For the past few months, I’ve been running into an annoying problem on several systems running Windows Vista. Even with 2GB or 4GB of RAM, I was running into odd problems when I had a large number of windows open (and I do mean a large number, typically 30 browser tabs plus five or more full-size productivity apps). Even though Performance Monitor and Task Manager said I had plenty of physical memory left, I was getting odd errors when I tried to open a new browser tab. I was also seeing strange symptoms such as windows that opened without menus, or dialog boxes that didn’t display the usual text and buttons.
As it turns out, the problem is more than a decade old, and the fix is a simple registry edit. I have the details, including a screen shot, over at ZDNet:
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
“a higher value”? 3073? 3,000,072?
Can we get some suggestions? What did you use?
nevermind, I’m an idiot.
This is really a phenomenal fix… I’m quite impressed.
Makes one wonder how many -other- Really Old Bugs are hiding in Windows. Hope we catch them before they retire and hide out on the golf course. Thanks, Ed for the neat catch!
Is this also a problem with the x64 version? If so, the Registry is dissimilar to the 32-bit version.
No, Zaine, the desktop heap is set dramatically higher in 64-Windows XP and Vista. This issue shouldn’t occur in one of those 64-bit products.