{"id":3731,"date":"2012-02-14T15:03:16","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T20:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=3731"},"modified":"2012-02-14T15:03:16","modified_gmt":"2012-02-14T20:03:16","slug":"learn-more-about-your-computer-with-these-freeware-system-information-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/learn-more-about-your-computer-with-these-freeware-system-information-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn more about your computer with these freeware system information tools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Again this week, we had one of our loyal subscribers send us a copy of a competing Windows newsletter who sent a special email to subscribers offering a \u201cspecial deal\u201d on a system information tool for $9.95 . Well that\u2019s great, but since there are free system information tools that do the same things and give the same information, were they doing their subscribers a favor \u2013 or were they taking advantage of their trust?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s one thing when you offer your subscribers a great deal on a program that is worth it, but there are many free system information programs that give you detailed information about your computer. So why would anyone recommend you pay $9.95 for a program knowing there are programs which work as well, and don\u2019t cost a thing.<\/p>\n<p>There are certain programs which have no free counterparts \u2013 for instance no free antispyware can do what SUPERAntiSpyware can do \u2013 and independent tests show that to be true. There are free\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">registry\u00a0cleaners<\/span>, but none work as well as Registry Commander \u2013 and some free registry cleaners can really cause BIG problems with your computer. If we found a free antispyware program or a registry cleaner that worked as well as the ones we sell, we\u2019d tell you about them. You know why? Because we believe in you and we know you\u2019d support us in other ways. The most valuable thing we have is your trust and we\u2019ll never knowingly violate that trust.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019ll save you $9.95 by telling you about two free programs that will give you detailed information about your computer and everything inside it, including: your motherboard, your processor, the temperature of your processor, the temperature of your motherboard, your video card, your sound hardware, and many other details you probably never knew.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Belarc Advisor<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nThe first free system information program is the venerable Belarc Advisor. It\u2019s still free and it\u2019s still works great. It gives you all the information about your computer you\u2019ll ever need \u2013 and it even lets you create a page showing complete details about your system.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some details from Belarc\u2019s Web site:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, network inventory, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, security benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Operating Systems: Runs on Windows 7, 2008 R2, Vista, 2008, 2003, XP, 2000, NT 4, Me, 98, and 95. Both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows are supported.<\/p>\n<p>Browsers: Runs on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and many others.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">File\u00a0size<\/span>: 2798 KB.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>License: The license associated with this product allows for free personal use only. Use on multiple PCs in a corporate, educational, military or government installation is prohibited. See the license agreement for details\u2026.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Belarc Advisor Works on Windows XP, Vista and Seven \u2013 32bit and 64bit.<\/p>\n<p>You can get more information and\/or download Belarc Advisor free from\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.belarc.com\/free_download.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>http:\/\/www.belarc.com\/free_download.html<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speccy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2011\/speccy.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Cloudeight InfoAve\" width=\"503\" height=\"409\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s the new kid on the block \u2013 called Speccy. Since Speccy\u2019s developer is not shy with words, we\u2019ll let him tell you about the program:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhat\u2019s in your computer? If you\u2019re like most of us, you can probably name the processor (Intel or AMD, Celeron or Pentium), maybe how much RAM it has, and maybe how big the hard drive is.<br \/>\nWhen you go to a\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">computer\u00a0store<\/span> and see all the bright shiny PCs laid out next to each other, most will have tags or stickers indicating the:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>* Processor brand and model<br \/>\n* Hard drive size and speed<br \/>\n* Amount of memory (RAM)<br \/>\n*\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Graphics\u00a0card<\/span><br \/>\n* Operating system<\/p>\n<p>Two or three years later, when it comes time to upgrade your computer, that tag or sticker may be long gone. Speccy was designed as a free electronic \u201cwhat\u2019s inside\u201d sticker for your PC.<br \/>\nIsn\u2019t this information in Windows?<\/p>\n<p>Yes and no. Some of the basic information can be found by right-clicking My Computer and then clicking Properties. The General tab lists some statistics, and the Device Manager on the Hardware tab lists all the hardware you\u2019ve got installed. But it misses out lots of information that you need.<\/p>\n<p>Speccy will give you detailed statistics on every piece of hardware in your computer. Including CPU,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Motherboard<\/span>, RAM, Graphics Cards, Hard Disks, Optical Drives, Audio support. Additionally Speccy adds the temperatures of your different components, so you can easily see if there\u2019s a problem!<\/p>\n<p>Why do I need Speccy?<\/p>\n<p>At first glance, Speccy may seem like an application for system administrators and power users. It certainly is, but Speccy can also help normal users, in everyday computing life.\u00a0If you need to add more memory to your system, for example, you can check how many memory slots your computer has and what memory\u2019s already installed. Then you can go out and buy the right type of memory to add on or replace what you\u2019ve already got.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re going to be selling your PC, you can use Speccy to quickly list out the components. Or, if you\u2019re buying a PC, you can use Speccy to check that the computer has what the label says it has.<\/p>\n<p><em>Also, Speccy comes in handy for support. If you\u2019re on the phone with technical support and they want to know what video card you have installed, there\u2019s no need to hunt around Windows. Speccy has all the information on one easy-to-understand screen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Well, we can\u2019t add much more to that! We tested Speccy and it has a much more modern interface and it provides a nicer user experience than Belarc \u2013 but when it comes to formatting a printable output, Belarc provides a more nicely formatted printable page.<\/p>\n<p>Speccy works on XP, Vista, and Seven \u2013 32bit and 64bit.<\/p>\n<p>You can get more information and\/or download Speccy from<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.piriform.com\/speccy\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>http:\/\/www.piriform.com\/speccy<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Again this week, we had one of our loyal subscribers send us a copy of a competing Windows newsletter who sent a special email to subscribers offering a \u201cspecial deal\u201d on a system information tool for $9.95 . Well that\u2019s great, but since there are free system information tools that do the same things and give the same\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/learn-more-about-your-computer-with-these-freeware-system-information-tools\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3731"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3733,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions\/3733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}