Free PC Audit v3.5

A Full Review of Free PC Audit, a Free System Information Tool

Screenshot of Free PC Audit
Free PC Audit.
by
Tim Fisher
Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology support experience. He writes troubleshooting content and is the General Manager of Lifewire.
Updated August 01, 2018

Free PC Audit is a portable, easy to use, free system information tool for Windows.

This utility provides basic, but still useful information on various hardware components. Free PC Audit also includes information on installed software and even active processes.

Note: This review is of Free PC Audit version 3.5.

Free PC Audit Basics

Free PC Audit gathers system information on both hardware and software, each separated into their own categories and then further divided into sub-categories.

Some of the sub-categories include information on the operating system, disk drives, monitor, network, CPU, user accounts, motherboard, startup items, running processes, RAM, and installed software.

Note: See the What Free PC Audit Identifies section at the bottom of this review for all the details on the hardware and operating system information you can expect to learn about your computer using Free PC Audit.

Free PC Audit Pros & Cons

Free PC Audit isn't my favorite sys info tool, but you may find it fits the bill just fine:

Pros:

  • Completely portable (requires no installation)
  • Really easy to read and use
  • Save a full report as a TXT file
  • Shows a summary of each section
  • Small download size
  • Can copy single lines of text out of the program
  • Works with recent versions of Windows

Cons:

  • Unable to save a report of certain hardware or software components
  • Not nearly as detailed as most other system information tools

My Thoughts on Free PC Audit

Even at first glance alone, you can see just how easy Free PC Audit is to use. It's easy to tell what you're looking at because hardware, software, and other information is logically divided in across the tabs near the top of the program window.

I like that as you scroll through Free PC Audit, you can see a brief summary of each piece of hardware and then it's as simple as expanding each line to see more detail.

Copying out data is a must have for me. Free PC Audit lets you right-click any line of information and copy it straight from the program window without having to export anything, which is extremely handy if you're copying something like a file path or model number.

I also appreciate how simple and informative most of the details are. Unfortunately, some of the information provided isn't so helpful, like what's provided for video cards. Compared to other system information tools, Free PC Audit shows next to nothing.

What Free PC Audit Identifies

  • General operating system and computer details, such as the Windows product key (in Windows 10 through XP), ID, version, build date, install date, and the computer's hostname and private IP address
  • Works as a key finder program by showing product keys for Microsoft Office, Adobe, and Corel software
  • BIOS and motherboard's version number, date, and manufacturer
  • Processor details, like the manufacturer, maximum allowed clock speed, architecture, L2 cache size, socket type, and version
  • A list of everything that starts up when you log into Windows, with the name of the program, its path, and its location in the registry
  • Used and unused memory slots, complete with the total amount of physical memory that's installed and specific details for each used RAM stick, such as the capacity, device locator, bank label, form factor, speed, and maximum capacity
  • Local user account details, such as its name and domain it belongs to, SID, and description
  • Details for internal and external drives, including their serial number, size, file system, manufacturer, interface type (like USB), and number of bytes per sector, heads, cylinders, sectors, and tracks
  • List of every program installed to Windows; shows the version number, product key (on some), publisher, install date, and total space the program takes up on the disk
  • Disk drive information regarding its manufacturer, drive letter, and media type (like DVD writer)
  • Information on the main monitor, such as the name, refresh rate, memory size, and current horizontal/vertical resolution
  • List of currently running processes
  • Very basic printer details are included, like the name of the printer, its port name, and whether or not it's a network and/or default printer
  • The manufacturer of any audio devices
  • Network adapter details include the current status (whether it's connected or not), manufacturer, maximum speed, MAC address if DHCP is enabled, and info on its WINS and DNS servers
  • List of every shared folder, with a name and path to the folder