Memoryfox

[jaycelou]

if you have RAM constrain and not getting RAM upgrade soon, try Memory Fox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/memory-fox/?src=userprofile it serve me very well

[Blacklab]

No problems so far running Pale Moon 15.0 on Windows 7 Starter/Atom N550 Netbook (1.5GHz, 1MB L2 cache) still with "as built" 1GB DDR3 RAM. I did a clean install yesterday and so far find PM 15.0 smooth, blisteringly quick, and page rendering noticeably sharper - even on tiny 10.1" screen. I have opened example links from ninaholic's original post (See first post on: http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1302)and browsed both articles without any hangs or cursor freezes. VMT Moonchild!

@jaycelou - thanks for Memory Fox Add-on suggestion - looks very interesting! (I don't want to break seal to upgrade RAM until warranty period over..... and max RAM only 2GB. I gather opening this version of Acer Aspire One (D255E) is a rather tricky job! Tried Readyboost some months ago using a fast SD card but did not find it made a very significant improvement - perhaps a card reader limitation? Speed difference between PM 12.3 and PM 15.0 much more obvious!)

@ Moonchild - Looking forward to trying Pale Moon 15.1 with your improvements for integrated graphics chips - TIA.

EDITS: This "Memory Fox" topic began as response to ninaholic's topic on Community support board "Downgraded back to 12.3" (@ http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1302) regarding problems running PM 15.0 on an Atom N2600 netbook - which like all Intel Atom IC's is usually supplied/built with only 1GB RAM, certainly not much memory these days, and the "Atom" maximum possible RAM upgrade is only to 2GB in total.

Also for consideration is that upgrading RAM requires "open netbook surgery" on most of these very small machines which almost certainly invalidates any purchase warranty - 1 year standard in UK. I looked but could not find the Acer Aspire One model I wanted with full 2GB RAM already installed - since these useful little machines are "built down to a price" this is not really surprising, just annoying!

[steviem1]

@jaycelou - thanks for Memory Fox Add-on suggestion - looks very interesting!...

It works by constantly swapping memory out onto HDD, the default settings are severe but it can be configured to be more passive and be of some use for low memory issues... should be viewed as a quick fix rather than a cure though.

[Blacklab]

I thought that was what OS Paging File was doing anyway, especially in systems with low installed memory? A quick look at memory bar graph in Windows Task Manager>Performance suggests Memory Fox is certainly doing something!

Steviem1 wrote: ...(Memory Fox's) default settings are severe but it can be configured to be more passive...

Perhaps Memory Fox should come with Firefox's about:config "I'll be careful, I promise" warning before installation? Any recommendations or useful links for finding those "more passive settings" gratefully received - or is it just trial and error?

EDIT: Suspect this is veering "off topic" - so perhaps any further posts should be in "Memory Fox" topic on Add-ons or Technical Chat boards if one does not already exist. I note there was a "ReadyBoost" discussion not long ago.

[lyceus]

if you have RAM constrain and not getting RAM upgrade soon, try Memory Fox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/memory-fox/?src=userprofile it serve me very well

Thank for the tip since this helps also for the netbooks that are around the home.

[jaycelou]

Just a quick note about Memory Fox. It doesn't support 64 bit browser.

Anything else beyond this should be discuss under "Add-ons & Plug-ins" section, if anybody else interested.

[steviem1]

Any recommendations or useful links for finding those "more passive settings" gratefully received - or is it just trial and error?

If you want to try it, it's probably best just to give it a whirl and have a play with the settings to find something suitable for your system. Due to the memory swapping method it uses you will most likely find an overall performance slowdown - but then again maybe not! I used Memory fox for a short while but didn't like the way it constantly accesses the HDD, the main reason I ditched it in favour of the manual. 'config.trim_on_minimize' tweak in about:config.

[Blacklab]

@ lobocursor: Whilst rummaging around the Memory Fox Homepage looking for enlightenment as to how this Add-on actually works, since the set-up option descriptions seem rather opaque..... I came across an altogether higher form of "enlightenment" regarding why the developer is rather oddly called "IDEVFH"

I thought you might enjoy this page if you had not already spotted it? http://browsermemory.com/idevfh-name/

[Blacklab]

For anyone trying out Memory Fox, after jaycelou's recommendation above, and who then downloaded version 7.4 - this message is now at top of Memory Fox's homepage @ http://browsermemory.com/current-memory-fox/

Please note as of ( 08-27-12: ), I’ve delayed the download link to (Memory Fox version 7.6 ) .
I decided to incorporate applicability for the Visually Impaired. Hopeful, to release on or before 09-01-12.

So update very soon. Even better, if you scroll to the bottom of that page, just above the Win 7/Vista & XP download links, there is this refreshingly encouraging statement for us Pale Moon users:

Support Including Nightly 17.0a1 and Pale Moon Browsers

Note: You may need to add Memory Fox’s ( afom.exe ) support file to your firewall protection software as trusted.

Note: If you have any problems downloading or running Memory Fox then email me at : idevfh@gmail.com and I’ll check out any issues.

So nice to see an Add-on Developer with a user-friendly attitude and one who supports Pale Moon as well! Hooray!

[stravinsky]

i'd hate any program that is constantly paging to the harddisk.

if you need minimal RAM usage, you can try opening a tab with URL about:memory.
There you can click the "minimise memory usage" button. This can be done when you close a tab and you want to ensure that whatever RAM that tab was using is returned.

