What’s On your Computer?

If you’ve had your computer for more than a few weeks, you’ve probably made more changes to it than you realize (or can remember).

The most important reason to have an inventory of what’s on your computer is so you’ll know what to reinstall when your PC crashes or what to load when you get a new one.

The easiest way I know to produce this list is to use a piece of software that scans your entire computer and keeps track of what it finds. It’s much more thorough and faster than trying to do it manually (and a lot easier on your eyes).

The tool I recommend is the Belarc Advisor. You can download it for free, then run it to get a complete audit of your PC.

Another reason to have all this detail is to make it easier to upgrade your hardware components. For example, if you want to buy additional memory, you’ll need to know how much is already installed, how much more there’s room for, and what type of memory to buy.

I usually just take a printout of my Belarc report with me to the store so the techies there will know exactly what I have and can help me buy the right things when I want to upgrade.
I advise you to do the same thing.