Skype memory reducer

[lokster]

Skype users may have noticed, that recent versions consume a lot of memory - 20 or even 30 megabytes.

This script reduces the memory used by skype, by continuously freeing the memory used by skype.exe and skypePM.exe.

Maybe in some cases this will cause some lag when using skype - eventually when talking with alot of people or makeing videocall.

I don't have webcam right now, so I can't test how skype behaves when making video call.

For now it works fine(~2 hours)

The script itself consumes about 700kb memory.

This may, or may not be usefull to you, but here it is:

skype-memory-reducer.au3

expandcollapse popup

#include <Misc.au3>
_Singleton("skype-memory-reducer")

Opt("TrayMenuMode", 1)
Opt("TrayOnEventMode", 1)

TrayCreateItem("Quit")
TrayItemSetOnEvent(-1, "Bye")
TraySetState()

Global Const $interval = 2000 ; interval at which the memory is freed, anything below this will almost certainly only slow down your system.

;here you can add any other process,
;but be carefull which process you choose,
;bacause in some cases this will slow down your application or even your PC
Global $list = "skype.exe|skypePM.exe"
Global $processlist = StringSplit($list, "|")

While 1
    For $i = 1 To UBound($processlist) - 1
        $pid = ProcessExists($processlist[$i])
        If $pid Then _ReduceMemory($pid)
    Next
    _ReduceMemory(); also reduce the memory used by the script itself...
    Sleep($interval)
WEnd

Func Bye()
    Exit
EndFunc   ;==>Bye

;I don't remember who was the author of this UDF... (it's not me)
Func _ReduceMemory($i_PID = -1)
    If $i_PID <> -1 Then
        Local $ai_Handle = DllCall("kernel32.dll", 'int', 'OpenProcess', 'int', 0x1f0fff, 'int', False, 'int', $i_PID)
        Local $ai_Return = DllCall("psapi.dll", 'int', 'EmptyWorkingSet', 'long', $ai_Handle[0])
        DllCall('kernel32.dll', 'int', 'CloseHandle', 'int', $ai_Handle[0])
    Else
        Local $ai_Return = DllCall("psapi.dll", 'int', 'EmptyWorkingSet', 'long', -1)
    EndIf

    Return $ai_Return[0]
EndFunc   ;==>_ReduceMemory

Edited July 5, 2007 by lokster

[Omegis]

WOW !!!!!!!

the best one yet !

i have test it on skype, maxthon and thunderbird ... it was working every time !

can you please quote the function detalis from the DLLs ?

Thanks !

[lokster]

These are standard Windows API functions.

OpenProcess

EmptyWorkingSet

CloseHandle

[gamepin126]

Very nice, and useful for many other apps. I like

[rambo3889]

Very nice and simple, about the UDF i think it was made by W0uter

[nixnox]

I'm sorry that i might sound stupid, but how do i use it? I had a skypememoryreducer.exe, but recent PC change i forgot to copy it to flash drive. Now i can't find it anywhere.

[Carlo84]

I don't remember who was the author of this UDF... (it's not me)

[BrewManNH]

These scripts don't actually reduce the memory used, it just pages the memory used by the process to the pagefile which will make your program run even slower. Don't bother with them.

[JRSmile]

These scripts don't actually reduce the memory used, it just pages the memory used by the process to the pagefile which will make your program run even slower. Don't bother with them.

Thats right, but,

if you have limited ram, and just want skype to be running in the background why should it run fast? having the now free ram for your game and skype thankfully idleing in the pagefile, it will place itselve back into ram when needed or over time, depending on its recurring tasks it does while idleing.

Regards,

J.

[beqa]

hi everyone.

please explain me whatt i must add to this script for reducing skype memory if i have multiple acounts with skypelauncher.

in processeslist multiple skype proceses are shown with name skype.exe

what i must do to resolve this problem?

[BrewManNH]

Use ProcessList("Skype.exe") which returns an array, and then loop through the array to get all the PIDs for the running processes to send them one at a time to the ReduceMemory function.

[Ryanscript]

hi everyone.

please explain me whatt i must add to this script for reducing skype memory if i have multiple acounts with skypelauncher.

in processeslist multiple skype proceses are shown with name skype.exe

what i must do to resolve this problem?

I was also developing such script in past. But I couldn't find any solution for such problem. So if any one have new point to solve it please share here.

[beqa]

please give me an example to reduce memory for multiple instances of skype with same processes