[megaman]

if you need minimal RAM usage, you can try opening a tab with URL about:memory.
There you can click the "minimise memory usage" button. This can be done when you close a tab and you want to ensure that whatever RAM that tab was using is returned.

That still does not help my case(War on Flash), but Memoryfox and the like can benefit those with light tasks, less than 10 tabs and mostly text sites.

[Blacklab]

In his final reply post to "Memory usage is NOT exorbitant" topic on Pale Moon Portable board (http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php ... yfox#p7445) I note that Moonchild wrote:

The core application palemoon.exe is small, since it is a launcher for what is called a xulrunner process; the xul library, javascript library and actual browser interface and modules are dynamically loaded from that, and all of these components are classified as "data" or "dynamic code" and will be swapped out even if in use. Using EmptyWorkingSet on such a program will basically cripple it; the only reason it is still workable even when using Firemin (or Memoryfox for that matter, which does the same) is because of Windows' file caching system that prevents the browser from physically having to read everything back in from disk, and can swap it back in from cache memory (in the end you will still be using the same amount of memory, but it will be slower to access and you have overhead - as well as disk flushes slowing things down when the cache is actually written to the swap file).

The rest of that topic may be worth a read as Memory Fox gets at least one other mention. I have also noticed a problem with growing fragmentation in System Volume/Restore files on my Win 7 machine since running Memory Fox - and Diskeeper seems unable to counter this presumeably due to defragmentation problems with VSS enabled files - perhaps a coincidence but I am watching closely as with low installed Ram I have always tried to keep fragmentation to a minimum.

If I understand Moonchild correctly - using Memory Fox is not really improving the situation at all - in fact it's making things worse?

EDITS: PM Portable topic is actually: "Memory usage is exorbitant" - Moonchild adjusted his post title only to "Memory usage is NOT exorbitant"

[satrow]

You might consider using CleanMem, it's not as dramatic in effect as things like MemoryFox but it doesn't push everything into the pagefile either: http://www.pcwintech.com/about-cleanmem

[Moonchild]

If I understand Moonchild correctly - using Memory Fox is not really improving the situation at all - in fact it's making things worse?

You understood correctly.
It will indeed make things worse, in favor of showing a lower number in task manager.

If you are running out of memory on your system, it may possibly help (a little) if you have a lot of tabs open that you don't actively use and that can safely be swapped out, but even then, actively used tabs and generic system components that shouldn't be swapped out will also be swapped out and need to be swapped back in right after. So whenever it kicks in, it will cause slowdowns, regardless of there being "unused" data or not. If you are running low on memory, this would also automatically be done by Windows, and then at a system-wide level. I really see no benefit of running memory fox at all, except in very rare circumstances where reclaiming memory of currently unused background tabs is desired, trading off a small gain in working memory for a loss in speed, and where Windows for whatever reason doesn't do a good job managing the memory itself.

[jaycelou]

After reading your post, I think I need to reassess the actual need and effect on PM15.
I'm comparing my experience of previous version with v15, 32 bit and 64 bit and maybe with FF15 as well, therefore, it will take a few days. Stay tune.

[jaycelou]

...if you need minimal RAM usage, you can try opening a tab with URL about:memory.
There you can click the "minimise memory usage" button. This can be done when you close a tab and you want to ensure that whatever RAM that tab was using is returned.

Sounds interesting, is it permanent? If not how to make it permanent?

[steviem1]

If you are running out of memory on your system, it may possibly help (a little) if you have a lot of tabs open that you don't actively use and that can safely be swapped out, but even then, actively used tabs and generic system components that shouldn't be swapped out will also be swapped out and need to be swapped back in right after.

As I like to have upwards of 25 tabs on the tab bar at any one time. On my relatively low memory system, I've now abandoned utilities that auto-swap memory onto HDD, as indeed they cause reductions in overall system performance. I have reverted to using methods that I can control by using add-ons that can auto-unload unused tabs after a specified (fully configurable) time period and also enables one-click unloading/reloading of either single or multiple tabs.

This leads to a considerable gain in useable memory for my system without impacting other resourses, I've assumed these methods actually handle memory useage in a completely different way to such as 'Memory Fox' ?

Also, from what Stravinsky said, by opening about:memory you can click on 'minimise memory useage' which apparently releases RAM also, this one I didn't know about. Presumably this releases memory in the same way as the unload tabs method?

[Moonchild]

Also, from what Stravinsky said, by opening about:memory you can click on 'minimise memory useage' which apparently releases RAM also, this one I didn't know about. Presumably this releases memory in the same way as the unload tabs method?

No, it's completely unrelated - and you normally also don't need to do this as the browser does it automatically now and then. You just manually trigger the garbage collection calls. This memory is unrelated to unloading tabs (which is a really good way to go about it, actually, if you want to save memory) and there is no need to look for a way to "automate" this as that is already done.

[jumba]

OT There was addon that would unload tabs after a certain time of inactivity. It was called UnloadTabs, but it can't be found anymore from AMO.
Here is a topic of its disappearance. It also contains softpedia download link, and a mention to another addon called dormancy.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 8a0cc50009

So can Memory Fox unload inactive tabs from the memory?

Edit: found another solution for this by using TabUtilities with "browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand" set to true and "extensions.tabutils.restartAfter" set to minutes after unloading inactive tabs.

[jaycelou]

Although still testing but I have strong feeling that PM15 doesn't need MemoryFox anymore.

Sometime it used more than 1GB of RAM, but the browser doesn't lag or behave strangely like previous version.

Still testing...