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| Kill Ntvdm.exe and Wowexec.exe to free up resources |
| Virtually all of today's Windows programs are 32-bit programs, but there are still a handful of |
| 16-bit programs from earlier Windows versions--you might even rely on some of them. |
| Windows 2000 uses a Windows-on-Windows technology that provides a Windows 3.x environment |
| for 16-bit applications to run in. The core of this technology is provided by the Wowexec.exe |
| executable; Ntvdm.exe provides a virtual DOS machine. These two components can't support all |
| 16-bit applications, but they support many of them. |
| When you run a 16-bit application, Windows loads Wowexec.exe and Ntvdm.exe to host the |
| application. However, when you terminate the application, Windows doesn't terminate the |
| Wowexec.exe or Ntvdm.exe processes. These processes remain in memory for other 16-bit |
| applications that you might launch later. |
| If you've been running a 16-bit application and want to recover as many system resources as |
| possible, terminate Wowexec.exe and Ntvdm.exe after you close the 16-bit application. To do so, |
| first verify that no 16-bit applications are running. Press [Ctrl][Alt][Delete], select Task Manager, |
| and click the Processes tab. Select the Wowexec.exe process and click End Process. Repeat this |
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