Apple Power Macintosh 4400 - Manual (Page 67)

Hiding and showing windows on the desktop
You can hide all windows except those of the active application by choosing
Hide Others from the Application menu.
The other applications remain open even though their windows are hidden.
When you switch to another application, its windows become visible again.
If you want to see all the open windows, choose Show All from the
Application menu.
Increasing memory available to run applications
You can increase the memory available to run your application programs by
changing memory settings and removing software that you may not need.
Each of these options is discussed below.
Turning virtual memory on or off
Virtual memory is a feature that uses space on your computer’s hard disk to
create extra random-access memory (RAM) to run your applications. If you
are using an application program designed especially for Power Macintosh
computers (a “native” application program), turning on virtual memory lets
the application use less memory. Virtual memory also allows your computer
to run more applications at the same time, and to have more windows open at
the same time. However, it can result in slightly slower performance. Also,
some application programs may not perform optimally with virtual memory
turned on.
Your computer comes with virtual memory turned off. To turn virtual
memory on or off, use the Memory control panel. For best performance, try
setting virtual memory to no more than 150 percent of the memory (RAM)
installed in your computer, or no more than 50 percent of your currently
available hard disk space, whichever number is lower. For example, if your
computer has 16 MB of RAM and your hard disk has 50 MB of available
space, set virtual memory to a maximum of 24 MB.
67 Installing and Using Application Programs