Increasing maximum amount of windows open in WinXP, simultaneously

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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NW London
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.
 
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).
 
I was quite sceptical about there being a limit at all - anyway, I tried opening IE windows and got to about 35 at which point I couldn't open any more (got a nasty beeping sound and a useless IE window).

I imagine it's dependant on your available RAM and so on rather than a specific setting? It seems most likely given that we both have significantly different results.
 
ie makes a clicking sound when the system is heavily in use.

Use firefox and tab browsing, uses far less ram. Each window is taking around 20mb of ram.

on 110 and still going..
Wait till the computer sorts itself out and you can carry on opening. 2gb ram here.
 
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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.
 
I tried opening IE windows and got to about 35 at which point I couldn't open any more (got a nasty beeping sound and a useless IE window).
That is just the system catching up, leave it for a few seconds to sort it self out and they become available.

System is starting to flake out at 154.. Still allows me to open more and use all the browsers though.
 
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have you done something silly like disable the virtual memory?

set it to 'system managed' or whatever it's called
 
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).

15/20 windows? :rolleyes: no comment. is that 15 windows of porn? ;)
 
That is just the system catching up, leave it for a few seconds to sort it self out and they become available.

That's definitely not the case for me. I did it again just now, got to 35 windows again, and it wouldn't open any more IE windows. I waited a good 10 minutes and it still won't open another.
 
My Vista system flakes out at around 40 IE windows - that's with 3GB RAM.

Why do you need 15 IE windows anyway? Can't you just use tabs in Firefox or IE7?
 
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.
 
Hey thats not fair. I've got more ram than you and I cant even get close to your simultaneous open window numbers.
 
As I'm completely bored, I've just opened 159 Firefox Windows and 28 IE Windows, my system froze as I tried to open #29!
2.5GB RAM!

I should goto bed! :o:D
 
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