First of all, this page is based pretty much on Windows 3.x. The
reason being that most of these problems were solved with the release of Windows 95. Given
that, 3.x users may first want to consider upgrading to Windows 95. Of course, there are
other considerations for this decision, such as computing power, but if you have a
powerful enough machine, I highly recommend it.
Windows 3.x is inherently bad at managing its system
resources. Namely, the first 64KB of memory which Windows tries to have all of its
programs share. The biggest way you know you run out of these system resources is when you
get the famous "Out of Memory" error, even when you know you have tons of
memory.
There a number of things you could try if you want to
help this:
- If you leave your system, on most of the time, make a
point to restart Windows every one in a while. This gives it a fresh start. - Decrease your video settings down to 256 color. More
colors hogs system resources. Besides, at 256 colors, images look pretty good already. - Take a look at the StartUp window. If there are any
programs in there that you don’t need running, delete the icon. This will make sure it
doesn’t load automatically, but it is still on the drive in case you want it later. - Close unused programs. Simple. This includes times when
you have two of the same program open. Sometimes this happens accidentally. - Finally, any time the system locks up due to running out
of resources, reboot Windows.

David Risley is the founder of PCMech.com. He is the brains, the thinker, the writer, the nerd.