Rainmeter

Windows specific questions.
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deltarho[1859]
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Rainmeter

Post by deltarho[1859] »

Do any of you use Rainmeter? If so then you may well have SYSTEM on your desktop.

Anyway, I have augmented SYSTEM to include 'PAGEFILE Usage'. I am a bit old fashioned and could not get used to 'SWAP Usage'.

I changed 'SWAP Usage' to 'COMMIT Usage' to bring it in line with Windows terminology. The update interval was a tad too large for my liking so changed it to two seconds. Process Hacker uses one second by default and refers to two seconds as below normal but I reckon that two seconds is fine for the metrics we are examining. Talking of Process Hacker I used that to check the values via 'System Information' as Task Manager is a bit 'half hearted' with decimal places.

The augmented SYSTEM is called SystemExtra.ini and looks like this:

Image

Here is a zip of the SystemExtra folder for dropping into:
"C:\Users\<YourName>\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\illustro\" whatever <YourName> is.

SystemExtra.zip
deltarho[1859]
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Re: Rainmeter

Post by deltarho[1859] »

The edited file has a licence - I missed that. However, I checked it out and it seems that I am OK with what I have done.

The above download link will give the latest version which now includes 'Up TIME' and CPU TEMP; the latter using a plugin by Core Temp.

Image
deltarho[1859]
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Re: Rainmeter

Post by deltarho[1859] »

For 'CPU TEMP' to work we need Core Temp installed and started with Windows otherwise we get 'CPU TEMP 0'.

Sorry about that - I have been using Core Temp since XP.

I can issue a version without 'CPU TEMP' if anyone wants one. Core Temp saved my bacon a few years ago when my fans needed cleaning.
deltarho[1859]
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Re: Rainmeter

Post by deltarho[1859] »

Both Process Hacker and Process Explorer detail the Commit usage peak so I have added that. Whilst doing that I added a Pagefile peak as well.

I had a problem with the peaks in so far as keeping a record so went to the Rainmeter forums for some help. A member called balala came to my rescue with a very elegant solution - I was making a right 'dog's dinner' of it. <smile>

Suppose we have a Commit peak of 50%. This is telling us that we had given the system twice as much memory, via RAM and Pagefile, that the system needed at the time of the peak. However, we could be 'topping out' on Pagefile use and the Commit charge would not be telling us that so I still think it worth while to detail the Pagefile.

With regard CPU TEMP that can removed by deleting the blocks [meterLabelMaxTemp], [MeasureMaxTemp], [MeasureCore1Temp] and [MeterMaxTemp] from SystemExtra.ini.
deltarho[1859]
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Joined: Jan 02, 2017 0:34
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Re: Rainmeter

Post by deltarho[1859] »

Are any of you using Rainmeter? Maybe not.

Anway, here is a new version of SystemExtra.ini.

Image

I have taken Mark Russinovich's lead here. From Pushing the Limits of Windows: Virtual Memory: "There’s no end of ridiculous advice out on the web and in the newsstand magazines that cover Windows, and even Microsoft has published misleading recommendations. Almost all the suggestions are based on multiplying RAM size by some factor, with common values being 1.2, 1.5 and 2." He then wrote: "To optimally size your paging file you should start all the applications you run at the same time, load typical data sets, and then note the commit charge peak (or look at this value after a period of time where you know maximum load was attained)."

With the new SystemExtra.ini if either 'Commit peak' or 'Pagefile peak' or both are less than 50% then their values are displayed green. This is what I call the ultra safe zone where the safety margin is at least double that of the peak values. Above 50% the values are displayed amber. This is not a warning; we are simply being told that we are not in the ultra safe zone. If these peaks are taken from your system during a typical load then it may be unlikely that they will increase by very much. Above 75% the values are displayed red. Again this may be OK but we may be pushing our luck. If the Pagefile 'tops out' then the system will be unable to page any more memory from RAM. So, we could have RAM which is wasted and the potential is there for more waste. The amount of memory available for the Filecache will reduce and it is the Filecache which makes our systems 'rock'. This could be a time to increase the Pagefile. If the 'Commit peak' tops out then Windows may have already chipped in with a low memory warning. Increasing the Pagefile may help but the course of action should be keep the load lower or get more RAM.

I started this exercise for a friend who was having issues with his machine and it was initially thought it may be a memory management problem. It transpired that his third party drivers were grossly out of date and some of them were refusing to unload on a Restart - it was taking over 12 minutes. Up to date drivers and a tweak got him down to 2 mins 10 secs. He is a power user and has a lot more going on than I do with his machine running 24 hours 7 days a week. He has 16GB of RAM and had a Pagefile of 12GB. He is now using a Pagefile of 4 to 6 GB.
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