Windows 7x64 Using Too Much RAM and Slowing Down

I have been trying to figure out why this is happening to me. I have about 190+ processes running on my computer at any given point in time. Since I see a lot of people running like 20-30 at a given time, I would assume that the majority of these are unnecessary and can be removed. The only issue is that I am not too familiar with the different processes and am uncomfortable ending any of the ones that I cannot immediately identify like photoshop.exe. Google Chrome has about 31 processes at any given time even if I only have 3 tabs open and 1 window. Usually, I only have 1 Windows Explorer, 1 iTunes, and 1-2 Chrome windows open but my computer uses about 6/8 GB of my RAM. If anyone could help me figure out what to do with this, I would love it! I'll attach a screenshot of my performance section of Task Manager. If any of the other sections are necessary, just ask :) Picture of my Task Manager ! enter image description here

EDIT: Please ignore the photoshop.exe process. I used it to edit the username out of the photos.

Globmont

Posted 2012-08-24T17:49:39.470

Reputation: 103

Can you show us the "processes" tab? That would reveal more since it will actually show what is running. – Simon Sheehan – 2012-08-24T17:51:59.217

Sure! It will be multiple pictures though because there are too many to put on one page :) – Globmont – 2012-08-24T17:53:39.840

1On the processes tab Go to View/select columns and add Working Set(memory) and sort by this newly added column. show us the screen then. – mnmnc – 2012-08-24T17:53:41.763

@Globmont we do not need to see all processes. Just the ones that use most memory. See my previous comment for instructions. – mnmnc – 2012-08-24T17:54:27.907

How frequently do you reboot your computer? A reboot would probably get rid of all the ghost processes. unless you got this many processes at startup. I see the last reboot was 3 days ago. After a reboot how many processes are there running? – Mixxiphoid – 2012-08-24T17:59:07.340

Okay! I will redo the processes with the most used Working Set. – Globmont – 2012-08-24T18:04:00.790

@ Mixxiphoid I very rarely restart. Is that my main issue? – Globmont – 2012-08-24T18:04:16.827

@Everyone I changed the images to only show the most Memory (Private Working Set) processes! Thanks for the help everyone! – Globmont – 2012-08-24T18:07:42.733

Your chrome is the one to blame. But you do not need to restart the PC. Simply restart the browser once a day. – mnmnc – 2012-08-24T18:07:53.440

Okay, Let me try to restart chrome now and see what happens. – Globmont – 2012-08-24T18:08:28.073

I restarted chrome and the memory usage went down to 5.42 GB but there are still about 187 processes – Globmont – 2012-08-24T18:10:10.900

1You need to perform regular reboot. Windows is not like Solaris. It has not been designed for the purpose of running for days and days. – mnmnc – 2012-08-24T18:39:48.603

Okay. I'll reboot the computer now and see what happens :) I try to avoid reboots because I find them irritating but I guess I can just do a restart before bed and when I wake up, all is well! – Globmont – 2012-08-24T18:43:20.003

@mnmnc Yeah! The reboot worked. I still have about 150+ processes but thats a lot less than before and my memory usage is <3.5GB so I am happy! – Globmont – 2012-08-24T19:01:22.580

1@mnmnc: Not necessarily true. It depends on your configuration. My laptop runs very well even after several weeks of uptime and is typically restarted only for updates. – bwDraco – 2012-09-16T17:27:34.463

@DragonLord do you have 150+ processes running at boot time? – mnmnc – 2012-09-17T10:39:39.600

@mnmnc: No, more like 95-100 processes. – bwDraco – 2012-09-17T13:57:41.887

Answers

If you ran a program which is now closed you can safely close all remaining processes with that name. For example. If you closed Google Chrome but there are still 30 instances running, you can close them via task manager.
Most memory that is being used, is actually not used but reserved for running programs. Although in this case Chrome is using excessively memory for (probably) nothing.

As mentioned in the comments; Windows is an Operating System which needs reboots to stay fast. You can have it running for half a year, but your performance will be very slow by then.

If you want to avoid regular reboots, you need to check ghost processes once a day/week depending on the way you use your computer. In the case of Google Chrome (but actually all browsers) it can use up a lot of memory for tabs that aren't open anymore. If you use flash or other plug-ins while browsing, keep an eye on your memory usage, it can raise pretty quickly.

Mixxiphoid

Posted 2012-08-24T17:49:39.470

Reputation: 1 026

No. There should not be any processes of Chrome when you close all of its windows. If there are Chrome processes after 2 minutes you have a messed up installation. You need to reinstall chrome in this case not close each remaining process (possibly 30) one by one with task manager. What kind of solution is that? – mnmnc – 2012-08-24T19:00:06.323

Yeah! The reboot worked. I still have about 150+ processes but thats a lot less than before and my memory usage is <3.5GB so I am happy! Thanks Everyone! – Globmont – 2012-08-24T19:01:03.237

@mnmnc I'm not that familiar with Google Chrome. But it seems logical to be an installation bug. I know other programs which also sometimes hang at the closing, the window is closed, but not the process. So the solution applies to programs in general and not just Chrome. – Mixxiphoid – 2012-08-24T19:08:36.063

@Globmont 150+ is still a lot, maybe you can try a program like Ashampoo WinOptimizer which shows you in a friendly way which programs start at reboot. You may cancel a lot of those entries. (but use caution). – Mixxiphoid – 2012-08-24T19:10:57.807

-1

Black Vipers Windows 7 SP 1 Guide: http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/

Microsoft AutoRuns: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

This is a great guide that has been around awhile. Use the grid in the middle of the page to help you choose which services are completely unnecessary to you. If your still crawling, consider a program such as Microsoft's AutoRuns. It allows you to see which programs and processes are launching when you turn on your PC, and you can disable/remove them if you don't need them. Using both of these tools you should easily be able to cut your process list in half with no ill effects.

Lee Harrison

Posted 2012-08-24T17:49:39.470

Reputation: 2 046

1Did you read the comments under question? Its not a matter of unknown processes eating up resources. Its mainly Chrome after 3 days of work. This is a matter of work environment sanitation not system processes running unnecessarily. – mnmnc – 2012-08-24T18:37:42.833