As you know, RAM, along with the central processor, is responsible for the performance of any computer system. The larger its volume, the more components of simultaneously running programs are processed. And in general, as they say, there is not much memory. However, on low-power computers, the functioning of some applications and even the system itself can be difficult enough only because the RAM is busy with unnecessary processes that hang in it, as they say, dead weight. That is why it may be necessary to clear the RAM of a Windows computer on board in order to reduce the load on resources. Often, if you know what exactly you can get rid of, the effect can be achieved simply amazing. As a result, you will get an increase in the speed of the computer as a whole, which will be noticeable even in aging computer systems that cannot boast of large amounts of RAM.
What processes load RAM?
Before deciding how to clear the RAM on Windows 7 or any other system of this family, let's see which processes (or rather, which components of them) load RAM.
The main load, as a rule, is created by user applications and some programs built into Windows, which at the time of launch begin to actively use RAM. But this does not concern the start of the application executable file, but the additional components, which are just loaded for processing and execution into RAM. Most often these are heavyweight dynamic link libraries. Incidentally, components of a similar format, but already related to system processes, are also in memory. Excessive number of them and causes overload or lack of RAM.
The same applies to device drivers, which are similarly loaded into RAM, if some running program requests permission to use a specific hardware or virtual device. And driver files can be as heavy as dynamic libraries.
How to clean the computer’s RAM from Windows and what can I get rid of?
Thus, it becomes clear that the essence of the process of freeing RAM is precisely that of removing the most heavy-weight components from RAM. But which ones? After all, if you disable some important service, you can only achieve the fact that the operating system itself will stop working. In the best case, it will be possible to correct the situation by a regular reboot, but sometimes the result of such interference in the work of system services can be much sadder.
But if you look at everything that may be present in RAM, you can clear the RAM of a computer with Windows 7 or with another system on board by using the following solutions:
- manual completion of processes and services;
- shutdown of processes starting with the operating system;
- Deactivating unused Windows components
- restarting the Windows Explorer service with unloading its components from memory.
As for the main methods that allow performing such operations, you can use both the system tools and some third-party developments. However, if you approach complex cleaning from a practical point of view, it is better to use both tools in parallel, since their capabilities and principles of operation are somewhat different.
How to clean up RAM on Windows 10 and below with the simplest method?
So let's get started. To begin, let's see what is currently loading RAM, and which processes consume the maximum amount of memory.
To do this, you need to call the most common “Task Manager” and go to the performance (performance) tab, then select the RAM block and look at its status. You can define heavy processes either on the tab with the same name, by sorting by RAM usage, or through the system resources monitor.
To clear the RAM with Windows tools, you can force shutdown the selected process. This is not always advisable when it comes to user-launched programs. To unload their modules from RAM, it is enough to simply complete each application by closing it normally through the system interface. Very often you can observe an incredibly large number of svchost processes running simultaneously, but you can touch them only if it is known for certain that some of those present in the “Task Manager” are viruses (you can determine the file location through the RMB menu, and it doesn’t must be different from the System32 directory).
Ending background processes and services
Now let's see how to clear the computer’s RAM by deactivating some services. You can track their load on RAM on the appropriate tab in the "Task Manager".
However, it should be borne in mind that the usual termination (stop) of the process responsible for the correct functioning of the service will only lead to a single shutdown of the main service. To disable it completely, you should go directly to the services section from the "Task Manager", where it stops and then sets the startup type to disabled (if necessary). However, you need to use such deactivation wisely, since far from all system services can be turned off painlessly for Windows.
Editing startup items
Speaking about how to clear the RAM, you can not ignore the processes that start with the operating system. Naturally, the full load time increases, and the RAM initially allocates some amount for these processes, which is sometimes completely unjustified.
In this case, you can clear the RAM in Windows by disabling unnecessary elements in the system configuration (msconfig) on ​​the startup tab. By and large, in Windows 7 and below, absolutely everything can be deactivated, leaving only the ctfmon service, which is responsible for the language bar, language change and keyboard layout. If you turn it off, the icon and the panel itself from the system tray disappear.
