Aggressiveness
 System tray
 QuickBoost
 Startup
 Hotkeys

 The Manager
 Settings

 Table of Contents
 Questions

Aggressiveness

You can use the Options window to change a number of settings that MemoryBoost uses to operate. Some of these are clustered into the Aggressiveness box, and generally determine how strongly MemoryBoost pursues free memory. If the "Clear clipboard" box is on, MemoryBoost may clear the clipboard to try to free up more memory. The clipboard can often grow to large sizes, so this feature is often important in freeing up extra memory. The "Overshoot target" item instructs MemoryBoost to try to acquire more memory when it runs that is strictly specified. This added buffer often helps it obtain the desired amount of memory, because sometimes programs will quickly slip back into part of the newly-obtained memory. By default this is set to 2 megabytes; this is generally a reasonable setting, but could be set lower or slightly higher.

Finally, the "CPU use when clearing" option lets you set how quickly MemoryBoost works when obtaining memory. The high setting basically freezes your computer while MemoryBoost works--it's the highest possible priority--whereas the lowest setting basically forces MemoryBoost to wait for all your other programs to stop before it can do anything. By default this is set to medium, which means MemoryBoost runs at about the same speed as all your other programs. Since it doesn't even try to work unless your computer is idle (see Settings) this is generally acceptable.

System tray

The system tray is the little area next to the clock at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. MemoryBoost displays its icon there, and that is where you can access MemoryBoost's features by right-clicking or double-clicking its icon. You can use the Options window to change what MemoryBoost displays there as well. By default, MemoryBoost shows your percentage free memory (the first option) in its icon; you can use the static chip icon (the second option) or no icon at all. If there is no icon, you can still access MemoryBoost by running it again from your desktop or the Start menu. The manager window will appear.

For more information on what the system tray icon looks like and what it means, please read the special article on the subject.

You can also change the action associated with MemoryBoost's icon. The pull-down menu lets you choose different actions like starting the manager (the default), or running QuickBoost, for example.

QuickBoost

QuickBoost basically does the same thing MemoryBoost does when it's trying to reclaim some memory for you; but unlike MemoryBoost's cleaning, which runs silently and in the background when you're not using your computer, QuickBoost is run by you and runs immediately to clean up memory. You can run QuickBoost from MemoryBoost's main menu (from the tray icon), or from the Settings page in the Manager.

The Options window lets you specify what QuickBoost does when it runs. You can have it boost to the desired amount of memory (like MemoryBoost, set by default); you can have it reclaim a specified amount of memory, or even boost to the minimum. The last is not entirely necessary, because MemoryBoost will boost to the minimum almost instantly should memory drop below that level. You can also tell MemoryBoost whether or not it should display the QuickBoost window when you run QuickBoost. By default, it will show the window. The window lets you see what's happening, and how much memory has been reclaimed for you.

Freeing memory on startup

When your computer first starts, much of its memory has already been consumed. To help combat this, you can have MemoryBoost reclaim a specified amount of memory when it first starts, to improve the overall performance of your machine. You can enter the amount, in megabytes, in the appropriate box. You must check the "Free memory on startup" box to enable this feature in MemoryBoost.

Hotkeys

MemoryBoost offers a number of hotkeys that let you reclaim memory with a single keystroke, for example, or start the manager. They are all off by default, to avoid interfering with other programs' hotkeys. You can turn them on by double-clicking them in the hotkeys box. They will also appear on the menu when they are on.

If you want, you may change the hotkeys to represent different keys. Right-clicking on a hotkey will bring up a window in which you can reassign the action to a different key. This will help you avoid overlapping with another program that uses hotkeys.