Hi again,
...some thoughts "off the top of my head"...
1) Adding more memory might be worth considering - it's "real cheap", especially compared to years ago.
2) I only have Windows 98 (perhaps later versions are improved) - but I STILL DO have memory problems - from time-to-time - specifically when I've been doing various "heavy-duty" work with different software. At some point, when things get "sluggish", I'll terminate those programs I no longer require. In spite of this, I'm STILL NOT able to "recover" the full memory of my PC. My ONLY option is to re-boot if I want to load a large file, for example an Excel file.
I also question whether the system resources indicator is really "accurate". Perhaps Microsoft's "logic" is that the indicator IS correct - in advising of what the system resources "should be". However, "internally", it might well be a "different" story.
I thought Microsoft advertised that this sort of problem would be eliminated with versions BEYOND Windows 95 (or possibly even WITH Windows 95).
Perhaps others out there can comment on this memory recovery issue, related to later versions of Windows ???
I hope this helps a bit. Best of Luck
Regards, ...Dale Watson dwatson@bsi.gov.mb.ca