How to clear the computer’s RAM from Windows 10? In this modification, the startup section is located directly in the "Task Manager", where you should disable all unnecessary.
Pay special attention to deactivating all kinds of updaters and unnecessary components like Mail.Ru Agent or something similar, as well as additional elements related to Internet browsers. By the way, you can’t even try to disconnect active antivirus modules, you won’t succeed anyway. And, by and large, what's the point?
System registry actions
But let's see how to clear the RAM of a computer with Windows 10 or systems of a lower rank using disabling startup items, which are not available in the main section and work exclusively in the background. This will require manual intervention in the registry (regedit).
Here in the HKCU and HKLM branches you need to find the Run and RunOnce directories, and then completely clear their contents. By the way, it is in this way that you can deactivate even the components of a standard anti-virus.
Disabling Windows Components
Now a few more words about how to clean up the computer’s RAM, but at the expense of turning off some unnecessary system components that consume computer resources, but the user absolutely does not need them in everyday work. To view and deactivate them, enter the standard section of programs and components and go to the system components. Now look at the list presented!
So why do you need an active print service if you don’t have a printer? Why do you need a Hyper-V module if you don’t use virtual machines for a while? Why do you need virtual printers to convert formats? But all this takes up considerable space in RAM. Turn off all unnecessary, and then agree to a mandatory reboot of the system. After the restart, the increase in speed can be felt immediately and fully.
Restart Windows Explorer Services
Another technique for partially freeing RAM is to invoke the Task Manager and force the Explorer.exe process to terminate . Please note that this is not “Explorer”, but a service responsible for launching the Windows GUI. When the process is stopped, all elements of the "Desktop", including the panels, will disappear, but the "Task Manager" window will remain active. In it, through the file menu, you will need to create a new task and enter the explorer.exe command in the field, simultaneously marking the confirmation point for administrator rights. After that, the view of the system will return to normal, but unnecessary modules will be unloaded from RAM.
For a quick restart, you can create a special MS-DOS batch file in a regular Notepad, entering the text shown above, save the file in any convenient location with the BAT extension, manually setting it, and then simply launch the file with a double click (the result will be same as with the above steps).
Manual RAM cleaning using a script
It turns out that few people know that Windows systems have their own hidden RAM cleaning tool. As in the previous example, Notepad is used.
It prescribes the text shown above, the file is saved in VBS format, and then launched for execution. Pay attention to the formula for calculating the amount of RAM: V x 1024 x 100 000, where V is the amount of installed RAM in your computer in gigabytes.
Optimizer Programs
Another decision on how to clean up RAM is to use various kinds of software products called optimizers (CCleaner, ASC, etc.). in most of these programs you can find comprehensive solutions to speed up the computer, including cleaning RAM.
Sometimes, however, such modules can only work in stealth mode (for free versions of applications), and are called on demand in the form of separate tools only in Pro versions.
Highly targeted utilities
Finally, let's figure out how to clean up RAM using specially oriented applications. In principle, the use of such utilities comes down only to launching the program itself and activating the start of the cleaning process. Applications like Mem Reduct, Clean Mem, nCleaner, Wise Memory Optimizer, VC RamCleaner and the like will clean automatically and without user intervention.
Additional prevention
How to clear the RAM, figured out. It remains to say a few words about additional preventive measures that will reduce the load on RAM. First of all, it is advisable to periodically check the computer for viruses, since some of them may be harmless to the system, but be located in RAM, reducing performance. Also, it will not hurt to clean the disk at least once a week, if possible, remove unnecessary or rarely used programs. Although such measures, it would seem, have no direct relation to the load on RAM, nevertheless, in combination with other system optimization tools, they often give an increase in the positive effect.
Brief Summary
Here in a nutshell, and everything that concerns the cleaning of RAM with the involvement of completely different means. If you approach all of these issues purely practically, by and large, special programs can not be used, but you can do it exclusively using the operating system itself, which, even in comparison with specialized programs, looks no worse. It’s just that you need to be especially careful when disabling unused services and components so that, as they say, you don’t break firewood by deactivating processes critical for the operating system.