Hello,
You didn't say why you were concerned about free ram... It sounds like I might have similar issues...
I have several suggestions for you to study and try. If you don't know how, please google the key phrase as the topics are all covered multiple times in many forums...
I feel that you already have a clean system. If you do, skip on past these first few steps.
1. Insure that you have a way to rebuild your system disk with recovery cds that can be purchase and/or built - google "create recovery cds"
2. Then "backup user files"
3. Use your McAfee to run "full system scan" to eliminate demons/viruses.
4. Download another anti-virus/anti-spyware like "Spybot" and another full scan.
5. "Delete temporary files" and be sure to loog for internet browsers files and McAfee logs and vaults. Look for large dump files and log files too. After deletion run "Defrag".
6. Perform some "hardware diagnostics". I assume Dell has some specific tools in Vista(they had a nice set in XP). For quick diagnostics you can go to "device manager" and look for question marks(?) or exclamation points(!) highlighting devices. Also look(in "device manager") under ATA/ATAPI Controllers -> IDE Channel -> Advanced settings for all your IDE controllers and insure that you hard disk is not running in "PIO MODE". You can also look in "msinfo32" for "problem devices".
Okay, the basic stuff is out of the way. Just need to make sure you have recovery options and eliminated viruses and hardware issues. If you don't feel the system is running clean after these steps you can reload Vista.
It sounds like you must already be using "task manager", did you know that under the "performance" tab there is a button to start your "resource monitor"? Under resource monitor there is a memory tab/section and you can set what processes are using ram, also you can see if your system is experiencing "hard page faults".
There is another memory monitoring tool you can get from the system internal guys at Microsoft and it is called "RAMMAP.EXE" which will give you more infomation about how your ram is being used. When you google "RAMMAP.EXE" be sure and read the forum post "Does anyone know why Windows 7 Ultimate uses all available ram". If you do you will determine that purchasing hardware or Windows7 will not resolve your problem..
Now that you have a clean system and know that more hardware or a newer REVISION of Windows will not solve your problem let us try and make the most of what you have(Note Microsoft development dubbed both Vista and Windows7 Version 6.x).
"set page file" - after reading about modifying your pagefile I suggest you set your page file to a custom fixed size. Windows incurs some overhead trying to anticipate pagefile needs by adjusting the pagefile, eliminate this activity by using the fixed size.
"disable indexing" - Windows uses indexing to speed up searches for files, I think the indexing overhead is too much and so I disable it.
"disable aero" - All that eye candy Microsoft added to XP for Vista consumes resources. "WDDM" is a new display manager in Vista(version 1.0) and we all know that we don't want to work version one to hard.
"disable remote assistance" - if you are out of warranty you probably won't have anyone using it anyway.
"disable remote desktop" - ditto
"disable IPV6" - the network stack was new in Vista and IPV6 was the newest part. Turn it off, you probably won't miss anything. I also seem to have improved response by "disabling QoS".
"Dell fluff" - You won't see much if you google this. My Dell XP systems really don't have that much fluff but I don't know about Vista. My Acer Vista system has redundant media playing/management tools, dvd/cd playing/burning tools also redundant backup and recovery tools... After you go through all these steps you could try(if you're not happier than you are now) and "slipstream Vista" to get a totally clean install...
"use diskmgmt.msc" - look at your hard drive and see if you pagefile is fragmented. If it is explore ways to defrag your pagefile.
"McAfee" - I get McAfee free from my ISP, but I opt to use AVG instead. You can try "uninstalling all McAfee" and downloading "AVGFREE" to evaluate AVG(check out the Vista AV thread on TH). McAfee does a good job, but has a lot of background processes.
"turn updates off" - All those background daemons eat resources. Some noteable ones are Windows Update, Adobe(all applications) and JAVA script... You can still run the updates manually(stick to a schedule).
"Windows Genuine Advantage removal" - If you've got this guy, lucky you. As if needing security updates and AV programs aren't enough punishment for owning Windows, Microsoft adds WGA! It keeps validating your Microsoft license on your machine(while software pirates never download it). It is not a one-time check.
"turn scipts off" - It seems every web site wants to run a script and penalize you for visiting their web pages.. warning - loss of content guaranteed..
Now run "taskmgr.exe" and see if the number of processes have been reduced. "Resource Monitor" and "RAMMAP" might also show an improved memory situation. But, it seems regardless of what I have done, it seems that Vista will continue thinking that it is more important for Vista to reserve all your memory for processes it is anticipating you might use, rather than freely providing the memory to the proccess you are using...
"use ccleaner" - this guy usually helps things, but it is a little risky.
"turn performance monitoring off" - now that you have done what you can, you don't need these tools eating resources.
I'm sure others can provide more "Vista tweaks" but you are probably not going to get much better than this. Of course your dual core would proably be much happier with it's owner if you installed XP. Prices are coming down on "SSDs", I saw a 40gb one for under $100 this week. With XP and an SSD your 1.5ghz dual core would probably outrun my 2.4ghz quad running Vista.
Curt.
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