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XP on 128 MB of RAM

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Mace

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Location
Fargo, ND
I am looking at upgrading my Mom's computer. I was wondering how well XP runs with only 128 MB of RAM. I have never ran it on anything less that 256 MB. She has an Anthon 1700+ so CPU is no problem.
 
It will run, but will be very slow. A better choice would be Windows 2000 Professional. If you go with XP, you should try to trim all the fat from it and have zero eye candy.
 
It runs fine as long you only browse the web, listen to music, and type stuff up. MY 1.3ghz Celleron laptop ran fine with 128mb ram, but I only did the things mentioned above.
 
Im running WinXP Pro on a 333mhz laptop with 48MB, yes 48mb of ram. Of couse I dont use it for anything but a print server...
but it does work
 
When I first got my hands on XP Pro, I was on a PII-350MHz 128MB compaq. I installed XP Pro, and it worked nicely. The best thing you should do is find out how much pagefile Windows + common apps require, and set the min and max to be equal so you don't thrash your hard drive while windows keeps trying to adjust the pagefile size.

If you are taking this ram from a folding rig or personal server, it should run perfectly with only 128MB of ram. The only time it will show sluggishness is when you load up bloatware that sucks away at your page file, which may also result in your page file adjusting, which further makes your computer sluggish. So keep min/max equal.
 
I have 400Mhz and 128 RAM on my laptop that runs XP Pro. I have all the "bells and whistles" disabled...Use classic theme, have all animations disabled..etc... It runs just fine for me.. I only use it for my Instant Messengers and browsing the web here and there.
 
Once upon a time (about two years ago) I had a pentium 150 Mhz laptop with 80MB of ram running XP Pro. It purred like a kitten with all the crap turned off. I used XPlite to trim it down to a nice skinny OS, you can also use nLite to shrink it down (nLite is free by the way and obtainable here)
 
Well quite frankly, 256MB is too low for xp for the general user. But yea 128 is useable if you love waiting for a long bootup and 1 window at a time.
 
jajmon said:
guess what a GOOGLE search on 'xp requirments' found?, basically it will work, just depends on what the use will be, 256mb would be better.

I knew it would work I just wanted to get peoples real life opinions. Microsoft always under estimates what kind of system you need to run everything.

I am still not sure what I going to install. I am leaning twards 2000 now just to be safe.
 
XP is just fine on 128 megs. Turn off some of the graphics options like menu fades and things. I ran XP on a Pentium MMX with 64 megs and it ran great. I did not do any fancy graphic or high end games but it surfed the net and ran all Office apps just fine. If this is mom's PC and she isnt a power user then she will be MORE than happy with XP. I would suggest you use a slipstreamed XP with SP2. Makes for a cleaner install. I would lock her page file at about 256 megs to help performance.

Z
 
I have never noticed xp running slow on 128 megs. I did only use internet and word processing though.
 
Maybe you could put on XP, go toControl Panel/Performance and Maintenance/Adjust Visual Effects and select "Adjust for best performance." After that, right click the start button, select properties, then select Classic Start Menu. Next go to Control Panel/Add Remove Programs and select Add/Remove Windows Components. This will show you everything that is part of windows. Uninstall anything that is not necessary that she will not use, especially MSN Explorer (huge bloatware). After that, go into display properties and select a resolution that isn't as high as you might have on your gaming rig, such as 800 X 600 or 1024 X 768. This will increase performance as well as make the start menu easier for her to read (hey, respect your elders haha). Once that is done, go to Run and type in msconfig Select the Startup Tab and press the Disable All button in the lower right hand corner. Hit Apply and OK then reboot. When the machine reboots it will give some stupid message about non-normal startup or something like that. Instead of just dismissing the message, select the box that says "do not show me this again." After that, reboot again, just to make sure that annoying box doesn't show up again, otherwise you know she will constantly pester you about it, because it is a bit annoying. Since there isn't very much memory on this machine, install an antivirus/firewall program that utilizes very little system resources such as TrendMicro Internet Security. Recent versions of McAfee and Norton have just gotten to be too bloated, especially on a system with limited resources. It also goes without saying to install all windows updates and service packs to ensure the system will remain trouble free. That should have her up and running for the time being and then, being the good son you are, you can pick her up some more ram for Christmas when it is on sale. Windows 2000 is a smaller, less resource intense operating system, but the Joe Sixpacks of the world tend to prefer the ease of use and compatability of XP.
 
...I ran XP with 96meg, played my games, surfed, you name it, with no probs at all. No, it wasn't a rocket, page loads were slow at times, but tolerable. I gotta admit, when I upgraded my RAM to 320meg, the difference was like night and day. If it's a monetary issue, why not slap XP in her system, and upgrade the RAM later?...
 
Thanks for all the info prot. Most of that stuff I knew about and was planning on doing, but it is a nice reminder.

Kinda funny your name is prot while I am in the process of reading K-PAX III now.
 
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