Many people know that it is important to defragment the hard drive of a computer from time to time, but it is equally important to also defragment RAM! Read on to find out how to make sure your system is running at the optimum speed and performing with optimal functionality, by defragmenting your system memory!
About
RAM is short for Random Access Memory. It serves as your computer's short term memory, and your open applications use it. Sometimes, when you close a program, the RAM your computer was using to operate the program is not released back to the system as free memory. This is why defragmenting your memory comes in handy. Defragmenting your system memory frees up that wasted RAM and releases back to your computer the speed and finesse it has lost.
Windows will crash if there is no free system memory, and your programs will act erratically if you do not have much system memory available. Defragmenting your RAM will allow more system memory to be free more often, and many utilities will allow you to see how much system memory is available at any given time.
For more information on RAM, please see: What is RAM? and How To Upgrade RAM?
Step One
Unlike defragmenting your hard drive, you cannot use a Windows utility to defragment your RAM. This means that you must download a separate program to enable you to complete the task. Relax, there are several options out there, and many of them are free.
For the purposes of this article, we are going to use RAM Def 2.6 Xtreme, which is available for free at download.com. To get this program and follow along with this article, click here. If you want to check out other options, just take a look around download.com.
Download the software. Don't worry, it's been tested, and is spyware and virus free! Save the install .zip to your computer. Unzip the file to a location where you will be able to find it, like My Documents. Once you have unzipped the file, double click on the rdef26xt.exe file, and follow the on screen instructions to install the program.
Step Two
Run the program. Upon the first time running the program, you will be prompted to adjust some options to better suit your needs. Click yes.
Set these options to your liking. I have mine set up to warn me when I have reached 1/3 RAM, and to automatically clean it up when it reaches that level. I also have it set to start up with Windows, and to display the amount of free RAM in digits.
After you choose the options, click OK.
Step Three
Now a screen pops up to show your current statistics. Click Start to defragment your system memory. After the process is complete, click Send to Tray to send the icon to your system tray so that you can monitor your RAM at all times.
Tips, Warnings, and Other Information
- Keep the program running all the time to keep an eye on your system.
- Defragment the memory any time the computer acts sluggish, or you see the amount of available memory getting low.
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