Review - MemMaid 1.72

Posted by: PatrickJ on Jul 30 2006 - 4,996 views

 

I’ve been a Pocket PC / mobile device user for a lot of years now, and have never felt the need to run a memory manager type utility. Like many ‘power’ users, I’ve always tended to feel that I knew my devices well enough, and knew how to babysit them well enough, that I just didn’t need a utility for that.  Well, MemMaid has won me over - this is a ‘keeper’ utility.

Read on for a short-take review and reasons why I’ll be keeping, and using, MemMaid …

MemMaid - Intro

As the name would imply, MemMaid is a program designed to manage and optimize memory usage on your Pocket PC. Among the key things it should help you to do are: get rid of temp files and temp internet files, clean up unwanted ‘remnants’ of uninstalled programs, view and manage programs and processes set to run at startup, use memory ‘tweaks’ to optimize (get maxium mileage out of) available memory, and get a list of, and take action on, running processes on your device.

 

I’ve been running MemMaid 1.72 on both a Dell Axim X51V and a Cingular 8125 for a couple of weeks now, and finding it easy to work with and a real solid performer. On the 8125, where memory is at much more of a premium, it has really been a gem.  

Installation on a Windows Mobile 5 device was quick and straightforward, with the expected set of choices and wizards. So we’ll move straight along to … 

A Look at What It Can Do

MemMaid’s user interface is divided into six main sections to work with, all laid out very nicely with large buttons at the bottom of its main screen.

 

Here’s a look at the six sections and a very brief overview of what you can do in each of them:

Quick and Advanced Cleaners

 

This is probably the most commonly used section for most users, as it’s here that you can carry out a lot of day-to-day ‘housekeeping’ on your device.  The main difference between the Quick Cleaner and Advanced Cleaner modes is that the Advanced Cleaner shows you details and allows you to drill down to view individual found items before deciding to clean them. You toggle between the two modes via an easy drop down at the top left of this screen.

From this screen you choose to Scan for items to be cleaned in categories like temporary files, IE cache files, IE cookies, bad uninstall files, and bad uninstall registry entries. My preference is to always use Advanced Cleaner mode and look at details on a number of items before cleaning. Once you’ve scanned, and reviewed the findings, you can choose to Clean (remove) items in any or all categories via simple checkbox selection.

Notification Queue

 

Usage of this section is as described in the screenshot above - finding and removing duplicate and dud reminder and alarm events etc. 

Memory Tweaks (incl. DLL Optimizer)

 

The main Memory Tweaks screen allows you to adjust things like size and location of your IE cache and the font cache size.  If you’re brave (and you should take great care even if you are) you can toggle to and enable the DLL Optimizer screen in this section. With DLL Optimizer, you can look to free up more main memory by moving DLLs (extensions) from main memory to other storage locations. MemMaid even provides a little color-coded guidance here on which DLLs you can look at moving - based on user reports of what is safe to move, and has an information window at the bottom of the screen to provide details on a selected DLL.

Startup Programs (incl. Startup Services view)

Very useful. This section provides an at-a-glance view of startup programs, startup services, and Today screen plugins. From here you can add or remove startup programs, get rid of a startup service, and turn on and off Today screen plugins.

Storage Usage

 

An Explorer type view, but with some nice extras. For example - chart views of storage used by folders within a directory, and a size listing right next to folder names as shown above.  

Running Processes  

The equivalent of Task Manager on a Windows PC - provides a listing of currently running processes on your device.  This does not refresh automatically, but can be refreshed via the Refresh button at top right of this screen.

This is a great section to look at regularly, just as a good way to get to know your device better, and get a better feel for which applications spawn which processes and so on.

Reclaim RAM

This is another very handy feature within MemMaid, which does not have its own section, but can be invoked from the device’s Programs menu, or from the ‘Jump To’ menu within MemMaid.  As its name indicates, this tool is used to claim back memory not handed back correctly to the OS by a closed application, or even to close running apps in order to gain back more RAM.

Overall Impressions:

Things To Like:

• Well-designed UI - easy to navigate, with decent D-pad integration also
• Effective and Complete - for cleaning, claiming back RAM, optimizing memory usage, and more
• Excellent Help - I love it when you see an app that has good, clear and context-sensitive Help
• Solid and Reliable - causes no system performance hit when running it 

A few Wish List Items:

• More info on the Running Processes screen - would be nice to see a bottom window showing the owning application / folder location of the executable
• More D-pad integration - would like to be able to toggle all the way back down to the sections buttons from within an individual section screen (this can be done via Soft Keys)  

MemMaid is a solid and very useful utility.  I say solid because it has caused zero lockups or system performance issues on either of my devices.  Many PC utilities suffer from the major drawback of being too resource-hungry and having an adverse effect on system performance when you run them - no such worries at all with MemMaid.

Many of the things that MemMaid does could be done manually. The more experienced a user you are, the more true that will be. But … MemMaid is a big timesaver and a much neater way to handle most of these tasks, and maximize memory performance on your handheld.   

As mentioned at the outset, I’m a convert - and will be keeping MemMaid as a trusted and very helpful uility program.  

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Tags: MemMaid, Pocket PC memory management, optimize Pocket PC memory, Just Another Mobile Monday

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