But I have been impacted by excessive user/GDI resource consumption under win95 and w98, and have educated myself to a modestly painful level on the subject. I present this information in hopes of helping others...

--- TOPICS ---

• Symptoms
• Myths
• XPERTS - Info from people who know more than me on the topic
• Known Resource Hogs
• Monitoring these Resources
• Freeing Resources
• How this disease affects FPS (Franklin Planner System) software

Symptoms

User and GDI space are two stacks of virtual memory of Windows. They are 'system resources' used to manage and track certain functions within Windows. Sufficient amounts are needed to open AND close windows applications and perform certain functions - some applications and functions require much more memory than others, hence, problems may appear "randomly". Possible symptoms when you run short of system resources:

• poor performance - sluggish
• computer locks up
• new windows won't open
• icons (graphics), or shaded or colored areas of screen are blank or messed up
• the message "insufficient system resources"

Myths

System resources is NOT...

• memory
• RAM
• disk

The problem is worst in Windows 95. It was improved (impact lessened) in 98 and ME, andfurther lessened in 2000 and NT (stack sizes are roughly doubled). I believe the issue no longer exists in Windows/XP.

XPERTS

I consider the links below to be the best available at describing "system resources. Many more links exist, but most are inaccurate or downright deceptive, and I suggest you don't bother with any but those listed here.  Some appropriate words of caution:

1. some information on the web is old, i.e. behind the times, or useless,
2. some strongly suggest certain software products will not cause a problem - I suggest you trust your own experience and testing,
3. beware statements like "you can take user/GDI spaces down to 30%, 20%, 10% free without suffering" - I've found my limit to be about 30-40% - beyond that peformance, and ultimately performance, suffered (both in Windows 95 and 98). You can avoid the guessing game by using a monitor.

Great introductory link:

• http://www.windows-help.net/techfiles/win-resources.html

Good references:

• http://www.pcnineoneone.com/text/resources.txt - with reference to MS Knowledgebase Articles
• SYSTEM RESOURCES FAQ
  • outdated version - of same http://fp.computers.pcc.edu/pmcg/memory_vs_resources.htm
• Memory Use by Windows (looks nasty on the screen, but a decent read)

Good technical description:

• http://www.apptools.com/windows/resources.php (and page down)

Even more good info:

• Re: GDI usage http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=b8as2g%2424i%241%40sparta.btinternet.com
• Resource Leaks: Detecting, Locating, and Repairing Your Leaky GDI Code
• Detect and Plug GDI Leaks in Your Code with Two Powerful Tools for Windows XP

Miscellaneous:

• http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/cce6.htm
• http://www.vermontlife.com/consultant/spreadsheets/gdi.htm

Known Resource Hogs ("*" items are my favorite big offenders)

• * MS-ACCESS
• * apps that use the ACCESS database engine
• * MS-Excel (big spreadsheets in particular)
• * Real Jukebox
• Gnotella
• some apps coded in Delphi (search the web and you'll see)
• HoverDesk (though, presumably, improved as of 1Q2001)
• programs with "storage leaks" (but not all storage leaks contribute to consumption of user/gdi resources)
• Franklin Covey's Franklin Planner System (FPS) (and possibly the Outlook derivative of the product)
• Netscape Messenger (eats system resources over time)
• Very large web pages (eg. over 400k), at least in Netscape

Monitors

Many 'monitors', websites and computer magazine articles claim to discuss and measure and free system resources or memory. Like my admonition in the XPERTS heading above, don't trust such claims.

1. Resources is not the same as memory, RAM, etc. So beware of explanations and claims regarding freeing 'resources'. MS-Windows' System Resources cannot be freed, optimzed or whatever by tricky software. Don't pay for anything to fix this problem!!
2. Very few packages actually monitor anything other than RAM (hardware) and Virtual memory - which is NOT the same as system resources. (And again, utilities claiming to free RAM, memory and speed up your PC are typically nothing more than ripoffs.)

Memstat is one of the few, and the best, I have found to monitor "system resources". Memstat is Memory Status Utility written by Mark Gamber, circa 1995. aka memstats, mstat, mstat32. I've used it on Windows 95 and 98. Have not tried it under Windows NT, 2000, or XP.

readme
get mstat32 here

see also: Re: GDI usage http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=b8as2g%2424i%241%40sparta.btinternet.com

Freeing Resources

Some ideas:

• Delete the 'shelliconcache' file in /windows - this file loads icons at boot time into the user/gdi system resources space, thus potentially reducing usable space with icons that may no longer be in in frequent use - good to delete every 6 months or so.
• Reduce items listed in the 'start' folder and system tray. Long running programs can suck up and hold system resources (and of course don't free then till they are terminated).

FPS - Franklin Covey's Franklin Planner System

PDTL (Prioritized Daily Task List) eats system resources over time. You can watch it go away with the mstat32 utility.

For example, simple cursoring down 5 task lines can eat up 1% (though it does seem somewhat variable). Page up and down through tasks exhibit similar behavior, but not nearly as bad as cursor up and cursor down. Task "Move", "forward" and other action items also consume GDI space. My uneducated guess is something related to each task line is getting put into GDI space - most likely FPS stores new font information for each colored line of text. It may be this only happens if you have assigned colors to task categories (which I have). One might assume there is a design flaw in PTDL, but then again, perhaps the design is top notch with no room for improvement -:).

The good news is with FPS, like most software that affect system resources, closing the the application allows MS-windows to free the space - but only if you do so before you are hung or not so critically low on system resources that windows has not become unstable.

I/me/myself