[thedigitalgod]

windows cant normally address 4 gigs of ram, but you can make it =)

go to your boot.ini file in the root of your c: partition (its a hidden, system file), open it with notepad and it should look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="thedigitalgod" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

add these two switches: /3GB /PAE (only use the PAE switch if youre on an intel chipset)

so it looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="thedigitalgod" /3GB /PAE /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

save it and reboot.

and you can now actually use all of your RAM.

the 3GB switch tells windows to allocate 3gb of system memory to programs and leave 1gb for the OS and the /PAE switch allows for more than 4gb to be addressed. technically, only the 3gb switch should be needed, but it seems that my system ran even faster with both the pae and 3gb switches. could be all in my head with the pae, but either way, use the 3gb switch and youll be able to address all of your memory.

if youre not comfortable modifying your boot.ini, then dont, cuz if you do it incorrectly you wont be using any of your ram because your system wont boot.

windows will still only show that it sees 3gb of ram, but its using all 4.

and the commit charge is the total of all ram AND virtual memory in use by all apps, not just ram.

enjoy.

-shawn