Some crashes occur when a program does something terribly wrong, or Windows just makes
a mistake. But most of them occur when something called the "System resources" become
scarce, causing Windows to work very hard and the computer to become unstable. System
resources are an artifact of Windows 3.1, when certain parts of memory were used for
special tasks. The System resources are relatively small (and fixed) parts of memory
used for certain things like dispaying graphics on the screen, opening files, printing,
and other system-level operations.
The big problem with the system resources is that they are fixed in size. If you have
too many programs open at once, the graphics system resource (called GDI) will drop and
may cause a crash--the infamous blue screen. There is literally no way to free up GDI
resources or expand the GDI space--this is part of the way Windows was designed--and so
MemoryBoost can't just free up more space the way it does with normal memory. The only
way to fix this problem is to close open programs. MemoryBoost does help you with this.
In practice, resources don't fall very quickly and, if your programs are working properly,
you probably will not run into a problem. However, also in practice, programs make mistakes,
some of which eat up system resources. In this case you need MemoryBoost to help you to
avoid crashes--when a program goes awry, it's not your fault (it may even be the only program
open) and you probably won't know anything is wrong until it's too late. This is why
so many people are often so frustrated with Windows, and in many senses it's not even
Windows's fault.
MemoryBoost watches your system resources, and can notify you when they drop to dangerous
levels. If you have the "Notify..." box checked, MemoryBoost will pop up a window when
any of the system resources are below the specified levels. By default the dangerous
level is 20%; it probably shouldn't be much higher or lower than this. When MemoryBoost
does notify you, it has a button for stopping all non-essential processes. This is important
because it's a quick way to get rid of all programs and restore stability to your
computer; you may wish to use that button when you get to that situation. You can also
just close open programs manually.
Using MemoryBoost's crash protection system, it is easier to avoid low-resource
situations and thus circumvent the cause of most instabilities and crashes.
