There are hundreds of thousands of free x86 based programs that any “guru” needs on their USB stick. Freeware can also be a source of malware so in this series of reviews I will do my best to test each item before recommendation. All are totally free for personal use but you may have to suffer a “nag” screen urging you to upgrade to the paid “big brother” for a feature the developer hopes you can’t live without.
What does it do?
Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, network inventory, identifies missing Microsoft hotfixes, checks anti-virus status, security benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.
Runs on:
All 32/64 bit Windows including server versions. Requires a browser i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and more.
Why I use it?
I have used Belarc Advisor for many years and that is why it’s the first recommendation in this series.
It gives a detailed profile of your PC’s hardware, installed software, missing MS security patches (very handy) and shows product keys for many programs including MS Office and Windows (which is great if you ever have to do a clean install). It can also analyse your home network and help you find any issues there. You can print it out or save the HTML file. It is fast – a few seconds to analyse the PC.
Other Belarc commercial software
BelManage allows users to reduce their software license and annual maintenance costs, manage their hosts' configurations and more. BelManage is based on Belarc's WAN architecture, uses a single Intranet server, and automatically creates an accurate and up-to-date central repository (CMDB).
BelSecure helps users determine their IT security vulnerabilities and compares their IT configurations to consensus security benchmarks. BelSecure helps automate security processes such as FISMA, HIPAA and FFIEC.
BeITsmart is hosted by Belarc and runs on our secure server. This solution is cost effective for users with smaller networks.
Get it from:
