Windows 7: Free up RAM

Hey guys, I want to know if there is a way to free up RAM. I have 1 GB of slow RAM and it is at 60% full when idle. No programs running either. When I click on a few programs like OpenOffice and Chrome, it shoots up to about 80% full. Are there any non-essential processes that I can just kill in order to free this up (other than the programs I'm running)?



Thanks in advance!

Nothing running at startup?

If you open up task manager (right-click the taskbar) you will see what each process is using as far as CPU & memory is concerned. I'm using a fresh install of 7077 with only winzip & my GFX drivers installed & have 79% memory used out of 758MB.

I know how to get the task manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and all, but I just wasn't sure which of the processes weren't necessary. Also, it sounds like you need some more RAM to me. But I think my craptop is broken (to an extent), and that I just need a new computer in general.

I'll get more RAM when i deem it necessary

Also, a screenshot of your task manager might allow for 1 of us to see which processes you can kill.

Here you go ikilledkenny, follow this link and you can choose what services you will need and one's you can prevent from auto starting.

http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm

Since Vista it is not necessary any more to kill processes in the background. Windows is assigning free RAM to processes if no app is running. When you start an app, vista reduces the amount of memory needed for the bg-processes. Same for Windows 7.
1,5 Gig of my 4 are filled when Windows 7 ist just started w/o any app like mail or browser.

Well you learn something new everyday. Although I do regularly right click taskbar I have never noticed that. maybe because I wasn't looking for it, nice one.

OMG! It shows, "Start task manager!"

That may be the first time I have successfully followed someone else's computer instructions. This time, everything was all there!

Let me elaborate: You know how you have a problem with your computer, so you do some Google-Fu and go to a forum post that shows you exactly how to fix it, but when you follow the instructions, you find that you don't have something installed or something is disabled and you don't know how to fix that? I hate when that happens. It completely ruins my day...

Yes, I Google, however I only post when I have experience in doing it.

Open up "services.msc" via the start menu search function. You can easily disable several services, such as the "crypt. services", "power", "server", "workstation", "upnp", etc.