find out how much memory my computer has

To figure out what’s making a computer slow down, I use either Task Manager or Process Monitor. (It would help if Microsoft made the migration process easier, though I’m hoping as we move more of our data and records to the cloud, that process will get easier.) While you can replace an IDE hard drive with an SSD – you should – and you can attempt to add more RAM, there comes a time where other components are so old that it no longer justifies using an old system to run Windows 10. I am a realist when it comes to computers: there comes a time when you need to upgrade. But it didn’t intend for us to keep running it on the same computer that ran Windows 7. Several years ago, Microsoft promised that Windows 10 would be the last Windows version you’d ever buy. So keep these new RAM numbers in mind when purchasing a laptop. Consumers and home users don’t have the same luxury. īusinesses usually have the option to lease their devices thus, as needed, they can arrange for trade ins and upgrades. But for laptops and other devices where RAM is physically connected to the motherboard and can’t be upgraded, the price will dictate how much RAM you get. If your computer can be opened, and can support more RAM, it can be upgraded to continue as a work horse for you. When buying a computer, the decision about how much RAM to get can be deferred for desktops or serviceable laptops. (It’s been an interesting personal experiment for me to see which browser tends to behave better, and I’ve found the new Edge browser handles memory better than Chrome.) Upgrade, or buy new? I recommend, among other Teams suggestions, disabling the Outlook add-in disabling hardware acceleration adjusting the page file settings and, of course, adding more RAM.Īs we move more applications to the cloud, the browser and its memory use becomes increasing important. That means you may need to do some tweaking to get it to behave on lower-RAM machines. Teams relies on the Electron platform and is actually a web-based application in the background. Fast forward to now, and the consensus is that the bare minimum is 16GB - primarily due to the new memory-hog de jour: Microsoft Teams. Then as we started to move more things to the cloud and turned to the Chrome browser to access websites, that was no longer enough. Not long ago, for a nicely functioning Windows 10 machine, 4GB of RAM was fine.

The other day, the topic of RAM - and what’s the minimum amount needed now for a Windows 10 computer - came up in a Facebook IT consultant-based group I’m part of.

Find out how much memory my computer has