[Maria L. Tate]

Help please!! I know just enough to be dangerous so please speak s-l-o-w-l-y, lol. I have windows ME with 254 MB ram. Right now according to task manager I am running:
Geeks to Go
Explorer
Zcast
Pcbooster
Systray
Mctskshd
Mcvsescn
Mcagent
Chkras

Of the 254mb only 66mb is available. I like to play games on Pogo and always get messages saying that I don't have enough memory. How do I find out what is using all of my memory and what can I do about it? Thanks.

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Win ME is not famous for what you want to do with multiple applications running. Click Start then Run and type in Msconfig, Msconfig should default to the General tab. Click Startup tab. This give you a list of what was started at boot up. Deselect only the programs you are sure you do not need and reboot.

Note:

When you have deselected an item in MSCONFIG, you will be starting in "Selective startup" mode. This can be seen under the "General" tab. Working in "Selective startup" mode is perfectly acceptable - I do and don't have a problem. Warning: If you subsequently decide to choose "Normal startup", all disabled items will be re-enabled.

If you have disabled items in MSCONFIG and at a later date uninstall the program they are associated with, you can click on the "Cleanup" button to verify and remove all invalid entries from the startup sections of the registry.

You can also check out and use WinPatrol.

Ron

[Major Payne]

Win ME is not famous for what you want to do with multiple applications running. Click Start then Run and type in Msconfig, Msconfig should default to the General tab. Click Startup tab. This give you a list of what was started at boot up. Deselect only the programs you are sure you do not need and reboot.

Note:

When you have deselected an item in MSCONFIG, you will be starting in "Selective startup" mode. This can be seen under the "General" tab. Working in "Selective startup" mode is perfectly acceptable - I do and don't have a problem. Warning: If you subsequently decide to choose "Normal startup", all disabled items will be re-enabled.

If you have disabled items in MSCONFIG and at a later date uninstall the program they are associated with, you can click on the "Cleanup" button to verify and remove all invalid entries from the startup sections of the registry.

You can also check out and use WinPatrol.

Ron

[Maria L. Tate]

I have disabled some items, but how do I know which are absolutely necessary and which aren't?

[Maria L. Tate]

Also, when I tried to install WinPatrol, it said that an error occured in the program so with the choice of continue anyway or close, I closed.

[Maria L. Tate]

Also, Pogo suggested removing flash player and any similar memory hogs so I did that although I keep getting a pop-up asking if I want to install 'Adobe flash player 9'. I have also defragged and cleared my cache but I'm out of ideas. Thanks again.

[Major Payne]

Hi:

Sorry for delay in getting back to you. Don't worry about WinPatrol not installing at this time. From your list (most which you know, I'm sure) in Task Manager:

Zcast: This seems to be NetZero's Accelerator application running.

Pcbooster: PC Optimizer is an application that automatically tunes your PC for faster speed & stability.

Systray: A must keep.

Mctskshd: McAfee's app that controls critical updates and antivirus related problems..

Mcvsescn: McAfee's Email scanning mosule.

Mcagent: McAfee's database updater.

Chkras: This one seems to be the baddie. It is a registered security risk.

Pogo may take a lot of memory and the more tasks you have running the less availble. Systray and all the McAfee stuff for now must continue to run. I would REMOVE Chkras. This is spyware and monitors your browsing habits and sends it back to it's own servers for analysis. This may be why you have some popups.

I think it might be better for you to vist the Malware section of this forum and follow their instructions carefully after reading the PINNED topics and performing the self-help listed there. I just want to make sure that your PC is clean before continuing as Win ME and some applications do not manage memory very well. After this, you can check the number of running processed listed in the Start up section of msconfig and post it.

Ron

[Maria L. Tate]

OK Ron, Thanks so much!! -Maria