Fluctuating Memory: Solving a Windows Vista Problem

[Gear300]

Not sure if this is a security problem or not. We did a bunch of security scans and none of them came up with anything suspicious. We're just wondering what might be going on with this. After leaving the computer on for some time (a few hours), the memory on my friend's computer (he uses Windows Vista) keeps changing on its own. Each time he refreshes the screen, the hard drive (just the hard drive) keeps coming up with different values for memory (differences include drops of about 3.0GB on its own...memory also has a larger tendency to drop than increase). What is going on and how do we fix it (we're sort of dead stuck on this problem)?

 

[Mark44]

In case someone else has this problem, if memory is dropping, some application or process is using memory. In Windows, you can use Task Manager (press CTRL-ALT-DEL to open the menu, and then select Task Manager at the bottom of the list). The Applications tab shows the programs that are running, and the Processes tab shows all the processes that are running. On the same dialog box, there's a button to show processes from all users. With these two tabs you might be able to spot some application or process that seems out of place.

I would also recommend updating whatever security software you're using, as scanning with software that is out of date can miss threats. Software to check for malware is also very helpful, such as Malwarebytes, which comes as either a free trial version or a pro version that you pay for.