General Settings

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Figure 10. The RAM Charger General Settings Window - System Tab Panel.
	There are several general aspects of RAM Charger's operation which may be adjusted according to your personal preferences. These apply to the overall operation rather than to the RAM Charging of a specific application. To adjust these options, use the RAM Charger General Settingswindow shown in Figure 10 by either selecting RAM Charger General Settingsfrom the RAM Charger Pull-down Menu, from your Control Panels folder, or from the Window menu when either the RAM Charger Application Settingsor More About This Mac windows are active. After making changes, click the Savebutton to keep your changes and close the window. To discard any changes and close the window, click the Cancelbutton.
RAM Charger On	Un-check the RAM Charger On (At System Restart) box at the top of the General Settings window if you wish to stop RAM Charger from activating on subsequent occasions when the computer is restarted.
Revert to Defaults	Click the Revert to Defaults button at the top of the RAM Charger General Settings window to return RAM Charger General Settingsto its default settings.
System	The three options on the first panel, available by clicking on the Systemtab, concern the activation of RAM Charger whenever the computer is restarted.
Pause for Shift Key	The Pause for Shift Key to Disable During System Restartbox may be checked if you wish RAM Charger to wait at least 1 second to allow to temporarily disable RAM Charger by pressing the shift key afteryou see its icon during system startup. Un-checking this box may slightly speed up system startup.
Auto-Open Heads-up	The Auto-Open RAM Charger Heads-up When System Restartsoption, allows you to easily enable or disable the automatic opening of the small Heads-upwindow whenever the computer restarts. This helps you keep this small window open on your desktop to show the current state of free memory and give you ready access to RAM Charger Application Settings.
Auto-Stretch System/Finder	To reduce Not Enough Memory messages concerning System/Finder operations, Control Panels, and Desk Accessories, check the Auto-Stretch System/Finderbox. RAM Charger increases the probability that the amount of memory entered in the associated text box will be available for such System use. This memory will not be kept from applications when the rest of memory is gone. It is held only until the last resort. You may set this to any size, but a helpful amount for most configurations has been 80-200K. (An excessive amount can possibly slow down operations.)
Figure 11. The RAM Charger General SettingsWindow - ApplicationTab Panel.
Application	The second panel, Application, applies to the RAM Charging of individual applications. The first two items concern how RAM Charger deals with new applications that have not been tested with RAM Charger before.
Automatically Open New Applications in Minimum or Preferred Size	New applications, those that have not been tested with RAM Charger before, can be automatically set to open RAM Charged in either the Smaller(Minimum) size or the Normal(Preferred) size (see Figure 11). Then, whenever settings are first created for applications, they will be setup using this setting. (Subsequent adjustments to the settings might improve results.) New applications can also be set to open UnCharged if you prefer to test the RAM Charging of new applications at your own pace, rather than whenever you first open them.
Figure 12.The RAM Charging New Application Notice.
Notify When First RAM Charging Applications	RAM Charger can give notice when an application is setup to be RAM Charged for the first time. Notice will only be given the first time an application is RAM Charged. To enable this notification, check the Notify When First RAM Charging an Applicationoption check box, shown in Figure 11. As shown in Figure 12, the notification window lets the user choose between a Normaland SmallerRAM Charged starting size to use with the new application. The Smallerchoice uses the most beneficial RAM Charged Method and the application's defined Minimum size, in attempting to reduce its Starting memory size. The Normalchoice uses the application's current Preferred size for a better chance of successful operation. The Ask Laterbutton lets you put off the decision until the next time the application is run, continuing this time without RAM Charging. If the computer is unattended, or a button is not clicked within two minutes, the notice is automatically dismissed and the application is opened without being RAM Charged (just the same as if clicking the fourth button, Do Not RAM Charger).
Figure 13.The Shortcut to switch RAM Charging on or off Notice.
Shortcut keys to switch RAM Charging on or off	As a shortcut, to switch an application's RAM Charged setting from onto off(or vice versa), you can press a group of modifier keys on the keyboard when the application is being opened. You may choose which modifier keys are recognized for this shortcut by checking any combination of the Shift, Control, Option, or Command boxes shown in Figure 11, which correspond to the keys with the same names. Whenever you use this shortcut, a notice like the one in Figure 13 is displayed indicating the current setting for the application. You then set the application to be RAM Charged or not by clicking the corresponding button. The Quitbutton aborts launching of the application. If a button is not clicked in two minutes, the notice is automatically canceled and the application is opened using its previous setting.
Access RAM Charger Settings in Get Info Windows	Check the Access RAM Charger Settings in Finder's Get Info (Without Shift Key) box if you wish to include an application's RAM Charger settings every time you open a Finder Get Infowindow. The effect of this option is reversed by holding down the shift key while opening a Get Info window. If this option is checked, you can revert to the standard Get Info window by holding the shift key when choosing to Get Info. If this option is unchecked, you can still see an application's RAM Charger settings in the Get Info window by similarly holding the shift key when choosing to Get Info.
Figure 14.The RAM Charger General SettingsWindow -FeedbackTab Panel.
Feedback	The Feedback tab panel contains options concerning RAM Charger's methods for notifying you that certain conditions exist with respect to memory use.(see the Feedbacksection for a more detailed explanation of these features)
Notify When System/Finder Memory is Blocked	The System operates best with at least a few hundred K of memory available. If its expansion becomes blocked, RAM Charger will notify you if this option is checked. See the above section Blocking expansion of system memoryfor more information.
Low memory early warning level	RAM Chargercan provide an early warning signal to alert you when the amount of unused memory drops below a specific level. (For a complete description of the low memory caution signal see the section on Running out of memory.) The level of free memory (shown as Total Unused Memoryin the RAM Charger Pull-down Menu), which triggers the flashing of the low memory caution signal, is adjustable. It may be set with the Low Memory Early Warning Levelpop-up menu shown in Figure 14. The Kin the numbers represents kilobytes (a kilobyte is 1,024 bytes of memory). The Megin the numbers represents megabytes (each being 1,024 kilobytes) of memory. When free memory falls below the level you select, the caution signal will begin flashing. To disable the caution signal completely, set this level to None.
Optional information update rate	To set the delay between updates to displayed information, select the desired time from the Heads-up Display Updatepop-up menu shown in Figure 14 (2-4s is commonly used). This applies to information about current memory use, displayed in the Settingsand Heads-upwindows. If the expanded Heads-upview is shown, the calculations might slow your computer. If so, you may wish to increase the delay.
Figure 15.The RAM Charger General SettingsWindow - Menus Tab Panel.
Menus	The Menus panel contains options concerning the display of memory information in menus.
Menu Bar Entry	To display the RAM Charger Pull-down Menu (discussed in the Feedback section), check the Show RAM Charger Menu in Menu Barbox.
Megabyte Sizes in RAM Charger Menu	To allow the values in the RAM Charger Pull-down Menuto be displayed in megabytes, when they are very large, check the Allow Megabyte Sizes in RAM Charger Menu box. When this option is disabled, the values will always be given in kilobytes.
Apple Menu Item	The RAM Charger Pull-down Menucan also be an entry in the Apple Menu. Check the Apple Menu Item box to activate this feature. The RAM Charger Pull-down Menucan be displayed in both the Apple Menu and in the Menu bar at the same time.