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Show Date / Time / RAM
Clicking this menu item brings up the following sub-menu:
When an item has been selected, a check Day of Week Click this item to display day of the week. The clock displays the date and time according to the settings in the control panel's Regional (or
International) settings, which on your system may or may not include the day of the week.
Date Click this item to display the current system date. The format of the date can be controlled by the Short Date setting in the control panel's Regional
(or International) applet.
Day of Year Click this item to display the sequential day of the year.
On January 1 it will show "(#1)", meaning that it's day #1 in the year.
On December 31, it will show "(#365)".
Y2K Countdown (i.e., Countdown to 1/1) Click this item to display the number of days remaining until next January 1. On January 1 of a non-leap-year it will show "(365d)", meaning that there are 365 days to go until next January 1. On December 31, it will show "(1d)". Note that this does not count hours, minutes, and seconds -- just days.
Time Click this item to display the current system time. The format of the time can be controlled by the setting in the Control Panel's Regional (or International) applet.
Available Resources % (Win 95/98 only)
Some of our Win 95 users have expressed an opinion that the Avail RAM % (see next item) is too low, and doesn't coincide with the number that other programs report. Win 95 provides programmers with a few ways to monitor memory and available system resources. One of the values it provides is a number between 0 and 100 that expresses approximately how much of the available system resources are remaining. This is a "voodoo" number: no one really knows how it's calculated. At least, we've never been able to find out. This is the number used by most memory management utilities. So we're providing it for those users who want to use it. But we feel that the Available RAM % is a better true gauge of how much actual memory you have left. Windows NT has no such "voodoo" number. So, for our NT friends, we've provided a "Paging %" option instead.
This displays how much paging space you have left. This number is usually higher than the RAM % available, and
when it approaches zero, you're system is really low on resources.
Available RAM % Click this item to display the approximate percentage of RAM memory available. This number shows how much physical RAM memory you have remaining. As it approaches zero, you will
find your PC getting slower as it is forced to use the hard drive more and more. If it's below 15% on a
regular basis, you might want to consider getting more RAM. On the other hand, we have an NT system with
64MB RAM, yet we've noticed that the number rarely gets above 50%, and usually fluctuates between 20% and
35%. That seems to be the way Windows works. It uses as much memory as it can, leaving DLLs loaded in
memory until it gets too crowded and something needs to be tossed out to make room for others. This
is not a bad thing: it's just the way it works.
Available RAM MB Click this item to display the amount (in MB) of free RAM currently available. |
will appear next to it on the menu.