RAM Observer RS

A terminal-based RAM monitoring tool written in Rust that provides real-time memory management capabilities using Microsoft's RAMMap utility.

Why

I created this tool to automate Microsoft's RAMMap utility and solve a Windows memory management issue which I was facing. While RAMMap is powerful, it requires manual intervention each time you want to clear different types of memory caches. I wanted a solution that could:

• Monitor RAM usage automatically and execute RAMMap commands when memory usage exceeds certain thresholds
• Provide quick keyboard shortcuts for common RAMMap operations without opening the GUI
• Run in the background with minimal resource usage
• Give a clear terminal-based visualization of current memory status

Beyond solving this practical automation need, this project also served as an excellent opportunity to learn Rust.

Demo

Features

• Real-time RAM and page file usage monitoring with visual gauges
• Automatic memory management based on configurable thresholds
• Direct integration with Microsoft's RAMMap utility
• ⌨Keyboard shortcuts for quick actions
• Action logging with timestamps
• Config support

Memory Management Actions

• Empty Working Sets
• Empty System Working Sets
• Empty Modified Page Lists
• Empty Standby List
• Empty Priority 0 Standby List

Controls

• 1-5: Quick action keys for memory management
• ↑/↓: Navigate through actions
• Enter: Execute selected action
• Shift + A: Cycle through auto-execution actions
• Shift + T: Cycle auto-execution threshold (50-95%, 5% increments)
• q: Quit application

Auto-Execution

The tool can automatically execute memory management actions when RAM usage exceeds a configured threshold (default: 90%).

Installation

1. Download the latest release from the releases page
2. Extract and run the executable
3. RAMMap will be automatically downloaded on first use (if not already present)

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/sh1ftd/ram-observer-rs.git

cd ram-observer-rs

cargo build --release

Requirements

• Windows OS 64-bit (RAMMap dependency)
• Internet connection for first-time RAMMap download or you can download it manually and place in the same directory as the executable without internet connection

Acknowledgments

• Uses Microsoft's RAMMap utility from Sysinternals
• Built with Rust and Ratatui