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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 (Freeware)
Version 2.20
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
Originally published: April, 2007
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