Increasing maximum amount of windows open in WinXP, simultaneously

sunama · 2 Dec 2007 at 22:52

Hi,

I would like to know if there is anyway to change (increase) the amount of windows I can have open simultaneously, in Windows XP.

If anyone knows, please help.

Thanks.

sunama · 3 Dec 2007 at 00:52

It seems to change on the fly. At times Im limited to around 15 (explorer and internet explorer) windows, but when I do a reboot, I can usually open around 20 IE windows before it stops me from opening anymore (ie. you click on IE shortcut and nothing happens).

sunama · 3 Dec 2007 at 01:05

The thing is that when I look at my system resources, there is plenty of ram available (I have 2GB).

The only way to open up more windows, without a reboot, is to open up task manager, close down 1 instance of explorer (there are usually 2 open at this stage) and then open up more windows.

sunama · 3 Dec 2007 at 11:46

Virtual memory is (custom) set at:
Initial size: 8192
Max size: 8192

It is not "system managed".

sunama · 3 Dec 2007 at 14:39

OK.
I shall report back later to inform on whether this did the trick.

Thanks.

sunama · 4 Dec 2007 at 01:44

Right, Ive switched to "system managed page file" and so far so good.
Right now I have 12 windows open (5 folder windows, 6 IE windows and Outlook Express).

I do use tabs in IE as well as opening new windows.

sunama · 4 Dec 2007 at 03:05

Hey thats not fair. I've got more ram than you and I cant even get close to your simultaneous open window numbers.

sunama · 4 Dec 2007 at 15:06

Isnt support for FIrefox limited though? What I mean by that is that IE has widespread support. All web pages are tested in IE first. Mozilla, Firefox, etc are adapted later on.

I dont wnat to move to an inferior web browser.

Also, I havent opened too many windows yet (I only rebooted yesterday and normally the problem I have kicks in after 2-3 weeks or so), but as yet I havent come across the problem (after changing the page file to system managed).

sunama · 4 Dec 2007 at 16:52

bledd. said:
you're currently using the inferior browser!

sunama · 4 Dec 2007 at 17:44

bledd. said:
takes about 30 seconds to install what i've said and check out the difference

after browsing ad-less, you'll never turn back

OK. Lets say I do this and I dont like Firefox. Can I unstall it and will IE7 continue to run without issue. I just dont want to mess up my current settings.