How many times have you walked up to a system in your office and needed to click through several diagnostic windows to remind yourself of important aspects of its configuration, such as its name, IP address, or operating system version? If you manage multiple computers you probably need BGInfo.

It automatically displays relevant information about a Windows computer on the desktop's background, such as the computer name, IP address, service pack version, and more. You can edit any field as well as the font and background colors, and can place it in your startup folder so that it runs every boot, or even configure it to display as the background for the logon screen. Because BGInfo simply writes a new desktop bitmap and exits you don't have to worry about it consuming system resources or interfering with other applications.

Download BGInfo 4.14 in Softonic

Ever needed to get detailed information about your PC but felt too lazy to look around for the specifications? Well, don’t bother yourself browsing the net or leafing through your PC’s instruction manual; set up a system analysis application like Belarc Advisor instead. This program will profile your PC, giving you thorough information on every aspect of your machine.

Installing the application only takes a few seconds and it will analyze your PC right away. Make sure you are connected to Internet, as Belarc Advisor only works inside a browser window. It displays not only your hardware specs like controllers, bus adapters or the capacity of your processor but also software versions and licenses. Belarc Advisor also provides you with a list of all missing and installed Microsoft 'hotfixes' with a direct link to the corresponding update page.

Belarc Advisor also carries out a CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmark of your PC according to elements such as event log policies, security options and users rights. For each category, Belarc will give you a grade out of 10, with elements you comply with given a green check and those you fail given a red cross. If you click on a particular element you will be taken to a suggestions page. For example, click on “password age” and a new tab will open up with information on how and why to change your password regularly. We recommend looking over Belarc Advisor’s suggestions for any element in the benchmark that your PC might have failed. Try implementing their tips and do the benchmark test again to see if your PC gets a better score.

While the amount of information can easily overwhelm new users, Belarc Advisor is an excellent and speedy solution to get detailed specs on your PC. Providing details on your hardware and software and featuring a thorough benchmarking test, Belarc Advisor should come in handy when upgrading your PC or looking for any vulnerability to patch.

Download Belarc Advisor 7.2.24.6 in Softonic

A system analyzer is often overlooked as the toy of PC modding fanatics, but the reality is that these applications are very effective at dissecting your PC and giving you the hard truth about its performance. PC Wizard aims to explore the insides of your system and give you the complete low down on its strengths and weaknesses.

Once you launch PC Wizard you’ll notice it takes some time to detect all the hardware installed on your PC. Use the left side of the interface to navigate through the different categories. PC Wizard reveals all the basic details of your hardware, like ports, drivers and processors, but you’ll soon realize there’s much more to it, like analyzing system files or investigating the configuration of elements such as your Internet connection or your Control Panel. Over-sized icons make it fairly obvious what you can inspect, however we would have appreciated an explorer type window to navigate through components and select exactly what to analyze.

The core of any self-respecting system analyzer is the benchmarking tool and that is where PC Wizard excels. The application lets you inspect everything from processors to cache, RAM and multimedia like DirectX, MP3 compression and video. Benchmarks provide the results as a list of information or via comprehensible graphs. These will show you straight away where you’re PC stands and the “compare with” button will let you measure your processor up against well known models. We have to warn beginners though that the information is fairly technical and will be more relevant to experienced users. Just for fun, test out the video benchmark to obtain a swarm of multicoloured balls and lines all over your screen.

That’s the only bit of excitement you’ll get with this application though. PC Wizard is not here for fun it's here to be effective. The detailed information and thorough benchmarking tests give you reliable data on all the characteristics and components of your PC. The complexity of this type of application means beginners are best kept away from it altogether, however advanced users will revel in the wealth of knowledge it will uncover on their PC’s performances.

Download PC Wizard 2008 1.85 in Softonic

It's not only the world that's getting warmer - PC's, by virtue of the fact that they are becoming increasingly more powerful, are literally warming up too.

Most good PCs and laptops have a fan which automatically controls overheating and regulates temperature but this is not always 100% reliable, especially when you've got lots of external devices connected. The good thing about HWMonitor is that it gives you an instant overview of your PC's vital power and heat stats while at the same time, remaining very light and not adding to the problem. In fact, it doesn't require any installation at all and can be run simply from the .EXE file. The program does not copy any files into the directory or edit the registry in any way. The program probably shows you far more stats that it needs to in reality - I mean, who really needs to know the temperature of their graphics card? It would have been useful if the program had included some kind of basic and advanced view to prevent you getting overwhelmed with data but at least the info is there if you really need it.

