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here are some other things he had to say about it:
</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by
To supplement the above information, I've taken another screenshot of my task manager process view to prove what I'm saying. After the extensive tweaking earlier, my normal resource use went down to 37 Megs, with 70 Meg peaks. It occureed to me that taskmanager uses about 5 megs of memory, and objectdock was using 13. I killed task on the dock, and there we have the magic number....60 Megs peak. Without task manager it goes down to about 56 Megs peak and probably right around 30-34 megs normal. On XP Pro.

Screenshot #1
http://rain.prohosting.com/bgzt/ultra_minimal_xp_processview_2.html

For those of ya who don't know where/how this topic started, look here:
http://board.iexbeta.com/ibf10/index.php?showtopic=27545&st=30. *I've continued the thread in a new topic. I recommend everyone follow that link, and bring yourself up to speed. Read the whole page, starting at the top. Once you've gotten yourself familiar with it, continue below.

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I've done some more minor tweaking and made a few more adjustments, and I haven't gotten the Memory useage much lower than 35 MB. It's peaking right around 66 MB, which is not what the target number is. I want the useage at 32 with a 64 peak. The idea is that we want this configuration to be able to be run smoothly on an old IBM Aptiva using the Pentium-Pro 133 Mhz the machine came with, and be able to run smoothly with the 64 Megs of RAM currently installed. This machine was built for Windows NT 3.51, and when I first bought it in 96, it was meant to be a LAN file server for a 25-Workstation office-type setup and had 64 MB more of RAM. Back in the day, the Pentium Pro was THE processor of choice, and the 128 MB of RAM it came with was considered by many of my techs to be "a LOT". I paid close to 3,000 dollars for it, brand new. (Those of us who got started back in the days of Windows 2.0 on the 186 and 286 processors (back when Amiga was king) remember all too well that 8MB of ram was something to behold. 20 Meg hard drives were the standard back then.). Since 98, this machine has sat on a shelf, subjected to all kinds of neglect, with a friggin bedsheet over it. It still has the 3 gig HD it came with, and all of it's hardware (including the NT 3.51 setup disk which is in one of my software lockers.) minus 2 strips of the 32-Meg SIMM memory it once had. My intention is to perfect the Ultra-Min tweak and install XP on it, if possible.

Now, you're going to say "Bullshit. XP won't run on that! It's too slow!". And you might be right, except for the fact that I have personally seen XP running, happy as a lark (minus the multimedia features, which the 486's don't support now) on a 486DX2 system. So I know that it'll accept the hardware. I'd like nothing more than to see that old Aptiva of mine that I REALLY loved back in the day fire up at least once more with a current operating system. It's like old hat --- and there's never a hat as good as your old one.

So, what I'm doing is more of a labor of love and an experiment than anything else. The labor of love part I just described. Now for the experiment.

In the following screenshots, you'll see that I have my current installation of XP Pro using Progman.exe and ObjectDock (with KkMenus) as an interface. Nice, clean, super-minimal desktop, and I have all the functionality that I need (remember, when Progman was used as the primary interface between user and machine, there WAS no start button, or quick launch, or systray or taskbar!). You did everything by browsing for it, clicking on a shortcut (yes, we had those), or using your command line. I liked my progman. My progman liked me....). So, by using progman as your shell (read the link if you didn't catch how to switch shells), you cut XP's use of RAM by more than 60%. Explorer is a HOG when it comes to memory.

Screenshot #1:
http://rain.prohosting.com/bgzt/ultra_minimal_xp.html
Screenshot #2:
http://rain.prohosting.com/bgzt/ultra_minimal_xp_processview.html

And also by using progman, you have the benefit of running XP at near-realtime mode. No command interpreters from Explorer holding things up for what (to me) seems like eternity while you wait for your command to be executed. Progman is THAT much faster. Everything happens almost instantly. I am currently getting a windows initialization time (between login and functional use of windows) of maybe, MAYBE two seconds. Some machines can take up to 45 seconds to initialize. Mine is useable almost as soon as I see my wallpaper. Big difference.

Now, for people like me, I like old with new. So, instead of just using progman's command-line and browsing, I decided ObjectDock was good eyecandy and would suit the whole thing well. Of course, you can use just about anything like Y'z Dock, Desktop X, or whatever for your primary interface. If it's something that has an interface that will allow you to get around your machine and get stuff done, then it's fine. If I wanted to just use progman I'd have stuck with reinstalling 3.1. Nope. I like XP too much to not use it --- but on MY terms!

So, detailed instructions and procedures follow.

EDIT: Tried to fire the machine up...it dosen't work anymore. *So nm.... <hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>