Quick links

 Contents
 Questions

What is Memory?
 
Memory is where your computer stores its information while it is running. In contrast to your hard disk, memory is very fast. That's why it exists in the first place; memory is the only medium fast enough to store your information while your computer is actually working on it. Memory can't store information permanently though; when your computer is turned off, memory is erased. It's also very expensive, much too expensive to store everything like your hard disk does.

Memory is important because it's what keeps your computer running quickly. When you have a lot of programs running, they may consume all your memory. When this happens, your computer has to use your hard disk for memory. Because hard disks are almost a hundred times slower than memory, your computer slows to a crawl when it runs out of memory. It also often becomes unstable.

Even if you don't have a lot of programs open, you may run out of memory over time. Programs often do not keep track of all their memory, leaving that job to Windows. Windows, for its part, doesn't always track everything either. The result is that memory can become filled with unused data. This is what causes your computer to run more slowly after it's been running for a number of hours or days; similarly, this is why your computer seems to run faster when you first turn it on.

MemoryBoost addresses both of these problems by constantly recovering memory that has been lost, and compacting memory when you have a lot of programs open and need it. MemoryBoost also helps you keep your computer from crashing by avoiding special low-memory situations that cause instability.