If you're worried that you're fan is not doing it's job properly or your PC is getting disconcertingly hot, then HWMonitor is the ultimate monitoring tool.

Download HWMonitor 1.10 in Softonic

If you need to be reassured on the health status of your Hard Disk, run CrystalDiskInfo and see what the response is like. CrystalDiskInfo is a hard-disk health monitoring utility. It displays basic HDD information, monitors S.M.A.R.T. values and disk temperature.

You don’t have to do anything apart from running the program in order to have a health status report, stating temperature level, error rate, spin-up time and lots of other information which might be useful to know, especially for tech-savvy users. Even if you are not one of those, you might still find it cheerful to see written in a glossy blue box that your hard disk status is ‘Good’.

Unfortunately, there is no interaction with the program, it’s just a window with data and you can’t do much else with those. There is a graph display, but it doesn’t seem particularly easy to understand it, if and when it works.

Although the figures given by CrystalDiskInfo can be hard to be understand for non tech-savvy users, you can still find out more about the technical characteristics of your hard disk and know easily if everything is ok with it.

Download CrystalDiskInfo 1.0.4a in Softonic

Fresh Diagnose is a utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard / motherboard information, and a lot more besides.

System Information: Scan your system and get a complete report about your computer's hardware and software, for example: motherboard information, video system information, PCI / AGP buses information, peripheral (keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) information, network information.

System Benchmarks: Test your system performance, such as CPU, hard disk, CD/DVD ROM, and compare it with other systems.

Download Fresh Diagnose 7.80 in Softonic

WinAudit performs a rapid and exhaustive audit of installed software, license information, security configuration, hardware inventory, network settings and much more. It has the following features:

• Easy to use
• Audits virtually everything
• No setup
• Windows 95 and up
• Save in text, HTML, CSV, PDF
• Send audit by email
• Export to databases
• Operates in batch mode
• Extensive documentation

The programme reports on virtually every aspect of computer inventory and configuration. Results are displayed in web-page format, categorised for ease of viewing and text searching. Whether your interest is in software compliance, hardware inventory, technical support, security or just plain curiosity, WinAudit has it all. The programme has advanced features such as service tag detection, hard-drive failure diagnosis, network port to process mapping, network connection speed, system availability statistics as well as Windows update and firewall settings.

Download WinAudit 2.27 in Softonic

CrystalMark allows you to test your CPU, memory, HDD and video (GDI, Direct Draw, OpenGL) and subsystems. It also displays useful information about your system which can be saved in a text or HTML file.

CrystalMark allows you to test separate components and to also obtain detailed information about them.

Download CrystalMark 2004 R2 in Softonic

Test My Hardware analyses the configuration of your PC to spot if there are any potential problems on your system. It displays the results in an attractive interface with logos for each component.

In reality, this is not a particularly revealing tester. It performs a rather simple analysis that won't reveal anything that a technician couldn't find out from Windows hardware manager anyway. However, it does at least give you a general overview of the condition of your system including processor, motherboard, memory, operating system, additional components and devices, etc.

The interface of My Test Hardware classifies the results in a practical and ordered manner so it's easy to identify the component you're particularly interested in. A quick and simple program that might not solve your hardware problems but provides a good starting point.

Download Test My Hardware 2.4 in Softonic

SIW (System Information for Windows) performs computer configuration analysis and diagnostics. It gives detailed information about your computer properties and settings, detailed specs for hardware, software, network configuration and other elements of your system.

SIW can offer detailed information about:

• Software: operating system, installed software and hotfixes, processes, services, users, open files, system uptime, installed codecs, licenses
• Hardware: 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: network cards, network shares, currently active network connections, open ports
• Tools: password recovery, reveal passwords hidden behind asterisks, product keys and serial numbers (CD Key), MAC address Changer, shutdown / restart
• Real-time monitors: CPU, memory, page File usage and network traffic

SIW can also create a report file (CSV, HTML, TXT or XML). Also, being a standalone utility that doesn't require installation, you can run the program directly from a USB flash drive.

Download SIW 1.71 in Softonic

System Information Viewer enables you to view a wide range of technical data about your computer, regarding system elements, installed hardware or network configuration, amongst others.

