Identifying every single piece of hardware and general information about your computer takes way too much time to do on your own. However, PC Wizard will give you that and more in only a few steps.
Installation & Requirements
During the setup you will have the option to install the Web Update and the Benchmarking utility which is entirely up to you to decide. Other than that, the installation also tries to push some third party software to you. Be sure to uncheck the boxes if you do not want them.
Interface
The program is divided into several tabs. All of them are there to give system information except one. The last one is the benchmarking utility that is integrated with the application. The application requires minimal user input to operate as it will gather information about your computer automatically the first time you run it. The whole process is also quite fast.
The hardware information is summarized in the main window but you can see more details if you simply click on their respective icon. From there you can view extremely specific information about every single piece you have installed in your computer, from your RAM to your multimedia drivers and your printers. You can also view information about the drivers you have installed for every hardware piece like your video card by clicking on the respective windows.
In the Configuration tab you can scour through some default Windows applications like Internet Explorer and other software information like file extensions, stored passwords, Java status, DirectX components, firewall settings and much more. Keep in mind that you cannot change anything directly from the application as it is simply a means of having all that information readily available for viewing, not for altering. You can still save, print and copy all the information you will be looking at but nothing more than that.
The system Files and Resources tabs will also give you detailed information about more advanced aspects of you system configuration. There should not be much here for the average user but folks who are looking to view information about critical aspects of their computers will find much to love here. Every format is displayed in quite a pleasant way; even .ini files display all of their information in lists and details.
Last is the Benchmark tab which does exactly that. You have various options on the aspects you want to benchmark or you can simply benchmark your entire system and have it rated in the scale of the Windows Performance Index. One thing you should keep in mind is that benchmarking takes a fair share of time to complete and during that time your computer might be unusable as the hardware will be put to test to determine their efficiency.
Pros
-Detailed information about each piece of hardware found in a computer
-Very pleasant visual interface with tons of information that never feels cluttered
-Critical system details for the more tech savvy users
-A decent integrated benchmarking utility
Cons
-You might experience a few hiccups in some parts of the program
Conclusion
With its truly simple installation and minimal user input, PC Wizard can give a myriad of detailed info on anything in your system without requiring any technical knowledge whatsoever. Even though some aspects need basic computer understanding, chances are that is what you are looking for in such an application.
