PCTips Box

Windows Vista computers that come equipped with more than 4 GB of system memory have limited shut-down options. Essentially, the Hibernate option is no longer available on Vista machines that feature in excess of 4 GB of RAM. This scenario affects both the 32-bit and the 64-bit editions of Vista, but at the same time also Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Microsoft has confirmed that the issue is related to the large quantity of random access memory.

“This issue occurs because hibernation is disabled on computers that have more than 4 GB of RAM. Hibernation requires sufficient disk space to contain the contents of the computer’s memory. Performance is poor on a computer that has more than 4 GB of memory and that has support for hibernation. (more…)

Managing PC memory isn’t as big an issue as it used to be, but freeing up memory can still provide benefits. Rather than spending a lot of time closing old processes, installing Instant Memory Cleaner is a quick solution.

Once installed, this tiny app (and it really is tiny at 1.8MB) sits in your system tray and if you hover your mouse, it will tell you how much memory is available. To free up memory all you have to do is right click on the icon and select ‘Clean Memory’. Within seconds your PC will have more memory available, which will make all those resource hungry apps you run, move along that little bit faster. (more…)

When it comes down to the 32-bit Windows Vista vs. 64-bit Windows Vista, the comparison generally focuses on the added benefits synonymous with handling system memory. Because the address space of 64-bit Vista is not limited to 4GB, users are able to use a maximum of 128 GB of RAM with the Ultimate, Business and Enterprise SKUS. But at the same time, there are added benefits, and one of them is in terms of security. The 64-bit editions of Vista come to the table with PatchGuard (Kernel Patch Protection), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), Heap and Stack randomization, and even heap corruption detection.

As far as Heap Based Buffer Overruns are concerned, both 32-bit and 64-bit Vista offer protection, but only in the x64 versions of the operating system is the even heap corruption detection enabled by default. Michael Howard, Senior Security Program Manager in the Security Engineering group at Microsoft, explained that, in x86 Vista, software developers have to call the HeapSetInformation API in order to enable heal corruption detection. (more…)