How to monitor RAM usage with XP?

Sorry to post this question, which I'm sure is fairly easy to answer, but I'm on dial-up ATM (in other words I don't want to take the time to do the research) and I have a friend who wants to know where their RAM is going. They are running Windows XP with 512MB RAM.

I tried Performance Monitor and looking at processes in the Task Manager, but this doesn't really help to determine what programs/processes/services are hogging RAM and are unnecessary.
This is because looking at processes with cryptic names and then searching for those same files is a long and painful process. Vista actually allows you to open the associated file, and find out what program it belongs to...

To cut a long story short, I'm asking is there a separate application I can download, or is there an integrated feature of XP I'm missing that will give a more comprehensive analysis of the RAM usage?

Thanks for your replies!

=^)

BTW: I'm sure part of the problem is the amount of stuff running in the background and filling up their system tray.

 

umm go to control+alt+del, which is the task manager, look at processes, on the last column it will say mem usage.

 

From when I used XP, I never figured out what the weird number on the bottom right of the task manager stood for (something like #/1434k when I had 512 MB of ram). Anyone know what it was for?

 

The #/# stood for commit charge.

 

I don't know any other way. When you say searching is tedious is that because of Dail up? If so just do a search for the file on your computer and by location you can gather what it is?

 

Sorry, but what's commit charge? I never really understood it.

 

@acorn

If I wasn't clear with that, what I meant was that looking at these processes doesn't help determine which ones are safe to end, and also I don't know what programs they are associated with.

But thanks for the quick reply.

@powerpack

 

I know it's a PITA with dial-up, but you can usually Google the ones you don't immediately recognize. You could also just end them and if Windows crashes, you'll know you shouldn't have...When you reboot hit 'F8' and load last known good configuration to be safe after such a crash...

 

I use "What's Running", but just saw that PC World recommends "Process Explorer".

 

With Spybot S&D in advanced mode, tools- the process list will tell you the company and description of processes

 

Thanks, guys. As I recall, I was able to give them some helpful advice. :smile: