Windows resources are used by the Windows operating system, and all hardware devices and software programs. Windows also reserves a chunk of memory for its cache. Provided you had enough RAM to run your computer efficiently to begin with, you will see a very small change in the percentage of resources available when you increase your computer's RAM.

However you should be able to run more software programs at once without experiencing hard drive spooling, and some of your programs will run faster if they can take advantage of the larger memory space.

To review Windows' resource usage do the following:
Open the System Properties dialog box by clicking Start, pointing to Settings, clicking Control Panel, and then double-clicking System. Click Computer, and then click Properties. To see which resource settings are in use, click the View Resources tab, and then click a resource type at the top of the dialog box.