Following up on a couple of articles published earlier this year…
AutoCAD Performance
http://cadit.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/03/autocad-performance.html
System Performance
http://cadit.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/03/system-performance.html
Mentioned in the above articles was the importance of knowing what is running on your machine. Generally we load up all the applications/services that we will ever need to run, but we don’t need them running all the time.
Disabling those applications that you do not need can significantly improve the performance of your machine.
Firstly, you need to know what you have running on your machine. Their are a number of useful tools to identify what is running and more importantly what is taking up useful system resources on your machine. When you have identified all those programs you are running, you can then shut down the ones that you don’t really need.
Tools to use…
Windows Task Manager
The Windows Task Manager provides useful information on running applications and processes as well as performance…
So what does it all mean… I’ll summarise it here, but this information is available in more depth from the Microsoft TechNet web site…
CPU Usage
The percentage of time the processor is running a thread other than the Idle thread
PF Usage
The amount of virtual memory used, in kilobytes
Total Handles
The number of object handles in the tables of all processes
Total Threads
The number of running threads, including one Idle thread per processor
Total Processes
The number of active processes, including the Idle process
Physical Memory: Total
Amount of physical, random access memory, in kilobytes, installed in the computer
Physical Memory: Available
Amount of physical memory available to processes, in kilobytes
It includes zeroed, free, and standby memory
Physical Memory: File Cache
Amount of physical memory, in kilobytes, released to the file cache on demand
Commit Charge: Total
Size of virtual memory in use by all processes, in kilobytes
Commit Charge: Limit
Amount of virtual memory, in kilobytes, that can be committed to all processes without enlarging the paging file
Commit Charge: Peak
The maximum amount of virtual memory, in kilobytes, used in the session.
The commit peak can exceed the commit limit if virtual memory is expanded
Kernel Memory: Total
Sum of paged and nonpaged memory, in kilobytes
Kernel Memory: Paged
Size of the paged pool, in kilobytes, allocated to the operating system
Kernel Memory: Nonpaged
Size of the nonpaged pool, in kilobytes, allocated to the operating system
That’s all good, but I will introduce an alternative tool here, as the Windows Task Manager provides a limited amount of information… enter “Process Explorer” by Sysinternals, for more information on this great application visit www.sysinternals.com
Firstly, what I like about this application is that you can replace the Windows Task Manager with it, i.e. when you right-click on the Windows Task Bar…
…and select “Task Manager”, Process Explorer can be displayed. You have to tell it to do this of course. I’ll explain that later…
Process Explorer provides an easy to understand and navigate interface with some very useful information available for all processes running on you machine. The screenshot below is a partial view of the Process Explorer application window from my PC… click to see an enlarged view.
OK… so I’ve binned the Windows Task Manager in preference for an application that provides a much better “view” of the processes using up my system resources - Process Explorer.
Now I have the ability to identify the processes that I can temporarily remove/disable/stop… or perhaps identify to permanently remove. To temporarily stop a process, you can simply select the process, right-click and select “Kill Process” from the context menu…
I also quite like having the ability to “Kill” something, rather than just stop it, or disable it, or “End Task”… to be able to “Kill” something is somehow much more satisfying.
To replace the Windows Task Manager with Process Explorer, simply run Process Explorer, then select “Replace Task Manager” from the “Options” menu…
As with the Windows Task Manager, you have access to overall System Information…
You can also view detailed properties of all processes running on your machine…
As you review the applications that you can actually live without temporarily, why not identify those applications once, then compile a batch file or script to unload all of those applications prior to starting up your CAD applications.
I will follow up with a separate article on unloading and loading of applications using a simple batch file…
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