Although the amount of information displayed is impressive, the program's interface is quite unattractive, to say the least. Also, we had some stability issues when testing the program's network tools, but that may be due to the size of our local network. The upside is that you can copy all the information displayed on the interface to the Clipboard with just one click.

In all, System Information Viewer makes a good, thorough analysis of your computer's specifications. The only thing we could ask for in future versions is having a better interface.

Download System Information Viewer 3.22 in Softonic

System Spec allows you to see, save and print a complete spec of your PC with this no-install, system information utility and perform various windows functions. Additional advanced info includes CPU, drives, apps, display, memory and more.

As well as export to CSV, System Spec can now export the system information displayed on the main system to an HTML file. This HTML file can then be uploaded to your website to show off your PC's Spec. To export to HTML go to File - Export to HTML.

Download System Spec 2.53 in Softonic

SIW (System Information for Windows) performs computer configuration analysis and diagnostics. SIW can create a report file (CSV, HTML, TXT or XML), and is able to run in batch mode (for Asset Management, PC Audit, Software Inventory and Hardware Inventory). SIW gives detailed information about your computer properties and settings, detailed specs for:

Software

Operating System, Installed Software and Hotfixes, Processes, Services, Users, Open Files, System Uptime, Installed Codecs, Licenses.

Hardware

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

Network Cards, Network Shares, currently active Network Connections, Open Ports.

Tools

Password Recovery, Reveal lost passwords hidden behind asterisks, Product Keys and Serial Numbers (CD Key), MAC Address Changer, Shutdown / Restart.

Real-time monitors

CPU, Memory, Page File usage and Network Traffic.

Download System Information 1.67 in Softonic

The purpose of this utility is to detect the optical drive's (CD / DVD drives) Read/Write capabilities. When looking at the front of a computer which is not your own it is often difficult to tell whether the optical drive installed is either a CD ROM, CD Writer, CD Rewriter, DVD ROM, CD Rewriter + DVD Combo, DVD/CD Rewriter etc.

A utility like this is useful because CD and DVD drives don't often display their capabilities in the front and sometimes even if they do, they still can't been seen due to the design of the PC's case.

People quite often have more than one optical drive installed in their machine. They can have for example the original CD ROM or Writer drive and also a newer DVD drive. Another advange of this utility is allows you to see by selecting the drive letter for one of the drives, which is which. It also allows you to see which of the two or more drives is the faster for reading / writing.

A fast and easy way to manage and identify your drives.

Download Optical Info 1.02 in Softonic

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means "defender", "helper of mankind". We think that's quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what's really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCIe, ODBC Connections, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

Download Sisoft Sandra 2005 SR3 (10.69) in Softonic

CINEBENCH is the free benchmarking tool for Windows and Mac OS based on the powerful 3D software CINEMA 4D. Consequently, the results of tests conducted using CINEBENCH 9.5 carry significant weight when analyzing a computer’s performance in everyday use. Especially a system’s CPU and the OpenGL capabilities of its graphics card are put through their paces (even multiprocessor systems with up to 16 dedicated CPUs or processor cores). During the testing procedure, all relevant data is ascertained with which the performance of different computers can subsequently be compared, regardless of operating system.

CINEBENCH includes render tasks that test the performance of up to 16 multiprocessors on the same computer as well as software-only shading tests and OpenGL shading tests on huge numbers of animated polygons that will push any computer to its limits.

CINEBENCH 9.5 is available for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems and as a “Universal Binary” version for Apple Macintosh computers with PowerPC or Intel Core Duo processors. The database functionality and simple export allow for easy statistical data collection. CINEBENCH is used extensively by leading trade journals and hardware manufacturers such as Intel, AMD and Apple to compare computer performance.

Example of results:

****************************************************
Rendering (Single CPU): 229 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 267 CB-CPU

Multiprocessor Speedup: 1.16

Shading (CINEMA 4D) : 326 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 1283 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 2947 CB-GFX

OpenGL Speedup: 9.05
****************************************************

Download Cinebench 9.5 in Softonic

Aezay Computer Information is a handy little tool that shows you various information about your system. It displays how much memory you have, how much is in use, how big your hard drive(s) are, how fast your CPU is and much more. In addition the program also offers support for WinAmp details and can retrieve class information from open windows and more.

Download Aezay Computer Information 1.61 in Softonic