Geek stuff on windows resources

bub — Sun, 21 Mar 2004 15:44:52 -0500

System Resources is one of the most widely-misunderstood
aspects of Windows 95 and 98. Many people equate the term
'System Resources' with how much RAM they have or with all
the things that might be considered 'resources' in
general--things like hard disk space, processor speed, etc.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The term 'System
Resources' has a very specific meaning in Windows 95 and 98,
and it doesn't at all mean what your instincts might lead
you to believe.

The term 'System Resources' refers to two fixed heaps of
memory, each 64K in size. These heaps are called 'User
Resources' and 'GDI Resources,' and Windows uses them to
keep track of running programs and graphic objects. The
overall term 'System Resources,' expressed as a percentage
(which you can see if you right-click on My Computer, then
click Properties and look on the Performance tab), refers to
the lower of the percentages of free User and GDI resources.

The most important thing to realize about these System
Resources is that we all have the same amount of them,
regardless of how much RAM we have or how our systems are
otherwise configured. It's 64K for each of us--the person
with a 16MB 486/50 as well as the one with a 256MB Pentium
III/600.

Many people get very worried when they look at the System
Resources percentage, and see numbers like 80%, 70%, 60%,

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Geek stuff on windows resources