You are at:
Home >> docs-computer
What Happens When You Open and Close
Documents on Your Computer
It’s happened to the best of us. You open an application,
like a PowerPoint presentation, spend hours on a big new client proposal… and
then accidentally click out without saving. These days, there are usually ways
to restore and save that lost doc, but most of us with a few decades under our
belts remember a time when that presentation would have been forever gone.

What happens when you open that PowerPoint or any other
application? What happens when you click out without saving it? If you’ve ever
wanted the answer to these questions, then you’ve come to the right blog post.
The moment you open any file or application, your computer
loads it into your RAM, (random access memory), which is a temporary memory
system within your computer. RAM allows your computer to access the files
you’re using right now as quickly as possible, but it is not meant to be a
permanent storage place.
The RAM is not big enough to hold and run all of the files
on your computer. That’s why you might notice that your computer becomes
sluggish if you have too many big applications open (like streaming video).
When that happens, it means your RAM is full and can’t juggle all the programs
you’re asking it to.
Because the RAM is not meant for permanent storage, it will
purge any files and applications as soon as you close out of a program. That’s
why, in the past, it was so easy to accidentally lose files if you didn’t save
them.
By the way, when you save files, they are moved out of the
RAM and loaded into more permanent storage, like your computer’s hard drive.
Depending on how your computer is set up, saved files may also go into cloud
storage.
Fortunately, these days, files are rarely lost forever even
if you or your officemates forget to save. Many programs or hard drives
continually back up all files. If you close out of a file without saving, you
can access an earlier backup to retrieve it. Many applications also now
continually save files to prevent loss.
If you notice that applications on the computers in your
office are loading and responding slowly, it may be because your computers do
not have enough RAM. In this case, you may want to consider investing in
additional RAM storage for all the computers in your office. At Memory America,
we offer the computer memory you need for exceptional computing.