Number of Windows possible

[OnDeBanks]

Hi there,
Can anyone tell me is there a limit on the numbers of windows you can have open with Windows 2k Pro? Is there an actual limit built into the OS or does it just depend on the machine's memory?

 

[karmic]

I think it just depends on memory... I remember hitting a couple of websites that opened about 60 or 70 windows in a row, the pc seemed to handle it ok. Had a heck of a time closing them all down but...

~ K.I.S.S - Don't make it any more complex than it has to be ~

 

[bcastner]

I believe it is 254, but have no idea where I read that.

 

[OnDeBanks]

I got a fairly definitive answer on this from the Microsoft W2k newsgroup.

"Hi

With default allocation values in the interactive desktop heap, you e.g. cannot
open more than 50 to 75 Explorer/Internet Explorer windows.

It is the registry value "Windows" under this key that defines the allocation
size:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems

The second number in this substring is the value that defines this size:

....SharedSection=1024,3072,512 ...


And from a previous post:

From: Willy Denoyette [MVP]
Subject: Re: System resource usage
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.performance
Date: 2003-12-01 14:59:51 PST

</quote>
User objects are allocated from the desktop heap which has a system wide
size of 48MB on W2K, this heap consists of three sharedsections, the first
is common to all desktops, the second is per interactive desktop, and the
third is reserved for non interactive desktops.

The values for the three distinct heaps is taken from the registry when the
CSRSS process starts
(see:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\SubSystems\Windows), what you could do is paly a little bit with the
values found in there taking care that the sum of all heaps must fit into 48
MB!!!
</quote>

Before you think about editing that value, please read the two following
Knowledge Base articles carefully:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;184802

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;126962

--
torgeir
Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of the 1328 page
Scripting Guide:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter&quot;

Thanks for your help.