Ottawa PC Users' Group, Inc.
 Product Review 

What's inside the box?
by Alan German

So, what processor is running in there? How much memory do you have? What graphics card do you use? What speed does your CD/DVD burner run at?

After a while the answers to these questions from friends and relatives become obscure as the memory of your new computer purchase becomes - well - just a memory. You could use a Windows utility to find out about your hardware, if you could remember which Windows program it was! Or you could turn to a third-party product, such as Everest Home Edition, to obtain a detailed inventory of your computer's hardware components.

Everest is pretty much single-minded in that its major task is to report on the hardware, and related stuff such as drivers, that it finds in your machine, but it does that job really well. A menu provides options to look at listings for the Computer, Motherboard, Display, Multimedia, Storage, Network, Direct X, Devices and Benchmark. Drilling down to a specific item, such as Motherboard - Memory, provides a list of components and related information. The program even offers suggestions, e.g. "Install more system memory to improve applications performance". [Hey! I knew that. Don't nag!] You can view the details on screen, or use a wizard to develop a printed report as either plain text or in HTML format.

The product has its roots in Hungary, having been initially developed by Tamás Miklós, as a program named AIDA32. Subsequently, Miklós partnered with Lavalys, a Montreal-based company (http://www.lavalys.com), to produce a commercial version.

Corporate and Ultimate Editions of the program are now available for business and high-powered users who wish to be able to readily inventory machines. Development of Everest Home Edition was stopped by at the end of 2005, but the freeware version is still available on the Internet with support being provided through an on-line discussion forum. So, it's not too late to give the freeware version a try. It's highly recommended if you just want to know what's inside your box.

Bottom Line:

EVEREST Home Edition, Version 2.20 (freeware)
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

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Ottawa Personal Computer Users Group (OPCUG), Inc.
3 Thatcher Street, Ottawa, ON  K2G 1S6

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