Download Everest Home Edition and give it a try. The features are thorough and best described by the creators themselves:

• Advanced hardware monitor with OSD panel and cooling fans monitoring
• Real-time alternating for hot-plug devices
• Portable Computer page to display mobile PC related information
• Bluetooth PAN support
• File Scanner filtering
• User benchmark results manager
• Monitor Diagnostics

You should probably download it soon, because it is no longer available in a free edition, except from the link provided.

The product line was discontinued one year ago and this is a pity because it has all the bells and whistles you could want from a good system diagnostics application. It is designed for both 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems. It uses very little system resources: minimum 486 processor with 32 MB RAM. Some dinosaur PCs could handle that.

From the interface, you can get specifics on all hardware components and full reports with formatting options. You can open up an HTML report on any component and see exactly what is going on.

This comes from Everest’s Report Wizard and all offsets are displayed as well. This is a panorama from which you can find any issues with PC hardware with ease. If you are already familiar with hardware diagnosis, this will be quite a treat. The Report wizard is a standard Windows layout. You get complete reports and you can export them to a file for comparative analysis.

For customization purposes, you can tweak to your heart’s content, but be careful not to blow the whole game. As always, backup and create a restore point if you are going to go messing around with settings.

Select any component from the menu and click the Report tab then choose a report in Plain Text, HTML or MHTML. Every detail is there before your eyes.

The first page of the Preferences module has a list of all user interface languages and it is as easy as selecting Preferences and then selecting a language to change the interface. Restart and the language is reset.

Open the system devices panel and everything is listed perfectly. Just scroll through specified devices and properties and get complete diagnostic reports. Everest Home Edition doesn’t miss anything. It is unfortunate that the program will have no further updates. It will soon be outgrown, but for now, this is a piece of software worth taking for a test drive. That is about what it takes to learn how to use it. Explore the options and get what is perhaps one of the clearest hardware diagnostic tools available for free, at least for now.

The free software InfoTool is a portable application for the Windows operating system. It displays all hardware relevant information on one page in the interface.

Non-Dutch speaking users need to change the language of the application under Instellingen > Taal from Netherlands to English, Espanol or another supported language first.

Once done they get a detailed listing of the computer hardware. This includes information about the computer’s motherboard, process, memory, hard disks, sound cards, graphics cards, display and even the network card among other information.

The information presented on the screen should be enough to answer most hardware related compatibility questions. Some information on the other hand ware not as detailed as they could be. You do not get a listing of all computer ports for instance, and it takes a little bit of digging to sort out the number of memory modules installed on the system.

Some elements have not been translated into English, you will encounter the odd Dutch word even if you have selected English as the interface language. It is distracting but not to hard to figure out.

The program ships with an adviser module that can be used to find out if your computer supports a specific PC game. The information presented there are mostly in Dutch. It is still possible to understand if your computer meets the selected game’s requirements though. The software ships with hundreds of games listed including Assassin’s Creed 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, Modern Warfare 2 or the latest The Sims game.

It lacks information about some of the newer games that have been released recently or are about to be released. Another issue here is that the game information may not include Windows 7 in which case the program will report a compatibility error when in fact there is none.

Windows users can download InfoTool from the developer website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. (via)

All information are made available by so called modules. It is possible to block some modules from being installed, which makes sense if you do not plan on using them. Modules range from displaying the current cpu and memory utilization to the current bandwidth, Google Mail notifications, a uTorrent watcher, weather conditions or a volume control.

The toolbar docks to the top of the screen where it is always visible. It is blank by default which means that you need to activate the modules first that you want to see on the toolbar.

This is done with a right-click on the toolbar and the selection of Modules in the options.

Click on the items that you want displayed and then on the OK button. All modules are then displayed on the toolbar. Each module comes with its own configuration page where you can modify how the information are presented and how often the graph and tooltip get updated.

You could for instance switch from displaying all cpu cores individually as text on the toolbar to a graph, and even show both a graph and textual information.

You can move the mouse cursor over a module in the toolbar to get additional information in a tooltip. The memory module for instance not only displays the overall memory usage but also the top processes that use memory in the tooltip.

InfoBar ships with several skins that change the appearance of the toolbar significantly. You find default Windows 7 and Vista skins in the settings as well as Microsoft’s Luna skin and custom made skins from third party designers.

The infobar is not shown if a fullscreen application is started. The idea is nice: Give the user direct information that are always visible on the screen. Some users might not like the fact that they lose part of their screen for the toolbar. Then again, it does not use that much space on the system, and there is an autohide option.

The modules are responsive and all configuration changes that I made during tests worked out fine and were shown on the toolbar more or less instantly.

Interested Windows users can download the latest version of InfoBar from the project website over at Sourceforge.

The program is a system information gathering software. It is currently offered as a beta version. The developers Passmark Software will release a free and commercial version once the final version is released. The free version comes with several limitations, a disk indexing limit of 200k files for instance, no searching for alternate file streams, multi-core acceleration for file decryption or support that is limited to the company’s public forum. The beta version on the other hand comes without restrictions.

The tool has been designed by its developers to aid analyzers with the discovery of relevant forensic data, the identification of suspicious files and activities and the management of the information.

When you start the program for the first time, you see a list of available options on the left side, and a selection of those tools in the larger area on the right.

It is possible to run a specific tool right away, or use the case management module to create a case for the analysis first. A case consists of a name and save location, an investigator, organization and optional contact details.

Once you have created the case you can use the tools on the left to search, gather and analyze information. You could start by creating an index of a hard drive’s or folder’s contents. It is possible to search for specific type of data, like emails, zip files, office documents or web files, or specify custom files during the advanced configuration step. The advanced options basically allow you to specify file extensions that you want included in the scan. OS Forensics will not only index existing files on the drive, but also traces of deleted files on unallocated sectors of the hard drive.

The data indexing may take some time depending on the size of the selected folder or drive and the performance of the computer. Once you have created the index you can use the search to find specific files that have been indexed previously.

But that is only one of the options available to search for information on a computer. Recent Activity for instance displays information about a user’s recently opened files, opened websites, cookies and event records.

Here is an overview of some of the other tools:

• Search within files, emails
• Drive Image: Create an image of a hard drive or partition to mount the drive and work with the image instead of the physical drive.
• Forensic Copy: Copy files from a folder to another one. The destination files maintain the time stamps of the original files. Faster than creating and working with a drive image.
• Hash Sets: Load hash sets to identify safe files to reduce the time it takes to analyze files.
• Raw Disk Viewer: Analyze the raw data sectors of all physical drives.
• Memory Viewer: View memory details of all processes currently in memory.
• Deleted File Search: Search for traces of deleted files on any hard drive.
• Mismatch file search: Search for files with contents that do not match the file type, e.g. with hidden containers or false extensions.
• Signatures: Create signatures to compare directory structures.
• Password Recovery: Find browser passwords, use rainbow tables to look up password hashes and automatic file decryption for specific file types.
• File Viewer: Os Forensics includes an image, hex, string, text, file and meta data viewer.
• Install to USB: Install the application to an USB drive

OS Forensics is a very sophisticated system information gathering software with an incredible set of features. Users who are interested in the program can download the latest version from the developer website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of recent Microsoft Windows client and server systems. The developers offer hash sets for download to identify and ignore safe operating system files. The download page offers some rainbow table downloads as well. (via)

Information are sorted into tabs in the main interface. The names often hint at the information you can expect when you open a specific tab in the program. There are tabs for all drives, the operating system, processor, video or network adapter.

The information displayed are handy for troubleshooting purposes and for an overview of a computer system. The NIC tab for instance displays information like the MAC address, connection state. if DHCP is enabled or the local IP address and subnet mask. These information can be directly used to troubleshoot a system. Even better, you can ask someone to execute the program and give you the information over phone if you are working tech support.

Most tabs are packed with information. Among them detailed information about the operating system like the version, service packs, language and serial number, and computer memory.

But it is not only information that you get when you start SimpleSysInfo. The program offers direct links to often used services and features of the operating system. From the Registry Editor over Computer Management and System Restore to Windows Firewall and the Group Policy Editor. All links are available under Programs in the menubar of the application.

Serials can be hidden in the program interface. By default, all serials are shown including the product key of Windows and Office, the MAC address, disk serial numbers and the UUID.

Reports can be created as XML or HTML files that can be saved, printed or emailed. This is again helpful to send the information to tech support or an experienced user for further assistance.

What sets the program apart from other system information tools is the option to add up to 11 custom Registry information directly in the interface.

You need to edit the ini file that is created in the program directory on first run to add those custom Registry information. A click on Options > Edit SimpleSysInfo.ini opens the ini file in a text editor where you can make the changes to the file.

SimpleSysInfo is available from the developer homepage. The program is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows from Windows 2000 to Windows 7. It requires 3 Megabytes of disk space on the system.

The program uses tabs and a small sidebar menu to display information on multiple pages. The general tab at the top lists the computer’s hardware and related information. Its sidebar menu divides the information into a summary page, operating system, motherboard and cpu, and sound and display. Each page lists various information about the computer’s hardware or software. The summary page for instance lists information about the operating system, processor, hard drives, graphics card, IP address and RAM usage.

The general tab reveals all relevant information about the system. Some system information tools go into more details but in most cases those are not needed by the majority of users. The other four available tabs lists the system fonts, processes, software programs and drives. There is no interaction possible there, for instance to kill a process or uninstall a font.

The only other available feature is the ability to create a report which creates a rich test file with the most important information. It is unfortunately not possible to customize the report, for instance to include other information displayed in the application.

Sys Information, the Windows System Information Tool is available for download at the developer website. The program is fully compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

WinAudit appears to be the perfect tool for the job. The portable freeware program for Windows can audit a computer’s hardware and software with one click once the application has been launched.

The hardware and software scan may take some time, depending on the computer’s speed, but it is well worth the wait.

The first page displays a system overview with the most important hardware parameters, from the cpu to the memory, operating system, total hard drive space, motherboard and BIOS. Everything hardware wise is there on first glance.

The left sidebar lists all the categories that WinAudit has analyzed during the scan. They act as direct jumps to those categories. It is however possible to simply scroll down in the main window to see all information that have been gathered during the system scan.

The categories can loosely be divided into software, hardware and system categories.

WinAudit Categories

• Software: Includes the installed software on the computer system, information about the operating system, startup programs, running programs and Internet software.
• Hardware: The largest category. It lists everything there is to know about the computer’s hardware, from pyhsical discs to communication and open ports, processors and installed printers to display and network TCP/IP related information. It is all there and as extensive as it can get.
• System: Lists system related information. This includes services, regional settings, environment variables, error logs, uptime statistics and groups and users.

Existing categories can be unselected in the program’s options. Here it is furthermore possible to activate six new categories that are not enabled by default, including system files, loaded modules, non-Windows executables, software metering and user logon statistics.

WinAudit can also be operated from the command line, detailed information about that usage is available at the developer’s website under documentation. One of the more interesting options of the command line is the ability to search for specific file types and include them in the report.

Reports can be saved in various formats including html, pdf and xml formats. Additional options exist to send the audit to an email address or a printer.

WinAudit is an excellent program for users who want to do a fast system audit. The audit can be customized to only include the information needed by the user requesting it. The portable software program was tested on a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit system. It should be compatible with other Windows operating systems as well.

HWM BlackBox is another system information tool for Windows that displays relevant information in a clean interface.

The program makes use of a tabbed interface to display information about the PC’s processor, memory configuration, graphics and additional hardware.

hwm blackbox

• Processor: Displays the cpu model, codename, technology, socket, revision, instruction sets, L1-L3 cache settings, speed, multiplier, bus speed and voltage. The same screen offers realtime values of each cpu core, including temperature, usage and speed values.
• Memory: The memory tab lists everything there is to know about the installed RAM, from the total size and memory type to its frequency and speed. Each memory module can be analyzed separately on the left side. The program displays information like the manufacturer, supported frequencies, CL and voltage levels or bandwidth. Great for users who plan to add another memory module but cannot remember the type and manufacturer they have in their PC.
• Graphics: Displays information about the graphics adapter. This includes basic information like the manufacturer, series and model to advanced information like gpu, shader and memory speeds, transistors, the temperature and the pixel fill rate. The tab comes with an option to switch to other graphics adapters of the system to display their values.
• System: Combines information about several hardware devices. This includes the motherboard, hard drives, optical drives and network adapters.

system information

The last tab offers to run Windows Performance tests, a feature only available on Vista and Windows 7.

A tiny button in the tabbar contains options to export hardware information into a text or XML file, change the hardware refresh speed rate, and to open an Overclocking Panel which provides an overview of overclocked components of the PC.

overlcocking panel

The hardware monitor displays lots of relevant information about a computer’s hardware. The realtime values that are automatically updated add a lot to the value of the software. It may not offer as many detailed information about the PC system than other programs, but the information gathered and displayed should be enough for most purposes.

HWM Blackbox is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit edition for Windows operating systems. The program requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 or higher. (via Web Trickz)

System Information for Windows can display information about a computer system’s software and hardware inventory and network information. It furthermore provides access to a set of tools that can perform a variety of tasks from changing a network adapter’s MAC address to dumping the computer bios or testing the computer monitor.

The system information can be accessed from the left sidebar that sorts them into software, hardware and network categories or the header of the application that provides access to all information that are accessible on the sidebar and the tools menu that links to all tools that are included.

The information that are displayed are very extensive, the program lists for example the following:

• Software Inventory: Operating System, Installed Software and Hotfixes, Processes, Services, Users, Open Files, System Uptime, Installed Codecs, Software Licenses (Product Keys / Serial Numbers / CD Key), Secrets (Password Recovery).
• Hardware Inventory: Motherboard, Sensors, BIOS, CPU, chipset, PCI/AGP, USB and ISA/PnP Devices, Memory, Video Card, Monitor, Disk Drives, CD/DVD Devices, SCSI Devices, S.M.A.R.T., Ports, Printers.
• Network Information: Network Cards, Network Shares, currently active Network Connections, Open Ports.
• Network Tools: MAC Address Changer, Neighborhood Scan, Ping, Trace, Statistics
• Miscellaneous Tools: Eureka! (Reveal lost passwords hidden behind asterisks), Monitor Test, Shutdown / Restart.
• Real-time monitors: CPU, Memory, Page File usage and Network Traffic.

Here are some real world examples of what you can do with System Information For Windows besides displaying the installed software or computer hardware:

• List Windows product key as well as serial numbers of other installed applications.
• Configure Autorun, Browser Helper Objects and other drivers or programs that are loaded during startup.
• Display temperature of computer hardware if the hardware makes use of sensors.
• Display all open ports and network shares on the system
• Display passwords that are hidden behind asterisks
• Perform a broadband speed test

System Information For Windows can be used to generate an inventory report of a computer system in no time. The extensive reporting options of the pro version make it ideal for that purpose.

The tools that are provided make several tools that users might otherwise use unnecessary which could be one of the reasons to install this version of the software.

Differences between System Information for Windows pro and free version:

• The pro version has a reporting option that can be used to generate system information reports that can be saved as html, xml, txt or csv reports. The free version only supports html reports.
• The free version has several restrictions. It is for instance not allowed to use the software in a business environment
• Several command line parameters are not available in the free version

The version that is offered at the Giveaway of the Day website is System Information for Windows Pro Business Edition. The program’s standard price is $69.

Positive

• Runs on both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows
• Extensive system information
• Reporting option
• Tools for various tasks

Negative

• No alarms. It would be nice if alarms could be configured, e.g. when the temperature level reaches a maximum.
• Processing information directly. Instead of only displaying information it would be nice if they could be processed directly. The software inventory displays for instance the installed applications but there is no way to uninstall them directly.
• Tries to install Registry Booster during installation

System Information for Windows Pro can be downloaded for free today at the Giveaway of the Day website. The developer’s website with additional information (like the command line parameters) is available here.

Viable alternatives are the free version of SIW, Speccy, Open Hardware Monitor or PC Wizard.

This includes information about the cpu, computer memory, motherboard (including manufacturer, type, socket and chipset, graphics, hard drives, optical drives and audio.

A sidebar like menu contains links to sections that contain detailed reports about the selected hardware that has been listed in the summary.

These sections contain very detailed reports on the PC hardware. The computer memory section for example contains information about the type, size, channels, DRAM frequency, command rate, frequencies and dozens of additional parameters that go into extreme details.

The program provides excellent information for users who want to find out detailed information about connected and installed PC hardware. The beta version had problems identifying the Ati Radeon 4870 video card that was installed in the test PC system.

Speccy is available as a beta for most Microsoft operating systems including the latest Windows 7. It is available as a portable software and installer.

