Important Tips Everyone Should Use:

1. Do not Shadow your ROMBios into RAM.
   NT doesn't use it, so it just takes up RAM.

2. Disable startup services you don't need (see sidebar).

3. Stopping manual services that you don't need constantly can free up megabytes of memory.

   Some services, like disk optimization services that aren't constantly running, can be set to manual to start up only when needed. However, they usually don't stop themselves when you no longer need them. Norton's Speed Disk is one example: it is set to start manually, and I run it manually, but it will continue running, and hogging up 2 megabytes of memory, even after I close Speed Disk!

4. Find little "applets" running on your system that you didn't authorize and don't use

   ...using Task Manager/Processes tab. Of course, you'll have to familiarize yourself with which processes should normally be there (cf Memory Primer), but then it should be easy to pick out ones that shouldn't be there, and "End Task".

   For example, Office97 installs "Find Fast" which everyone's been complaining about (which, by the way, you can uninstall by using Office97 Setup) -- it's always running when installed, and simply slows down the system.

   And there are plenty of others... my calculator, for example, which minimizes itself to your system tray easily and is capable of multiple instances.

   Furthermore, sometimes certain programs don't seem to close entirely after you close them Netscape, and even though they're no longer on your taskbar, remnants of them can be found in Task Manager/Processes. I've also had problems with some console apps, in which ntvdm and wowexec "stay alive". Note that under "ntvdm" you should have more than "wowexec"; else, it's a "half-closed program". Select those beasties and "End Task" (in the case of ntvdm, select "ntvdm" and end task).

If You're THAT Desperate...

1. Do not run your 16-bit apps in separate memory spaces [duh!]

   Each ntvdm takes up a few MEGABYTES, as shown in Task Manager/Processes. On the other hand, if you have apps aren't well-behaved, and/or they take up a lot of resources, run the baddies in separate memory spaces, and let the good ones share a memory space. How to do this?

2. Don't use EMFs (spooling) for printing.

   You can save tons of memory here, too, but you won't like it one bit! When NT prints RAW, everything STOPS until your print job is done. Give up the memory and keep EMF printing.

3. Use as few User Profiles as possible

   This is a silly little tip unless you have zillions of accounts, but here goes: each one takes about 1K in your paged pool (kernel memory).

4. Fonts, wallpaper, etc.

   Unless you have hundreds of fonts, this shouldn't be a problem since NT loads only the ones you're actively using into memory. And wallpaper... I say run the biggest, baddest wallpaper you have! Yes, the wallpaper stays in memory, so check out the size memory usage before and after wallpaper to see if it's really that big of a deal. Otherwise, find another way to cut costs, or buy some memory.

How to Separate Your 16-bit Apps

By default, NT runs all your 16-bit apps in a single memory space. To change that option manually, you have to create a shortcut to your app, right-click on the shortcut and select Properties, select the "Shortcut" tab, and check the checkbox marked "Run in Separate Memory Space". That's a lot of work if you want to run all your 16-bit apps separately, so there's a tip to change the default behavior of NT to run all apps in a separate memory space (which I have on this site, and have been using since NT 3.50):

Change the following registry entry from "no" (the default) to "yes":

However, if you want to run some of your apps in a shared memory space, you have to make sure this setting is at no, then manually select the apps to run separately as outlined above.