CNET Editors' review
Tired of processes and applications that hog memory and bog down your system's response speed? This free utility is designed for managing those repeat offenders, but we found no dramatic improvements in our tests.
Minimem launches an attractive, easy-to-comprehend interface that lists the active processes that meet a user-defined threshold for memory use. From this list you may select those you want to optimize for more judicious memory use. In our tests, we found it very simple to configure the utility to optimize memory use within a range of time, i.e. from every 2 to every 1,200 seconds, and select the processes to optimize. We liked that we could choose the thresholds that trigger memory optimization.
However, we didn't discern any dramatic improvements in memory use or system performance after executing Minimem's tweaks. Checking Task Manager showed slight reductions in memory use, but differences were so small as to be negligible. Power users who need a robust memory-optimizing package will want to skip this free tool, which looks good and proved easy to use, but didn't deliver the goods.
Publisher's Description
From Kerkia:
Initially developed for Firefox only, Minimem now can reduce the memory footprint of any application. It runs in the background and can be set up to optimize as many processes as you'd like, using a very intuitive graphical interface. Unlike other memory optimization tools, it gives you full control over what applications you want to optimize, when, and how often.
What's new in this version: Support for native 64 bits Windows OS. Memory colored indicator as tray icon, in addition to memory info in the tray icon tooltip. Localization of the application, with multiple languages available. Engine optimization. More RAM thresholds available, for more granularity in their selection. Full rewrite of the architecture.
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All versions:
5.0 starsout of 12 votes
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Current version:
5.0 starsout of 3 votes
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My rating:
Write review
Results 1-3 of 3
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"Great Software, it puts IE9 and Firefox in their place!"
Version: Minimem 2.0
Pros
It works as advertised. You will recover Gigas of RAM in minutes. It stops IE and Firefox mad consumption of RAM.
Cons
None so far.
Summary
I agree with previous reviewer: CNET's review is not accurate. The program works pretty well. I've been trying to find a solution for the monstruous RAM comsuption problem of IE9 and FF4 on a Windows 7 machine for a long time. I've posted on Windows forums and when I told the incompetent guys over there that nine or ten IE9 tabs were taking up to 1.8 GB of Ram, they replied that it was normal, that I needed to buy more RAM...
Even if the system has 4GB of RAM which is fair, opening Photoshop and listening to music caused the system to crash if IE or FF4 were open.
So, thanks to this little program the ammount of RAM consumed by IE with the same number of tabs opened has been reduced to less than 300. -
"Works just as advertised"
Version: Minimem 2.0
Pros
The only method I could find to reliably reduce my memory usage in Firefox 4.0.
Cons
None so far
Summary
Like a previous reviewer, I joined CNet for the purpose of leaving a review for this program, I am that impressed with it. I like using FF4, but my computer specs are a little light, and FF4 consumes memory even worse than its predecessors. I've searched to try to find reliable methods of reducing this memory usage. The only way I've found is to restart the browser, which can take several minutes on my slow computer - and it doesn't take long for the mem usage to get upwards of 500MB again. I installed Minimem 2.0, left the settings at default, added FF4 to the list of processes to optimize... and it just works. The default mem threshold is 300 MB, and it performs an optimize every 30 seconds. That's sufficient to keep my FF sessions running between 250 - 325 MB of memory usage. I have almost no pauses and slowdowns anymore! I highly recommend this, especially if you're having issues with Firefox
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"this works well. CNET's review is 'off the mark'."
Version: Minimem 2.0
Pros
ran this program and 10 min later it freed up 1G of ram. i call that 'spectacular'. make sure and de-check the option "do not optimize if free ram is over xxx". does not appear to adversely effect performance.
Cons
none that i can find
Summary
my first ever review. had to sign up just to give this app the credit it is due. it works great. select the running services/apps that are hogging memory. give it some time, i'm guessing that several runs are needed to optimize. this app is saving my ass. i needed to free ram for matlab. it works!!!
i don't know why CNET didn't see any differences. some apps just can't be memory reduced, but also maybe they just didn't use the app correctly. you have to uncheck that box "do not optimize..." otherwise nothing happens.
Results 1-3 of 3
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