Need help with turning off stacks

[PosiBolt]

Here's the deal. I have a computer running under Windows ME. I need to turn off stacks to increase performance and for the most part be able to leave my computer on for more than a day at a time without having to reboot due to not having any more resources. I've downloaded WinBoost 2001 and i've used it before to turn off stacks. This time, however, it doesn't work. i don't know if it's just this install of ME or what, but I tell it to turn off stacks, restart, and the stacks are still on. Reinstalling is not an option since my ME CD is scratched beyond recognition by now. Is there any way to manually turn off stacks in Windows ME or fix whatever might be causing it to not turn them off in the first place? Any information on this would be greatly appreciated. Please respond or e-mail me directly if you have any information on this.

[HAL9000]

If you're running it 24 hours a day, why not just schedule a reboot during off hours. Just go to your task scheduler and use this as the command line;

C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 0x2

It has always worked quite well on both my machines.

[galaxian]

"I need to turn off stacks "
Can you clarify exactly what you want to do?
And what your definition of "stacks" is?

[PosiBolt]

The thing is, HAL, I run a file server. Rebooting my computer isn't an option. Also, my computer has never been one to reboot without alot of complaints, and the programs I need to have running would not automatically reload properly without user supervision. Thanks for the suggestion, but what I really need is to turn stacks off.

[bailey]

if you are talking about the same kind of stacks I think you are
( the same that was used in the config .sys file, or was it in the autoexec.bat file, don't remember for sure)
the system will not run properly, also I don't think me gives you the option to do that, I could be wrong, I have been before.

[PosiBolt]

Stacks, as far as I know, are what a computer uses to help programs load and run faster. They take a portion of your resources and/or RAM, and set it aside for the their respective programs. Over time, these stacks build up, and take up more and more of your resources, till eventually, you run out and you have to reset to do anything. Turning off stacks slightly increases load and run times, but it's better in the long run because your computer can go alot longer without running out of resources. At least, that's how I see it. That's what it seemed to do for me when I had them off before. I could let my computer run for days, even weeks at a time without needing a reset. Now, I might be able to go a day and a half, tops.

[galaxian]

The "no more stacks" option, when selected, places a Stacks=0,0 in the Config.sys file and dear old Winboost even says this will improve performance!!

This is a DOS option. I thought you were running Me. Setting this will have absolutely no affect on Windows performance.

If you are running out of resources, which you sort of indicate you are, you are either starting too many overhead apps at boot time, or, one of your apps is causing a resource leak.

The basic architecture of windows is based on stacks. You can't just "turn them off".

[HAL9000]

Personally, I would consider one of two options then;

1) Clean up that machine so that it can reboot properly, it has issues if it can't. Even as a file server, there must be some kind of off hours it can reboot.

2) The smartest thing to do would be switch it over to NT or 2K.

[PosiBolt]

Thanks again for the help, Hal. I wish I could switch it over to something a little more stable than ME. Thing is, file serving, while one of the main things it does in it's idle time, is only part of the purpose of this machine. This is my gaming machine. That's mostly the reason I havn't gone over to something that is known to be more stable (but has less compatibility). That, and getting NT or 2000 would cost money I don't have at the moment. I really just need to reinstall ME, but I don't have that option either anymore. I guess i'm just trying to get my computer back to the way it was before. I used to be able to run it for days, even weeks at a time without a reboot. Then something odd happened. The only way I can think of describing it is that my registry "hiccuped", so to speak. One day, every app decided that it wasn't going to work right anymore. When I tried to change their settings back to the way it was, they wouldn't save those settings. I eventually had to reinstall most of the applications on my computer. Ever since, it hasn't quite worked right, but I havn't found anything I could do for it short of a reinstall.