Terminate-and-stay-resident program
COMPUTER PROGRAM THAT USES A SYSTEM CALL TO RETURN CONTROL TO THE OS, AS THOUGH THE PROGRAM HAS QUIT, BUT STAYS RESIDENT IN MEMORY SO IT CAN BE REACTIVATED BY A HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE INTERRUPT, IN ORDER TO WORK AROUND THE OS’S LACK OF MULTITASKING
TSR (computing); Terminate and stay resident; Terminate-and-Stay-Resident program; Terminate-and-Stay Resident Program; RAM resident; Memory resident; TSR program; Terminate-and-stay resident; Terminate-and-Stay-Resident; Terminate & Stay Resident; TSR file viruses; Terminate-and-Stay-Resident Program; Alternate Multiplex Interrupt Specification; Terminate and Stay Resident; Terminate and stay resident program; Terminate-and-stay-resident; Alternate multiplex interrupt specification; IBM Interrupt Sharing Protocol; IBM interrupt sharing protocol; Interrupt Sharing Protocol; Interrupt sharing protocol; Memory-resident program
A terminate-and-stay-resident program (commonly TSR) is a computer program running under DOS that uses a system call to return control to DOS as though it has finished, but remains in computer memory so it can be reactivated later. This technique partially overcame DOS's limitation of executing only one program, or task, at a time.