Giveaway of the Day - SIW Pro – System Information for Windows

SIW is an advanced System Information for Windows tool that analyzes your computer and gathers detailed information about system properties and settings and displays it in an extremely comprehensible manner.

SIW can create a report file (CSV, HTML, TXT or XML), and you can run it in batch mode (for Computer Inventory – Software and Hardware Inventory, Asset Inventory, Software License Management, Security Audit, Server Configuration Management).

 Comment:

1. Have not yet tried today’s version, but used this in the past and found it very good (don’t know much about the company though). Better than Aida. Hopefully it is not a one-year license,as has become fashionable these days.

2. I’ve been using the freeware version of this program for years and would not be without it, it is first rate.

You use it to find detailed information about your system and it is so comprehensive I have never needed another program of a similar type.

Personally I consider this a must for any system and you should take advantage of it being free for today.

A first rate program and most useful, yet it!

3. Belarc Advisor. free/personal use. 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. http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html Just sayin’.

4.

LOL, I’m writig this now the second time, because…

Installed and registered without problems on a Win 8.1 Pro 64 bit system.

A Canadian company with name and address. On the homepage a good and understandable changelog. This gives confidence. Changelog from 2007 to 2014.

Upon start 2007 comes back. An oldfashioned interface, I wanted to see the operating system details and then…

Unbelievable! This program crashed my computer, so that I have had to reboot. The computer freezes nearly completely, I could call the taskmanager, but I could not do anything to stop and come back to a working state. Only the hard reset was possible. I’m happy to run a virtualized system(*).

So here ends my short test. I cannot say anything more. Maybe a good program in another computer environment.

(*) maybe the reason for crashing is my virtualization. Could be.

5. It installed OK, no registration required.

It certainly threw up LOTS of info about my installation.

No quite sure what I will need it for but its a keeper for me.

6.

The program is a pretty with a nice interface and allows you to export a specs file in various formats. It installed easily with no issues or email requirement on Windows 8 x64. It’s very comprehensive and user friendly.

FREE ALTERNATIVE – Belarc Adviser

The program doesn’t provide any information your computer doesn’t. Here are some ways to see your specs and create reports:

I review and test games and software and the most common system specification report I am requested by the developers is the file, DxDiag.txt which can be created this way:

1. From the desktop click: Start > Run (or windows key + r).

2. In the blank text field of the window that appears type “dxdiag” without the quotes. Press run or hit enter.

3. Another window should appear titled DirectX Diagnostic Tool. Near the bottom of the window click on “Save All Information…”

Another way to see your specs and export them in a file is:

1. From the desktop click: Start > Run (or windows key + r).

2. In the blank text field of the window that appears type “system information” or “msinfo32″ without the quotes. Press run or hit enter.

3 Select File then save or export.

There are other free alternatives but Belarc Adviser is my favorite for personal reference and it’s been around a long time. Today’s giveaway is packaged better and provides extra stuff like software licenses and product keys and passwords. I’m not sure why I would need this more than once. A portable lifetime version would be good to have when I am working on other people’s computers to show them a pretty summary of their system.

As for the Thumbs Up and Down system people like to discuss here. I’m sure GOTD explains that there is a huge curve and developers should add 30% to 40% to the positive votes. I do not look at them or vote. If I do not have time to explain my thoughts I don’t vote. We all know there are people voting on whether the giveaway is what they wanted it to be, not how good the product is.

7.

As a long time user of Belarc I was interested in trying SIW Pro and am very glad I did.

I won’t be throwing Belarc away, but SIW Pro shows so much more useful info that for me it’s a definite keeper.

I was shocked to see every password I’ve ever used displayed for anyone with the know-how to access, some for accounts closed years ago.

I’d really like to know if there’s a way to delete these password records via SIW Pro – any generous experts out there please comment.

SIW Pro downloaded, installed and registered itself painlessly (Windows 7). It’s fast too, blisteringly fast compared to Belarc – a brilliant and must have app. IMHO

Could it be improved? Yes, losing the one year licence would be nice.

On the other hand, next year I’ll happily fork out $9.99!

Thanks Topala and GAOTD.

8.

For some reason , this program will affect certain installs on Windows 8.1 machines !

As reported by someother users , the laptop “hangs” and CTRL>ALT>DEL will not allow closure via “End Task ” function !

Not suggesting that this is a poorly engineered program ……but my only recourse was a hard shutdown via ON/OFF button and on reboot my BitDefender was inoperable !

Carried out a total uninstall of SIW with full registry scan for program remnants ……then carried out a BitDefender “repair function ” and all was back to “ststus quo ” after this process !

There is obviously some conflict on certain machines that is “kicking off ” this behaviour ?

After a thorough check of my system there were no malicious processes instigated or any other negative residual problems after installing SIW program …….so if you’re running Windows 8.1 on certain machine configurations …you may experience the same events as myself and a few others have encountered !