Ken Blake replies

 No. The percentage is of System Resources, and has nothing
 to do with how much RAM you have. And there's nothing wrong
 with having 66% or 62% free. Here's an article I recently
 wrote about System resources that may help you better
 understand them:

 "System Resources is one of the most widely-misunderstood
 aspects of Windows 95 and 98. Many people equate the term
 'System Resources' with how much RAM they have or with all
 the things that might be considered 'resources' in
 general-things like hard disk space, processor speed, etc.

 Nothing could be further from the truth. The term 'System
 Resources' has a very specific meaning in Windows 95 and 98,
 and it doesn't at all mean what your instincts might lead
 you to believe.

 The term 'System Resources' refers to two fixed heaps of
 memory, each 64K in size. These heaps are called 'User
 Resources' and 'GDI Resources,' and Windows uses them to
 keep track of running programs and graphic objects. The
 overall term 'System Resources,' expressed as a percentage
 (which you can see if you right-click on My Computer, then
 click Properties and look on the Performance tab), refers to
 the lower of the percentages of free User and GDI resources.

 The most important thing to realize about these System
 Resources is that we all have the same amount of them,
 regardless of how much RAM we have or how our systems are
 otherwise configured. It's 64K for each of us--the person
 with a 16MB 486/50 as well as the one with a 256MB Pentium
 III/600.

 Many people get very worried when they look at the System
 Resources percentage, and see numbers like 80%, 70%, 60%,
 50%, They want to know why their number isn't 100%, or
 something close to it, and want to know how to solve the
 'problem.' They mistakenly assume that lowered free
 resources means lowered performance.

 Have no fear. There is no 'problem.' Resources are there to
 be used, not hoarded. Using a greater percentage of
 resources occurs because you're doing more-running more
 programs. There is no performance hit as you use more
 Resources, and no disadvantage of any kind (except that the
 number of additional programs you can start is restricted by
 available Resources).

 Of course, if you run out of Resources entirely (or even get
 very close), there's a serious problem-you will crash or
 lock up the computer. But problems don't normally occur
 until you get very close to zero-under 10% or so.

 I'm writing this article on WordPerfect at the moment. I
 also have Outlook 98 and Outlook Express open, and a bunch
 of small background programs. My free Resources are at 32%
 and I'm experiencing no slowdown and no problems of any
 kind. This 32% is fairly normal for me. I tend to keep a lot
 of programs open and free resource percentages below 50% are
 commonplace here."

[snip] the 32-bit heaps are not what are reported
 when Windows reports the percentage of free System
 Resources, and for good reason--there's enough of them so
 that you never run out of them

 --
    Ken Blake
    Please reply to the newsgroup.