How to Upgrade My PC for Free

Computer upgrades are expensive. In many cases, it's better to buy a new PC than install more memory space. However, before you spend hundreds of dollars on computer components, you should know there are a few free methods available for upgrading your PC. By updating your operating system, managing your hard drive and adjusting system settings, you can upgrade a PC's speed, disk space and memory without spending a penny.

• 1

  Click "Start" and "All Programs."

• 2

  Click to open "Windows Update." This will usually be somewhere near the top of the All Programs list. Windows will automatically search for updates. Click "OK" to install recommended updates. Operating system software updates are free, and they can help your computer run smoothly. Many older versions of Windows are no longer supported with regular updates, but if you do not make a habit of regular updating, you may have missed even a very old update file.

• 3

  Click the "Start" button again.

• 4

  Type "Disk Defragmenter" (without the quotation marks) in the text box at the bottom of the Start menu, and press the "Enter" key.

• 5

  Click to highlight your main hard drive from the list of disk drives provided. Your main hard drive will typically be labeled as drive "C."

• 6

  Click "Defragment Disk" while the main hard drive is selected. You may be prompted for an administrator password. Unless you specifically set up an alternate administrator password, this is the same password you use to log into Windows. The program will begin automatically defragmenting your hard drive. A fragmented disk will not run efficiently. The defragmenter program will rearrange data for smoother PC operations. This hard drive upgrade will increase both speed and storage space. Defragmenting can take several hours, but you can keep using your PC while defragmenting occurs.

• 7

  Return to the Start menu once more.

• 8

  Right-click on "Computer" and select "Properties." Write down the numerical value listed under the "Installed Memory (RAM)" heading. You will need to know this number later.

• 9

  Click "Advanced System Settings" and select the "Advanced" tab.

• 10

  Click "Settings" and click on the "Advanced" tab.

• 11

  Click to deselect the check box labeled "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives."

• 12

  Select your main hard drive and then type in a new value under the "Custom" heading. The number you type in will become the amount of hard drive space allocated for virtual memory. Adding extra virtual memory will upgrade your computer's speed without having to add expensive internal memory or RAM. According to Microsoft, you can enter a value up to three times the Installed Memory value. Just remember, values are given in megabytes. One gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes. For example, if you have 2 gigabytes of installed RAM, you can upgrade your virtual memory to 6,000 megabytes.

• 13

  Click "OK" to confirm the virtual memory upgrade.