Using heaps of ram

What specific problems are you actually having??

If you are referring to the cache as "preallocated" RAM, then you are right. That cache (the dark blue in Process Monitor) is indeed always available. If one of your programs needs that RAM, the cache will be purged to the extent additional RAM is needed for an active program.

win7jak said:

Hey thanks everyone. I'm so pleased to hear from you all and to hear your comments and thoughts.

It still concerns me that the system will pre-allocate ram. Does that mean I dont have access to that ram other than for what "it" expects i will use it for?. I use the system for photography and video editing and I need heaps of ram for that. So whats the score about the pre allocation? Is it waiting to be used by any program that fires up or set aside for a program it expects to use it. What if the anticipated prog dosn't use the ram? Sorry to be a bore.

It's a cache, pure and simple. If you have other apps that need it, Windows will get out of the way and let your apps use the RAM - however, it is actively trying to learn how you use your system, so that it can actually cache what you do use regularly, in that cache. It isn't something you will ever need to worry about - superfetch cache is just that, a cache. It will only use memory for superfetch if there are no other demands for that memory - if there ever is a demand for it, superfetch gets out of the way (assuming the demand isn't for data actually in the superfetch cache, which over time should be less and less common a scenario).

You are much better off to let Suprfetch manage it. And the amount of the cached RAM depends on how many program instances yo had opened previously - so it is completely dynamic. There is no set number. Here is an example of what I consider optimal - all RAM is being used:

As I understand the cached RAM is always available should the system need it and that the allocation is as transparent as if it were free.

~Maxx~
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whs said:

Here is an example of what I consider optimal - all RAM is being used:

My Vista computer which has 3 GB of RAM does much the same thing as far as allocating RAM right down to the last few MB, but my Win 7 computer has 8 GB of RAM installed and since I'm running the same programs it caches about that same amount of RAM leaving 4-5 GB of RAM free.

~Maxx~

Maxxwire, What you observe is normal. If you always run the same "pattern", the cache will be similar. It will only vary and grow when you start a great variety of programs and change the LOR (location of reference) all the time.
Check the cache in the morning after system start and then again at night before shutdown - you will already see a considerable difference in cache size (provided you have done many different things during the day - surfing all day with the IE will not show that pattern).

whs said:

Check the cache in the morning after system start and then again at night before shutdown - you will already see a considerable difference in cache size (provided you have done many different things during the day - surfing all day with the IE will not show that pattern).

I just took a screenshot and I'll check it again before I shut the computer down and note the difference. Please pardon me but I haven't used IE in years why will IE not show this pattern?

~Maxx~
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Maxxwire said:

whs said:

Check the cache in the morning after system start and then again at night before shutdown - you will already see a considerable difference in cache size (provided you have done many different things during the day - surfing all day with the IE will not show that pattern).

I just took a screenshot and I'll check it again before I shut the computer down and note the difference. Please pardon me but I haven't used IE in years why will IE not show this pattern?

~Maxx~
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I just took IE to stand for a browser - any browser. It was not supposed to be IE specific.