Have a look at the process tab of Windows' taskmgr. How much memory is the Thunderbird process using? Sort the memory column by size - which applications are using the most?

Hi Wayne: ...and many thanks for very valuable suggestions to check if any of those is 'killing' my memory - and although I've just started this 'Sherlock Holmes detective's investigation', I'm absolutely sure I will find one or even several of the 'bad culprits' which might happening as 'abuse of my already too low' Memory ... I've started using computers in 1985, and to this day I completely despise all these basically useless and my computer-productivity reducing programs which secretly 'sneak into' your PC-configuration system and start doing damages especially in the background (!!!) so - I'm going to drastically increase hunting after them like after infectious diseases ...!

FIRST thing I've just found to my shocking surprise was that a certain Program-update or 'crazy utility' lowered the Virtual Memory size from original setting of 3,050 MB made decades ago to 1,700 MB only (!) - so of course I've immediately increased the Virtual Memory back to 3,050 MB as it was 'surprisingly suggested' even by the Windows itself ! Another shocking thing: I've observed in the Task Manager the 'Processes' and how much Memory they're regularly wasting, and here are the results:

- the WORST culprit is actually my Mozilla-Email Program Thunderbird with 148,000-152,000 K (!)

- the SECOND WORST is MICROSOFT's 'Antimalware Service Executable' called as 'Microsoft Malware Protection' wasting 90,000-120,000 K of Memory

- and the 3rd WORST is the Microsoft's popular Utility Program called 'svchost.exe' of which I found 16 'various' copies of this Utility marked as 'SYSTEM' & 'NETWORK SERVICE' type of files wasting 57,000-59,000 K ...! Shouldn't I remove these - are they 'normal' ?!?

- last question: how useful are the activity restrictions of listed in the 'Processes' section - Set Priorities' and 'Set Affinity ...any advice how to use these Options?

I'd greatly appreciate if you could advise me if there is anyway in settings for Thunderbird to REDUCE the Memory consumption because it is one of the Software with HIGHEST Memory consumption ...! Best regards,

Tony H.

If you are using Gmail with an IMAP account, unsubscribe the "All Mail" folder, unsubscribe it, exit, and then delete both "All Mail." and "All Mail.msf". The All Mail folder may double the amount of disk space used by Thunderbird.

How frequently do you compact folders? Suggest you empty the Junk / Spam and Trash and then compact all your folders. Right click on folder and select 'compact' from drop down menu. I suggest you compact each folder in turn rather than compact entire lot in one go just in case space is an issue.

Hi Toad-Hall: Thanks for your advice. Although I've explained resolving the 'Computer is low on Memory' error by backing up the VIRTUAL MEMORY setting from 1700 MB to MY original setting of 3050 MB (as even recommended by Windows!), I'm still VERY PUZZLED, however, why Thunderbird is consuming routinely 148,000-152,000 K (!) of Memory - can you advise me if there is perhaps a better setting in THUNDERBIRD I could change to in order to reduce this unusually high Memory use? I'm really completely upset finding out that one of a crazy Utility OR similar program/s dares to change the amount of Virtual Memory WITHOUT MY CONSENT ...! Is there any way to LOCK THIS VALUE somehow (?!?) to PREVENT this in the future? NOTE: by the way - I'm NOT using Gmail with an IMAP account, and I'm pretty frequently compacting the folders, however, I'm NOT compacting them individually ...does it really make a large difference? Your earlier advice would be greatly appreciated...! Tony H.

In Task Manager, my Thunderbird is averaging using between 128MB and 134MB of Memory running four mail accounts, 3 pop, one of which is my main account with regular inflow of emails and some size and also a gmail imap account with few folders and low emails. Fluctuation depends upon what folders I'm opening. But jumped to 138MB when it checked server for emails as per Account Settings.

Meanwhile, Firefox is using 1,357MB with 6 tabs open and mainly viewing this support forum plus a couple of others. So the browser is my highest user.

I do not know how you organise your emails, but if you have large folders they use more memory to load. Perhaps you already sort emails into folders, but do those folders now hold old emails ? Suggest you reduce folder size by Archiving a load of older emails.