Handy Memory (RAM) saving technique
 

My bro was around today, and showed me something simple to help save some memory. If you're anything like me, and have at least 10 IE windows open at any given time, than this tip will be useful to you.

Instead of opening a new internet explorer window from your IE shortcut/quick launch or whatever, do File > New Window or CTRL+N. I don't know why, but it takes up way less memory this way. About 9 mb's of memory for each additional window, instead of 25 mb+ for additional windows opened using shortcuts or quick launch. I've only got 512 meg of ram, so using just over 100 meg of ram instead of 250/300 for browsing is pretty handy!

Just wish i had known this before!

Oh, by the way. I've only tested this in windows XP. I don't know if it'll have the same results in other operating systems. To check, do CTRL+ALT+DEL and you'll see that only one process for internet explorer is there instead of the number of windows you have open.

Only problem with that is that if one browser window crashes, they all crash.

:)

Hehe you said only 512mb of ram.

I remember when I bought my first computer, a 486 DX.. it had 4 megs of ram.

Good point! Didn't think of that.

Just use Opera.

I use Opera 6.01 (the 7.xx versions suck for some reason) and currently with 16 windows open it uses 52 mb of ram

It takes up less memory because the new window is a child of the parent window that opened it. So it doesn't load up all of the initialization and other bullshit IE loads up every time you lick that icon. But they become reliant on each other, so even if the child window crashes, it takes itself, and all other opened windows belonging to that thread.

hehe same as me, 486 DX 33, 4mb ram, upgraded later to 8mb, only cost $300. We didn't get the 1x cdrom with the computer, didnt have the extra $1000

my how times have changed. i have 768MB now and i dont think its enough

I've got double the amount of HD space i had in my 486 in my memory alone. And one CD-R is 3 times as much HD space... and I have 100 CD-R's.

=D I miss those days. (not)

yup....it seems to be an instance of the same ie window which is why memory is conserved but if you die you die bigtime.

I'm still a fan of CTRL+N and let's not even talk about CTRL+C and CTRL+V !!!

I've been a big Opera fan for years. Having 30-40 windows open in a single MDI I/F with button access to each is JUST TOO GOOD.

But I'm using 7.xx and it is a major memory pig. The more windows you have open (I usually have about 35) and the more reloads you do, the more RAM this pig eats. Right now, it's using about 160 meg, but if I let it run another couple days it can easily get to 250.

I'm thinking about going back t0 6.x, I don't think it was so piggy.

Yeah, I only keep two seperate instances open at once (usually about 5-6 windows). Also, it's good to restart IE every 4-5 hours especially if you use a lot of Flash or Java. Flash in particular has a lot of issues releasing memory, and IE will quickly grow to 150-200MB or RAM just for one window sometimes.

if you have netscape you can take advantage of their 'tabs'. its like having 10 in one windows.