I am having problems opening up programs because the system says I have no resources available. How do I shut down programs running in the background to free up RAM?
BGWhich OS? How much RAM does your system have and how is the paging file set?

Need to know that first.Blookah:

Mac is right, how we solve your problem depends on what kind of operating system you have.  If you tell us that, but you don't know how much RAM or anything about your virtual memory settings, we will show you how to determine this.

Regards,
DocI have 1GB RAM and don't know how my paging file is set.
BGOperating system is Windows XP Home.Open the Control Panel and CLICK on System. Then go to Advanced, Performace, Settings, Advanced (again), Virtual Memory and see what it says.

Then click on Change and see if it is system managed.

Have you tried checking your RAM with MemTest86 overnight?

Are you using very big programs possibly?Mac,
It is not system managed but...the other info as FOLLOWS:
Drive (volume label)
C:1500-3072
D: 1500-1500
C Drive Space available 3854 MB
Custom Size (checked)
Initial Size 1536 MB
Maximum Size 3072 MB

Total Size
Minimum 2 MB
Recommended 1534 MB
Current 3036 MB
Hope this helps. I have never done the test you mentioned. I do not know how or even of it.
BGAlso programs being used are not that big.Just on this point: C Drive Space available 3854 MB , when you run defrag what %age of the drive does it show as free-space? 15% is the limit. It might be better to put the minimum recommended paging file on C: and the rest on D:

And, how much free-space does drive D have?

If it is free-space that is the problem, see if following this cleanup routine helps at all...

"Run Disk Cleanup and remove all but the last restore point. See if your System Restore cache and Recycle Bin size is set at a reasonable level (SAY 1024Mb) on each drive, and reduce the IE Temporary Internet Files cache and History cache to the minimum. Install CCLeaner and clean out all of the junk files. Unhide all files and folders and remove the hotfix uninstallers ( $NTUninstaller$ ) from the hidden C:\Windows folder and remove their entries from Add-Remove programs.
(Note: Some Security updates should NOT be removed so check in add-remove programs - before - doing this task.)
Then remove the contents of:

The C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded INSTALLATIONS folder
The C: WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder
The C:\WINDOWS\Temp folder
The C:\Windows\pchealth\helpctr\Datacoll folder, and...
The C:\Windows\Prefetch folder

(You can add these folders to EmpTemp if you have this program installed.) Then run chkdsk and defrag."

EmpTemp & CCLeaner File Cleaner

To make your SHUTDOWN work cleanly install the... User Profile Hive Cleanup Service

TweakUI is useful to have on your system for certain repairs... Powertoys/TweakUI

ERUNT-NTREGOPT