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I have a new laptop with only 4 GB of RAM. When I boot up the system, almost 2 GB are used for something.

Are there some quick tricks to increase available space? Maybe disable Superfetch as I have SSD, or decrease size of disk cache?

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    What do you mean by "almost 2GB are used for something"?
    – David Schwartz
    Apr 24, 2014 at 16:42
  • I mean that now Task Manager shows me 1.5 GB memory used, but when I add up total memory usage as reported by Task Manager, I get to about 500 MB - see my attached picture
    – Axarydax
    Apr 24, 2014 at 16:48
  • Okay, then the answer below is right. That's normal. If you have low memory, why would you want Windows to waste any of it? Free memory is opportunity forever lost. If 3GB was free, that would be no better than if you only had 1GB of RAM in the machine, which would obviously be worse.
    – David Schwartz
    Apr 24, 2014 at 16:49
  • post pictures of RAMMap ,so that we see how Windows currently uses your RAM : technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ff700229.aspx
    – magicandre1981
    Apr 24, 2014 at 18:24
  • If you have an SSD then Superfetch should already be (effectively) disabled: "Rather than disable the entire service, we leave it on, and dynamically ignore SSDs or SSD-like hardware (like SSDs in RAID)." social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/…
    – Mokubai ♦
    Apr 25, 2014 at 12:09

2 Answers 2

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Memory being used is not necessarily a bad thing, given the OS releases it when other programs need it. I wouldn't worry about this unless you're actually having problems with programs not getting the memory they need. Until then, it will use that memory to speed up your experience in Windows.

Windows will let a lot of that 2GB go when it's needed elsewhere. You can easily test this by running some memory intensive programs.

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  • If you're thinking "I want that RAM free now so I can use it later", that's nonsense. You can use it now and use it later. There is no tradeoff needed here. You can always use all your RAM with no sacrifices.
    – David Schwartz
    Apr 24, 2014 at 16:44
  • Yeah, but I'd like to run Eclipse, Android emulator, web browser and that takes me to about 3.7 GB used, which is the point where Windows starts whining about not much free memory.
    – Axarydax
    Apr 24, 2014 at 16:44
  • @Axarydax how much memory are those programs using all totaled when you're getting warnings?
    – Nick Craver
    Apr 24, 2014 at 16:45
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    @Axarydax Can you be more specific about exactly what message you get when Windows is "whining"? Most likely, that's a waning about insufficient virtual memory (backed storage) while this question is about physical memory (RAM).
    – David Schwartz
    Apr 24, 2014 at 16:47
  • @DavidSchwartz good point, I'll check
    – Axarydax
    Apr 24, 2014 at 16:49
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Please consider what the others have to say first.... then read this.

In the "Run" tool, type msconfig. A System Configuration windows will pop up. Navigate to the "Startup" tab. A list of all startup items will appear. Theoretically you can disable all of these and the PC wil still function, however, it's best to keep items that you use enabled on Startup.

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