WinAudit, One-Click Audits Of A Computer's Hardware, Software
One of the first things that I like to do when I work on a computer that I have never worked on before is to audit the system's hardware and software.It can save you lots of time if you know what's inside so to speak.
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 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 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.
Closing Words
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.
Thanks, Martin. I am often “fixing” Windows computers or converting them to Linux. The fact that this application is portable is a great feature, I have been missing something like this. I will also look at SIW as another poster mentioned.
Dotan, SIW is a great tool as well. I really like WinAudit because of its reporting capabilities and command line usage.
Reminds me a bit of SIW. Wonder which one is better?!