Copyright: Manager Copyright P. Oliver 1990-1993


Contents

Overview

Setup

Display

Registration

Copyright [c] Paul Oliver 1989-1993


Overview of MMonitor

MMonitor is a shareware utility for Windows 3.1 that can dramatically increase the amount of usable memory available to your applications, thereby reducing the need to add more memory to your system. MMonitor can also record information about the usage of a system or systems thus enabling informed decisions to be made about the purchase and use of equipment.

As more applications are started in Windows the computer's memory becomes split into small fragments. When a program tries to get a large piece of memory it may be that it is not available, or that in order to get it Windows has to compress all it's memory, during which time no other tasks can run. This could have drastic results if, for example, a file transfer were in progress.

MMonitor can monitor Windows use of the computer and after the machine has been idle for a predefined interval it will compress and re-allocate memory. In most cases it will de-fragment and make more memory available than Windows would have done if left to its own devices.

Clicking on the MMonitor icon will display a graph of  percentage cpu usage (how busy the computer is), GDI heap free, User heap free, free storage use and storage fragmentation for the last hour or since MMonitor was started.

When MMonitor is iconised it will display the current date, time and other information, as selected in Icon Setup. If the Always on Top option is selected the MMonitor icon will remain visible regardless of the application running (with the exception of full screen DOS). In this way it could replace the function of 'Clock' on the desktop, thereby saving both memory and clutter.


Setup

Calibrate

Always on Top

Allow Compress

Interval Compress

Set Interval

Show GDI/User

Icon Setup

Record Data

Set Recorder File

Register


Calibrate

The first time that MMonitor is run on your system it will configure itself to work according to the speed of your system and the programs that are currently running. If this is not representative of your usual mix of programs then calibrate should be selected during normal use to re configure the program. Calibrate should also be selected if you upgrade your hardware or software.


Always on Top

If this option is selected MMonitor will always be visible, provided it is displayed as an icon. In this way it can usefully replace the 'Clock' supplied with Windows. If Always on Top is selected it is recommended that the Clock program is not run for performance reasons.


Allow Compress

Selecting this option will allow MMonitor to perform memory compression and enable the Compress button.


Interval Compress

Selecting this option will allow MMonitor to automatically compress memory when it has detected that the system has been idle for the idle time set by Set Interval. The default is 30 seconds.


Set Interval

Select this option to change the interval setting used by Interval Compress from the default of 30 seconds.


Show GDI/User

Select this option to display the percentage free on the GDI and User heaps in the main display.


Icon Setup

Select this option to change the way that the MMonitor icon is displayed on the desktop. One or more of the following may be selected;

Display Title   Displays MMonitor underneath the icon.

Display Date   Displays the current Day and Month

Display Time   Displays the current time.

Display Cpu   Displays the cpu usage for the last minute

Display Storage   Displays the amount of contiguous storage available at the end of the last minute.

Display GDI Heap   Displays the percentage free on the GDI heap.

Display User Heap  Displays the percentage free on the User heap.

Display Workstation   Displays the workstation name as set in the Set Recorder File option.

Set Icon at Top   Sets the MMonitor icon to the top of the screen rather than the bottom.


Record Data

Selecting this option will enable the recording of the following information;

    Workstation name (selected in Set Recorder File)

    Percentage CPU used

    Free Storage available

    Usage indicator (a flag indicating whether the system was in use)

This information is recorded every minute and is date and time stamped. Records are 35 bytes long and structured as follows;

Field Name	Type	Length	Description
Date	Character	6	Date in YYMMDD format
Time	Character	6	Time in HHMMSS format
Workstation Name	Character	16	User defined workstation name
CPU percentage	Integer	2	Percentage CPU used
Free Storage	Long	4	Number of bytes free storage
Usage	Character	1	'Y' or 'N' indicating if the system was in use. 'I' if the state could not be determined

The file will be called MMONITOR.DTA and reside in the directory specified by Set Recorder File. The data may be converted to .PRN comma delimited format suitable for input into a spreadsheet by using the MConvert program supplied with MMonitor. Several MMonitor files may be combined by using the DOS copy command and converted using MConvert.


Set Recorder File

Select this option to set the workstation name displayed when MMonitor is running as an Icon and recorded with performance and usage data. If this data is being collected it may be helpful to consider a workstation name that reflects the systems location and function. For instance, the name 'PCWS00010813sFIN' could represent a PC named PCWS0001 on the 8th floor of building 1 using a 386sx processor for finance applications. This type of naming convention would ease analysis of the data gathered for multiple systems.

This option also sets the path where the MMONITOR.DTA file is created. If a network drive is specified the same recorder file may be shared by more than one workstation.


Display

The Graph

Bytes Recovered

Max Cont Space

Total Freespace

The Compress Control


The Graph

The graph displays the percentage of the cpu used, percentage free storage usage and the storage fragmentation over the last hour, or since MMonitor was started, whichever is the shortest. Storage fragmentation in this case is the percentage of available free storage that was not available in a contiguous block, the lower this number the better. Free storage use is the percentage of contiguous free storage available against the high watermark, the higher the better. It may be instructive to view the graph with compression turned off for 30 minutes and then on  for 30 minutes. This will give a visual indication of the effectiveness of MMonitor. The vertical lines on the graph indicate when MMonitor last performed a compression.

Optionally the percentage free on the GDI and User heaps may be displayed.


Bytes Recovered

The top of the display shows firstly the number of bytes recovered during the last compress and secondly the maximum number of bytes that MMonitor has recovered since it was started.


Max Cont Space

This box shows the largest contiguous free block of storage available to Windows. It is updated every minute or whenever MMonitor compresses storage.


Total Freespace

This box shows the total amount of free memory available to Windows. It is updated every minute or after MMonitor compresses storage. This figure is used with the Maximum Contiguous Space to calculate the storage fragmentation percentage displayed on the graph. The 'high' figure below shows the highest amount of free memory since MMonitor was started.


The Compress Control

If compression is allowed, clicking on this button will force MMonitor to perform an immediate compression of storage.


Registration

MMonitor is NOT free. You are granted a licence to trial it for 30 days after which you must register it by sending 10 pound's sterling, or international money order to the address below, along with the 4 digit product code displayed by selecting Register from the Setup menu. In return you will be issued with a code that will disable the start-up copyright notice. Please feel free to upload this program to any bulletin boards or other shareware distribution medium.

Cheques or money orders to:

Paul Oliver
3 Richmond Road
Leytonstone
London
E11 4BY
England

Support may be obtained via email to

poliver@cix.compulink.co.uk