I've discussed MSINFO32 several times in the past year.

MSINFO32 is a FREE program that comes with all versions of Microsoft Windows. It's  important to learn to use it, even if you are "not so good" with computers.

If your computer is running slowly, a lack of sufficient memory is one of the most common reasons. Upgrading your RAM or memory is a low cost solution to speeding up your computer.

Running this program will tell you if you have enough RAM or memory in your computer to run properly.

To run MSINFO32, click the START button on the lower left hand side of your screen.

You will see a screen that looks like this (depending on which version of Microsoft Windows you are using):

Enter msinfo32 inside the box and click OK.

You will get a screen that looks like the screen above (depending on which version of Windows you own).

Look at the right side of the screen for Total Physical Memory and Available Physical Memory.

The above screen shows that this computer has 523,828 KB of Total Physical Memory. This is the amount of memory that is installed on your computer.

When you purchase a new computer, it may come with 4 GBs of RAM or 3 GBs of RAM or 2 GBs of RAM or 1 GB of RAM. 1 GB of RAM is roughly 1,000,000 KBs (KB=kilobytes) of memory. The system information above shows that the computer represented above has about 1/2 or 0.5 GBs of RAM.

If you purchased a computer with Microsoft Windows XP, 1/2 GB or 500,000 KBs of memory was sufficient when you purchased the machine. However, if you added a computer virus program, antispyware programs, and updated versions of Windows XP, it is possible that the 1/2 GB is no longer sufficient.

The more important number to look at is your Available Physical Memory. Your Total Physical Memory tells you how much RAM or memory is installed in your computer. Your Available Physical Memory tells you how much RAM or memory is left for your computer programs.

For example, you may start with 500,000 KBs of memory. After you start your computer, Microsoft Windows may use 100,000 KBs that amount. Your security software (antivirus and antispyware) may use another 100,000 KBs. That may leave you with 300,000 KBs or less of Available Physical Memory.

In the above example, the computer has 438,412 KBs of available memory left. That's plenty.

On the other hand, if your machine has less than 300,000 KBs of available memory, that's not so good. If you have 200,000 to 300,000 KBs of available memory, that means the lack of memory may be slowing down your computer somewhat. You should think about upgrading.

If you have less than 200,000 KBs of available memory, your computer is seriously being slowed down by a lack of RAM or memory.

I've seen computers using less than 100,000 KBs of available memory. They run horribly slow. The reason for the slowness is that your computer is constantly swapping space between RAM (which is very fast) and your hard drive (which is much slower than your RAM).

If you are using Cash Register Express, Restaurant Pro Express, or any other software program, you should try the test with your software running. If you have less than 300,000 KBs of available RAM, you need to figure something out. Adding additional RAM to an older computer will cost you about $100 or less. It's a real good investment to make.

If you have a newer computer, you may get a reading like 1.08 GBs of RAM. 1 million (1,000,000 KBs) is equal to 1 GB. 1 GB of Available RAM is excellent. 0.5 GBs of RAM is equivalent to 500,000 KBs of RAM. That's still excellent. 0.2 GBs of RAM is equivalent to 200,000 KBs of RAM. That's too little.

Every computer owner should know how much RAM is inside their computer and how much is available. This FREE test that comes with Microsoft will give you that information.

There are certain things that every user should know about a computer. This is one thing that all users should be able to check.