack of "system resources."

The first question you are going to ask is, "What are these mysterious system resources anyway?"

System Resources are a chunk of RAM that Windows sets aside to keep things like graphics, menus, and icons at hand. Programs that start will borrow a bit of this space and SHOULD give it back when it closes. Not all programs release this memory properly. As a result, this memory slowly "leaks" away leaving you with no space to run anything new.

In Windows 95, 98, and ME - it is quite easy to discover the state of your computers system resources:

• Right Click on My Computer and select properties from the menu.
• Then look for the performance tab along the top of the dialog box.
• Left click on it.

On the performance tab you will see a percentage figure for "available system resources." The higher this figure is the better your computer will tend to run. A good rule of thumb is that if you find that there is less than 60% available resources - restart Windows.

Windows NT, XP Professional, and Vista handle system resources very differently than Windows95/98/ME. Where Windows95/98/ME has a fixed amount of system resources, when it runs out, you're going to have to reboot. Windows NT/XP Pro/Vista assigns system resources dynamically, whick makes it much less likely to run out.

There are many other factors that can affect system resources. If you that your computer is consistently having a problem with low resources our expert technicians at support.com will help you find out what the problem is and how to correct it.