Checking Memory and CPU Usage

9 February, 2000

One way to monitor the memory and CPU usage is through the Task Manager.

You can launch the Task Manager by 

• pressing Control/Alt/Delete keys
  or
  by typing taskmgr at the start -> run prompt
  

• then click on Performance, you see both the CPU and memory usage
  

• click on Processes, you see which processes are using what percentage of CPU and memory

A snap shot below from a Pentium 75 PC with 64 MB of RAM and a virtual memory size set to be 100 MB shows some 96 MB are being used, indicating some swapping or paging of the virtual memory.

You can reset a proper virtual memory size, to prevent fragmentation it can be first set to be zero to get rid of the page file.  For example, you can then reset virtual memory size to 100 MB, if you have 128 MB physical RAM.

Owner: Frank Ling
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