Copyright: Memory Monitor Help Copyright © 1998 John Topley
Citation: Memory Monitor Help Copyright © 1998 John Topley


Memory Monitor v1.20 Copyright © 1998 John Topley. All rights reserved.

Memory Monitor places an icon in the system tray which graphically indicates the current memory load:-

Right-clicking on the icon displays the following menu:-

Clicking on Details or double-clicking on the tray icon displays the details screen pictured below (click on an area of the picture for further information):-

Clicking on the Settings tab displays the settings screen pictured below (click on an area of the picture for further information):-


Shows details for Physical Memory. Total shows how much actual RAM (Random Access Memory) is fitted in your computer. Available shows how much of this if free for use after deducting the amount that is already being used by running programs and by Windows itself. All amounts are in K (1024 bytes) and MB (1024 K).


Shows details for Paging File Memory. The paging file is a file (pagefile.sys) located on the hard disk, which is used to simlate memory when there is no physical RAM free. This process is called swapping – page files are sometimes called swap files. When applications or the operating system need access to the data again, it is loaded back into memory – other information being swapped out to disk if necessary. The resultant benefit is that you can run more programs at once than your system’s RAM would usually allow. Size shows the overall size of the page file. Available shows how much is free for use. All amounts are in K (1024 bytes) and MB (1024 K). Windows NT can use multiple pagefiles on different hard disks – the figures here are aggregate totals.


Shows details for Virtual Memory. Virtual memory is the total amount of memory that can be access by the CPU (Central Processing Unit). On Intel 386 ™ and higher chips this is 4 gigabytes (the 386 architecture is 32-bit which means it can address 2^32 or 4,294,967,296 bytes – 4 GB). Approximately 2 GB of this amount is reserved for use by Windows itself with the rest being available to applications. In reality this large 4 gigabyte address space is mapped onto physical and pagefile memory as shown above. Total shows the overall size of the application virtual memory space. Available shows how much is free for use. All amounts are in K (1024 bytes) and MB (1024 K).


Shows the current Memory Loading percentage. This gives an overall picture as to how hard the Windows’ Memory Manager is having to work. The figure takes into account all of the factors mentioned above – Physical, Pagefile and Virtual memory. The system tray icon in the taskbar gives a graphical representation of the memory load, whilst holding the mouse pointer over this icon shows a tooltip which gives the exact percentage.


Refreshes the display figures.


Closes this dialog.


Changes the rate at which the display figures refresh. The options are paused (no refresh), ½ second, 1 second (default) and 4 seconds. The display can also be updated manually by clicking the Refresh button on the Memory page.


Shows details for Paging File Memory. The paging file is a file (win386.swp) located on the hard disk, which is used to simlate memory when there is no physical RAM free. This process is called swapping – page files are sometimes called swap files. When applications or the operating system need access to the data again, it is loaded back into memory – other information being swapped out to disk if necessary. The resultant benefit is that you can run more programs at once than your system’s RAM would usually allow. Size shows the overall size of the page file. Available shows how much is free for use. All amounts are in K (1024 bytes) and MB (1024 K).


Switches the Physical Memory display between showing the percentage free and the percentage used.


Switches the Paging File Memory display between showing the percentage free and the percentage used.


Switches the Virtual Memory display between showing the percentage free and the percentage used.


Opens help.


Dummy topic.