Installation
 
CacheSaver requires a Performa, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, PowerBook, or compatible computer running System 7 or higher.  It will refuse to load at startup on Macs running system software prior to version 7.0.
 
To install CacheSaver:

1)  Drop the CacheSaver control panel on your System folder icon.  When asked if you want to put it in the Control Panels folder, answer “OK”.
 
2)  Restart your Macintosh.
 
3)  Configure the options and delays using the CacheSaver control panel.
  

Operation
 
CacheSaver allows you to flush the disk cache at idle time, periodically, or with a hotkey.  Turn on any or all of these features using the checkboxes in the control panel.  Then use the sliding controls to adjust the time delays, and the “Set…” button to set the hotkey.
 
Time delays can be set in either minutes or seconds - click on the “Options…” button to choose which one.  You can also directly type in any delay setting by option-clicking on the appropriate slider. 
 
CacheSaver has been tested with time delay settings as short as one second.  The overhead of frequently saving the cache is negligible in most cases (less than a 1% change in the time required for lengthy, disk-intensive tasks).  Note that setting a very short delay effectively makes the cache “write-through.”  Writes go directly to disk, while reads benefit from the data being cached, speeding up applications that repeatedly read the same files, like web browsers and compilers.

Online help and registration information are available by clicking the control panel's "Info" icon.