Permanently
in memory.
Normally, a computer
does not have enough memory to hold all the programs you
use. When you want to run a program,
therefore, the operating
system is obliged to free some memory by copying data or
programs from main
memory to a disk. This
process is known as swapping.
Certain programs, however, can be marked as being memory
resident, which means that the operating system is not permitted
to swap them
out to a storage
device; they will always remain in memory.
The programs and data used most frequently are the ones that
should be memory resident. This includes central portions of the
operating system and special programs, such as calendars
and calculators,
that you want to be able to access
immediately.
Another term for memory resident is RAM resident.
In DOS systems,
memory-resident programs are called pop-up utilities
or TSRs (terminate and stay
resident).
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