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Windows XP - maximum number of open windows/tasks at one time

I do system mainenance on a large number of machines and it is beneficial to have a lot of "open" windows/tasks at one time. Windows XP (Pro with SP3) seems to have a limit of between 40 and 50 open at one time. Once this limit is reached, no additional windows/tasks/IE browser pages (even tabbed IE pages) are allowed. No error or warning message ... just nothing happens. If a close a few open windows, then I can open new ones until the limit is reached again. These are a combination of IE pages open, as well as windows applications.

Does anyone know where there is a setting related to how many open windows/tasks are allowed at one time? (I know this may not be the best way, but still, I'd like to know if there is such a setting and where it is.)

Many thanks in advance.

ecsrd

Most likely you have reached the limit on the amount ram and swap file your OS has available to it. I have just personally tested how many different windows I can open at once on my XP test system, and I can open 102 different apps/windows/etc on 3GB of ram with a 3.5GB page file. With the page file off, I can open 66 separate apps. On my 64-bit install with 8GB of ram (granted, this is Vista), I was able to open 200 separate apps/instances of them, before I quit counting.

How much RAM does the system you are using have available to the OS? Whats the page fiile size?

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sunnycoder

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minhxn

To change how many open windows/tasks are allowed at one time:
My ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentSet001\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems
Click on Windows then change Value data "MaxRequestThreads" = 16 (limited number of windows that you can open) to new number that you refer.
%SystemRoot%\system32\csrss.exe ObjectDirectory=\Windows SharedSection=1024,3072,512 Windows=On SubSystemType=Windows ServerDll=basesrv,1 ServerDll=winsrv:UserServerDllInitialization,3 ServerDll=winsrv:ConServerDllInitialization,2 ProfileControl=Off MaxRequestThreads=16

Hope this help.

M