Anyone looking for software that can be used to explore and check the hardware of a Windows computer could initially be overwhelmed by the sheer number of tools available. In this article, we look at a number of useful tools for this task, but we cannot claim this list is exhaustive because of the sheer number of tools on the market. Instead, we decided to test on-board resources and tools from the Windows environment, the open source community, and commercial programs that provide useful and practical support for controlling and managing hardware under Windows.

Windows Offerings

Both the older Windows versions from NT 4.0 and the current versions come with the msinfo32 command-line program, which reports a first look of the machine hardware. The program offers a good overview of the available devices and hardware components and can be called up from the search box or directly at the command line. In the typical style of command-line programs, msinfo32 can be called up with various options. For example, you can query the data of another system in the network with the command:

msinfo32 "/computer <computer name>"

Hardware information includes details about the processor and motherboard and a couple of other things in the program's system overview, but msinfo32 delivers a mass of data related to software components, as well. The Hardware Resources entry in the sidebar of the System Information dialog contains detailed information on RAM and installed controllers. The Components category lists devices for CD, DVD, and hard drives. Whereas Drives means filesystems and their assignments, the Disks entry gives you information on the hard disks installed, such as their manufacturers and connections.

This information can also be found in the System section of the Windows settings on Windows 10 and 11 and on the latest Windows server versions. However, because searching here is a slow experience, msinfo32 is definitely a good starting point if you do not want to install or use any third-party software on your system.

If you are familiar with PowerShell and have the skills to develop the right kind of scripts for your systems, you can of course also glean the desired information with scripts, while retaining the freedom to choose exactly what you need. To get started, try calling Get-ComputerInfo, which basically displays all the data from the call to msinfo32 on the screen. Also you can use a number of cmdlets for specific hardware queries. If you are familiar with Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and Common Information Model (CIM), you can also run all the commands across the network on other systems. This ability means that you can create highly individual and very powerful scripts for hardware diagnostics.

CPU-Z

If you do not have the experience or time to use PowerShell options, you can find numerous free programs for system diagnostics that include both general-purpose tools that provide the most comprehensive details possible and tools that focus and report on specific critical hardware components. One of the best-known programs in this category is certainly CPU-Z [1], which gives you in-depth data on the computer's CPU along with information on the mainboard and graphics card used (Figure 1). Although you will need to install the freeware program on the computer you want to examine first, the program is quite small, occupying less than 5MB of space on the hard drive.

Figure 1: CPU-Z focuses on data about the CPU, mainboard, and memory.

CPU-Z provides a wide range of information and gives you a very detailed overview of the CPU immediately after launching, including manufacturer details and information on the clock rate, the multiplier used, and the number of cores. Further tabs provide detailed information on the motherboard, graphics card, and main memory. The SPD (serial presence detect) tab is certainly special. It reports the memory type, size, timings, and module specifications the motherboard uses to configure access to the memory modules.

To test the speed of a computer, you can run a benchmark on the CPU (for a single thread or multithreads). This free software is definitely recommended, especially for admins in small businesses and office environments without a large IT team and without test equipment for what is normally a small number of computers. It is also helpful when it comes to taking an inventory of devices: A pull-down menu below the Tools tab at the bottom helps you create reports in HTML and text formats.

Sandra

Any review of well-known and free programs would definitely be incomplete without Sandra [2] by SiSoftware. This very versatile software package is available in various commercial versions. Besides the free Lite version, which we look at in more detail here, you can choose between a Professional Personal version for home use, through Professional Business and Engineer versions, to an Enterprise option. The Lite version is only intended for private use and currently supports systems from Windows 7 onward. If you want to use the Sandra software on a Windows server, you need the commercially licensed Engineer or Enterprise version.

Even if the comparison list on the provider's website shows that many features are not available in the Lite version, this tool is still ideal for analyzing a Windows system's hardware. Remote services can also be enabled during the install. After completing the installation, Sandra Lite occupies just south of 200MB on your hard drive, which is surprisingly little in view of the broad feature set. One particular advantage of the tool is that the developers behind this project always look to support the latest and newest hardware. The R26 release (version 31.137), which became available in October 2023, can handle updates to Intel's generation 14 Core Raptor Lake processors and AMD's generation 4 Ryzen CPUs.

Sandra Lite combines a large number of different functions for analyzing and testing the computer under one interface. The functions are sorted by component and cover the CPU and RAM, the mainboard, hard drives, graphics cards, and many other devices. The options and views are presented in a clearly structured overview, featuring icons that show green if the feature is available on the device. Even the complete listing of a device in the Computer Management area provides very detailed information on the screen. To dig deeper, switch to the module in which you are interested; you can use the settings to specify in a targeted way the options you want to display.

Another focus of this program is on benchmarks that scrutinize a computer's performance. You can use benchmarks to check hardware components such as the CPU, graphics cards, or memory devices and compare the results with other systems once the test is complete. If you are looking to examine and test Windows hardware in detail, you will discover that Sandra is an ideal tool in this respect, and even the free version already has a mass of options up for grabs. A little patience is always advisable; the program performs the checks very thoroughly and can take a while to display the results on screen.