Individual modules can either contain one function, for example cleaning the Windows Registry, or multiple pages like the Windows Secrets module which lists 11 functions that load in their separate windows each.

The tool combines many commonly used system maintenance tools in its interface which makes it an interesting option for users who like to control their computer system from one software program instead of multiple applications. Below is a small overview of the available modules and their core features:

• Disk Cleaner: Scan drives for temporary files and delete those files. Includes the option to add file types and to exclude directories from the process.
• Disk Usage Analyzer: Scans and displays usage information about a hard drive that is connected to the computer system.
• Miscellaneous Tools: A collection of tools ranging from a process manager to editing configuration files, managing autorun and virtual desktops.
• Registry Cleaner: Scan the Windows Registry for obsolete entries and errors
• Registry Defragmenter: Reduces the size of the Windows Registry by removing empty spaces.
• Startup Manager: Manage startup programs in the Windows operating system.
• System Information: Extensive information about the computer hardware and software.
• Track Cleaner: Remove tracks left by popular applications like Microsoft Office, Windows Media Player and dozens of third party applications.
• Uninstall Programs: Software uninstaller.
• Windows Secrets: Options to tweak many aspects of the operating system from Windows core functions to Start Menu, Windows Explorer to Desktop and Special Folders.

A backup is created before changing important system functions. PowerPack 2009 is available for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The Task Manager software extension changes the Applications and Processes tab in the Windows Task Manager. The Process ID is shown in the Applications tab while the major changes are visible and accessible in the Processes tab.

The default view in the Processes tab remains more or less unchanged. The only two differences are icons for every process listed and Windows system processes are grayed out to increase the visibility of non system processes.

The Task Manager software extension would be mediocre at best if those were the only changes. The majority of changes have been added to the right-click context menu. The two entries Information and Properties which display all kind of information about the selected process. Useful information include the system path, process environment variables and service information if available.

In addition to that users can view information about Files, Modules, Handles, Windows, Threads, Memory Maps and Process Security.

The Task Manager Software Extension added one additional menu to the top menu which provides access to additional information. Users can opt to view the loaded drivers, all handles and search for files and modules.

The software program PC Audit uses tabs to divide the information about the computer system into categories. It displays the tabs System, Software and Processes which each contain dozens of information about the computer system.

The System tab for example contains information about the system hardware, Windows product key, installed Windows hotfixes, startup items and network information while the software tab contains the list of installed software applications. While that is not that useful it does have a feature that might make it interesting again. It can list the product key of several of the installed applications on the computer system.

The processes tab on the other hand is just a list of running processes with less detailed information as the Windows Task Manager. There is no real use for that tab in the software application.

The main use for this application can be narrowed down to its portability. It’s rather lightweight and fits perfectly on USB devices. Could be used to get a first quick overview of a computer system without having to run any locally installed applications.

Some fields, like the hard drives, display the free space and an overlay bar that is showing the amount of used space on that drive. The program window can be moved around on the desktop and set to “always on top” if so desired.

The appearance can be customized. The user can change fonts, the sizes, the transparency level, and various colors to make it fit his needs.

Additional information can be retrieved by right-clicking on an entry that is displayed. A right-click on Processes displays all running processes on the system with an option to kill selected ones. Most fields contain those additional information which allow a quick analysis.

The tool uses roughly 6 Megabytes and 3 Megabytes of virtual memory when displaying all fields on the desktop. That’s impressive. Currently two versions are available at the developer’s homepage. One is for subscribers only (it’s free) which adds a few features like a horizontal layout.

It’s convenient because it places the information, like the current IP, free hard drive space and Logon Domain and Server, right on the desktop background which means no additional windows, menus or widgets that take up valuable screen estate. It’s also resource friendly because it simply writes a new desktop wallpaper with the information and exits. This does however mean that the information presented could be different from the actual information depending on the last time that BgInfo has been started.

Most information that can be displayed on the other hand does not change that often and I suppose some clever users could come up with a scheduled start every x minutes so that the information that is displayed by BgInfo is accurate.

Each entry can be configured independently from the rest to merge the information perfectly with the desktop wallpaper. The user can select the font, size, color, alignment and the global position of all information.

The software is compatible with multi-desktop systems and runs on Windows 2000 SP4 Rollup 1 and newer Windows operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista.