Microsoft DOS mem command
Quick links
About mem
Availability
Syntax
Examples
Issues
About mem
Allows you to determine the available, used and free memory.
Determining how much memory (RAM) is in the computer instead of using this command.
Availability
The mem.exe command is an external command that is available in the below Microsoft operating systems.
MS-DOS 4.0 and above
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Syntax
Displays the amount of used and free memory in your system.
MEM [/CLASSIFY | /DEBUG | /FREE | /MODULE module name] [/PAGE]
| /CLASSIFY or /C |
Classifies programs by memory usage. Lists the size of programs, provides a summary of memory in use, and lists largest memory block available. |
| /DEBUG or /D |
Displays status of all modules in memory, internal drivers, and other information. |
| /FREE or /F |
Displays information about the amount of free memory left in both conventional and upper memory. |
| /MODULE or /M |
Displays a detailed listing of a module's memory use. This option must be followed by the name of a module, optionally separated from /M by a colon. |
| /PAGE or /P |
Pauses after each screen full of information. |
Examples
mem
This would display information about your memory as seen in the below examples.
Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows 98 example output:
| Memory Type |
Total |
Used |
Free |
| --------------- |
------ |
------ |
----- |
| Conventional |
640k |
52k |
588k |
| Upper |
0k |
0k |
0k |
| Reserved |
384k |
384k |
0k |
| Extended (XMS) |
31,744k |
168k |
31,576k |
| --------------- |
------ |
------ |
------ |
| Total memory |
31,768k |
168k |
31,576k |
|
|
|
|
| Total under 1 MB |
640k |
52k |
588k |
Total Expanded (EMS) 32M (33,046,528 bytes)
Free Expanded (EMS) 16M (16,777,216 bytes)
Largest executable program size 588K (602,512 bytes)
Largest free upper memory block 0K (0 bytes)
MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.
Windows 2000 and Windows XP example output:
| 655360 bytes total conventional memory 655360 bytes available to MS-DOS 633872 largest executable program size 1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory 0 bytes available contiguous extended memory 941056 bytes available XMS memory MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area |
mem /f
Display the amount of conventional memory free.
Issues
When using the mem /c command from a DOS window in Windows, the user will have no upper blocks as illustrated in the above example. This is caused because Windows reserves all global upper memory blocks for Windows itself.
MS-DOS 6.2 and above will not accept or recognize more than 64 MB of ram when typing mem. |
