When you first buy your PDA or do a hard reset, don’t you just love the speed and how snappy your device seems? That’s how I felt with my Eten Glofiish X500. I thought it was due to the highly touted Samsung SC32442 processor clocked at 400MHz. But after several weeks of using it, the device started feeling slow like my older PDAs and I learnt that it was due to the memory not being optimized. That meant, I did not clean out the trash such as removing temp files and folders, clearing notification queues and the likes.

Once I discovered this, my X500 was back at its best. Well almost but it was good enough for me. The thing was, doing all this cleaning up was a chore. Sometimes you had to use the registry to clear the queues. Other times, it was the file explorer that was the tool in cleaning up the temp files and folders. There was no all-in-one software that could do all this. Until DinarSoft came up with the MemMaid.

Touted as the only tool that you need to clean and manage your Pocket PC, does this device live up to all its hype? I decide to put it through the test.

Introduction

Currently at v2.0 (build 95), this program supports Windows 2003 all the way to the current WM6 (both Professional and Classic). It even supports all 3 types of screen orientation out there, portrait, landscape and the newer square screens. Retailing at USD$19.95, you might want to download the EXE file (for desktop installation) or CAB file (for device installation) and trial test it fully for 15 days before making your decision.

Basic or Advanced User?

For first time users, you might be overwhelmed with all the options that you have with this software. But not to worry, MemMaid caters to both the basic and advanced users. When you first install the software, you will find 3 short cuts in your Program folder:

• MemMaid Quick Clean
• MemMaid
• ReclaimRAM

Clearing your memory couldn’t be easier with just a few taps on DinarSoft’s MemMaid Quick Clean	Clear that RAM to get more memory for your programs without having to do a soft reset on your phone

For the basic user who does not want to deal with too much tweaking, the first and third options are all you need. MemMaid Quick Clean basically cleans out all your temp files and folders (including those leftover after installation), checks for dead registry, check for invalid notifications and even clears your internet folder’s cache. If you install Opera or NetFront, it does the cleaning of those caches too. The ReclaimRAM program does what it says, which is to reclaim any RAM lost to programs that did not release it when it was closed. Very useful after running those RAM-intensive programs such as Skype and TomTom.

Let The Cleaning Begin

There are so many things you can do with MemMaid, the main program. Besides the basics discussed earlier, you look through notification queues and delete duplicates or even those that you no longer need. A word of caution though: If you do delete a system notification that is vital, your device may cease to sync or function properly. Always be sure of what you are deleting.

What I like about MemMaid is that it allows you to schedule the cleaning process so you can choose to have it cleaned after every soft-reset (which I do not recommend) or at a certain time each day every day (which I recommend). This way, you can put the program on auto-pilot and let it do the cleaning for you, with you knowing that your device will always be optimized.

Change Associations

A nifty trick is the changing of associations of files, much like in Windows for personal computers. Don’t like using Windows Media Player to play your media files (me neither)? Then why not make it such that every time you tap on such a file, it opens your program of choice (say TCPMP for me)? Well now you can easily do that, without having to rummage through the registry for the right key to change.

Resume Your Right As Memory Landlord

It’s your device so shouldn’t you decide how the memory is managed? Then let MemMaid help you. From deciding how much of storage to give for Opera’s cache to where applications and ring tones should go (Main Memory or Storage Card?), this software does it all.

Where should this cache go? Well now its all up to you to decide.	Useless DLL taking up too much main memory space? Move them!

As a bonus, it also has a DLL optimizer, so now you can move those DLLs that are seldom or never used to your gigantic storage card and leave the small space in the Main Memory for applications that need it more. Another word of caution for those who are considering using these features extensively: Your storage card, while having a larger capacity, is seldom as fast as the Main Memory. By moving critical files there, you might affect the performance of your programs so the best is to strike a balance by experimenting.

Find Out More About Your Device

MemMaid also has packed quite a few features into the program that allows you to find out more about your device. You can use it to format your storage card (provided the program is installed in Main Memory) or even make it Digital Camera Ready (which I am not sure why you would want to do so from a PDA).

One thing that I have always been curios about is the memory consumption of the various softwares that I have installed. Up until now, you could only roughly estimate through Settings > System > Remove Programs by comparing the memory before and after installation. Now, you can just select the program and see how much space it really occupies and where. From there, you can decide if the program is really worth the space.

Summary

Pros:

• Caters to both basic and advanced use.
• Allows for scheduled cleaning.
• Has a lot of useful functions.
• Allows for management of DLLs.
• Easily manage your memory usage from one place.
• Built in help accessible by tapping Star>Help giving you access to help on the current screen.

Cons:

• Can cause system instability when used wrongly
• Does not have a safe mode to try out functions. All changes made are final¹.

Conclusion

When all is said and done, DinarSoft’s MemMaid fills a gap left by Microsoft in the memory management department. Considering the functions and what you can achieve with it, the price is really a steal. Sure there are other ways to manage your memory, and some which are even cheaper, but for what it’s worth, you can do it all and do it effectively with just one MemMaid.

Update

1. MemMaid has a protected mode for novice users that prevents them from causing harm to the device by allowing them access to functions that are safe for it. The advanced mode (which is what I used for the review), allows you to do whatever you want and is targeted at those who know what they are doing.

Thanks to DinarSoft for the update.

Tags: commercial software