COnsider classic to be the little computer inside your computer. ONce you've launched classic, it will stay up until you either quit it manually, it crashes (yeah, that happens sometimes) or you log out. It will even sleep to conserve system resources, "awaken" when you launch another classic app. The Classic control panel in system preferences will tell you in big block letters if Classic is up or not. Get to know and love that panel. It is your best friend if you use classic at all. I'd even chuck it into the dock.