▷ Hwinfo: what is it and what is it for?

HWiNFO is a free system information tool for Windows that offers a quick overview as well as a detailed overview of hardware components. It is also capable of reading the information from the different sensors of the hardware of our PC, thereby showing data on the percentage of use, the temperature, the speed of the fans and much more. For all these reasons it is one of the most appreciated tools by the most expert. In this article we tell you everything you need to know about this great tool.

Index of contents

Everything you need to know about HWiNFO

While some system information tools also collect information from the software, HWiNFO focuses only on the hardware. It does this by categorizing all the information it gathers into ten sections: CPU, motherboard, memory, bus, video adapter, monitor, drives, audio, network, and ports. This makes it a very organized application, so it will be really easy for you to find what you need. HWiNFO works with Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Also, it is compatible with 32 and 64 bit versions of these operating systems.

HWiNFO is a tool that is very reminiscent of Speccy, although it does not offer as many details as the latter. HWiNFO is a tool that although it is very easy to use and navigate, it is also quite detailed and offers us very useful information. Most system information tools include network information like subnet mask and IP address. Unfortunately, HWiNFO simply displays the MAC address. This is a bit surprising considering the tons of detail included in other sections.

Both the installable version and the portable version of HWiNFO look identical. We have not seen slow performance in the portable edition, although this is something that will always depend on the storage medium you are on. We also like that the portable version is very small, as it includes two files that together are less than 8 MB, which is perfect for something like a flash drive.

How to download and install HWiNFO

To download and install we just have to go to the official website of the tool and download the version for our operating system. The next step will be to install the application if we have opted for the installable version, or unzip and run the portable version if we have opted for it.

Below we detail the most important data that HWiNFO is capable of collecting and displaying:

• Processor brand name, frequency, number of logical cores and CPUs, platform, Thermal Design Power (TDP), MTRR, bus type, current and maximum clock speed, and L1 and L2 cache size. Supported features such as MMX technology, physical address extension, auto-snoop and many others are also shown.Number of open and used motherboard slots, brand name and model number of the motherboard base, the supported USB version number (such as v3.0), its chipset, and a list of ACPI devices. BIOS information, such as manufacturer, release date, and version number. It also shows BIOS features such as ISA / MCA / EISA / PCI support and whether you can boot from a disk or USB device.General information and driver details for serial, parallel and USB ports. The number of open memory slots remaining on the motherboard, the maximum supported size / speed / voltage of a memory module, the maximum installed cache speed, the current SRAM type, the serial number, the width module length and SPD revision number, the supported burst lengths of a module, and the number of module banks. Graphics card information such as code name and memory, card details such as its bus, BIOS version and chip revision number, performance information such as GPU and memory speed, width bus number and number of unified shaders, and driver information such as its manufacturer, version number, date, and instance ID. Activity and / or live temperature monitor for the CPU, hard disk, motherboard, network card, graphics card and RAM. You can also actively record this data in a CSV file. Detailed monitor information, including general data such as name, serial number, date of manufacture and hardware identification, display information such as size and maximum vertical and horizontal frequency, and maximum pixel clock, as well as supported video modes and DPMS modes.Information of both internal and external optical disc drive, such as model numbers, serial numbers, capacities, geometry of the drive, transfer modes and features. Disc drive information details the type of discs that can be read and written, such as CD-R, DVD + R, etc. Audio adapter and driver details such as hardware ID, codec, and version controller. General network information, including MAC address, driver details, and provider description. Also included are the capabilities of the adapter, such as its maximum speed and the size of the buffer.

Its sensor reader offers us very valuable information on the operation of all the components that we have on our PC. This will be especially useful to know if our cooling is good enough, or if there is something wrong with the power supply.

Advantages and disadvantages

HWiNFO is a tool that has many good things, but as it usually happens in this life, nothing is perfect. Below, we detail some of the most important advantages and disadvantages of this tool in our opinion:

Advantage:

• View a summary of all our hardware very quickly Easy to read the data and navigate through the interface Detailed results of all the components of a PC Allows to create a complete report of everything on the PC Export a report of selected devices Copy specific results from the Program. Portable version available. They release program updates often to fix bugs or add new features.

Disadvantages:

• It does not include as many details as other programs such as Speccy or the like.

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This concludes our full article on HWiNFO, we hope you find it very useful in obtaining relevant data on your PC.

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