Absolute Beginners Guide to A+ Certification. Covers the Hardware and Operating Systems Exam

Using MEM

The MEM command can be used to determine details about the physical and managed memory in a system. MEM does not display total XMS memory, but only the XMS memory available for a command-prompt session under these versions of Windows.

The following are MEM options for Windows 9x/Me:

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop>mem/? Displays the amount of used and free memory in your system. MEM [/CLASSIFY /DEBUG /FREE /MODULE modulename] [/PAGE] /CLASSIFY or /C Classifies programs by memory usage. Lists the size of programs, provides a summary of memory in use, and lists largest memory block available. /DEBUG or /D Displays status of all modules in memory, internal drivers, and other information. /FREE or /F Displays information about the amount of free memory left in both conventional and upper memory. /MODULE or /M Displays a detailed listing of a module's memory use. This option must be followed by the name of a module, optionally separated from /M by a colon. /PAGE or /P Pauses after each screenful of information.

Windows NT/2000/XP's MEM uses the /C and /D options the same way as in Windows 9x, but the /P option displays program detail. The /F and /M options are not valid for MEM under these versions of Windows.

Here are some examples:

• MEM ” Displays total memory and free memory in the system (Windows 9x/Me); displays total conventional memory and free XMS memory available for the current command-prompt session (Windows NT/2000/XP).

• MEM/C/P ” Displays overall memory information as well as listing programs and devices running in conventional and upper memory blocks (Windows 9x/Me).

• MEM/PMORE ” Displays program details and overall memory information; MORE redirects the output to the MORE program, which breaks the output into screen pages (Windows NT/2000/XP).