What's the best way to use a coding framework when 800MB of 4GB RAM is not being used?
My coding platform is a Vista machine with 4GB of RAM. And while the machine is slick, I know 800MB of RAM isn't being used at all. (only about 3.2 GB or 4 GB used).
Can I install something to help my coding platform? I think Wubi won't be able to use this RAM, but VMware or VirtualPC could be? Or a RAM disk, so downloading and installing tools with a large decompression file can be much faster? (for example, unpack Ruby install files that look like 17,000 files to decompress - perhaps an exaggeration)
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500MB-1GB upper memory is reserved for Windows and device drivers on 32-bit Windows. It varies in size for several reasons, but the largest is the amount of RAM on your graphics card, as this amount is usually reserved from the top of the 32-bit address space. The only way to use this is to install a 64-bit operating system (like Vista 64-bit). Virtualization will not help you because there is no memory for you to provide guest OSes.
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You will need to install a 64-bit OS, then you can take advantage of all the features of your bar.
Alternatively, 32-bit Linux kernels with PAE / enabled installed can use additional memory, although individual applications will still be limited.
Here's some more information on PAE:
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Be careful with RAM disks. As often as not, memory will be better used for application, background tasks, or system cache. You often get data duplicated between the ramdisk and read / write buffers or process memory.
If unpacking files, you can cut a bottle of your application, and then think about it in the background while the user sets their preferences, reads your program's input, or some other time-consuming but not io-intensive task.
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The easiest way to use memory is to switch to a 64-bit OS.
Top articles on why you have plunger safety issues:
Pushing Restrictions on Windows: Physical Memory by Mark Russinovich.
and of course dude where are my 4 gigabytes of RAM? Jeff Atwood.
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No application or driver will fix the physical / available memory mismatch as it works within the OS limits. You can never use this physical memory with 32 bit Windows. He's missing; that 800 MB does not exist (cannot).
Only 64-bit OS can access and use 4Gb physical memory. You can check my claim with any Linux LiveCD distribution (I would suggest a 64-bit Ubuntu desktop).
I haven't used Vista 64-bit, but Windows Server 2003 64-bit worked very well for me (even on a laptop).