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SIW Pro - System Information for Windows Pro 5 Giveaway
$9.99
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — SIW Pro - System Information for Windows Pro 5

System Information for Windows (SIW): everything you want to know about your computer!
$9.99 EXPIRED
User rating: 485 96 comments

SIW Pro - System Information for Windows Pro 5 was available as a giveaway on January 8, 2015!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$49.95
free today
Helps you get back all kinds of lost or deleted data on Android devices.

SIW is an advanced System Information for Windows tool that analyzes your computer and gathers detailed information about system properties and settings and displays it in an extremely comprehensible manner.

SIW can create a report file (CSV, HTML, TXT or XML), and you can run it in batch mode (for Computer Inventory - Software and Hardware Inventory, Asset Inventory, Software License Management, Security Audit, Server Configuration Management).

System Requirements:

Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8/ 8.1 (x32/x64); Memory: minimum 256 MB; CPU: Pentium III or better

Publisher:

Topala Software Solutions

Homepage:

http://www.gtopala.com/

File Size:

14.3 MB

Price:

$9.99

Comments on SIW Pro - System Information for Windows Pro 5

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#49

Good program, I wonder some bug? My Hp old laptop dv6000 spec has express card, But did not report. I using windows 8.1.

I hope will fix next version.

Reply   |   Comment by Antonio  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#48

Was glad to see this tool. Seems to work well in the couple of categories I tried. Look forward to doing some more tests with it. Thanks!

Reply   |   Comment by Rob  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#47

Under "Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion DefaultProductKey" is where my computer's license key is listed for Windows. Under "Windows 8.1 Enterprise" is the PID, not the license key.

I still really like the software and is my preferred software for getting hardware/software details.

Reply   |   Comment by Morris Cox  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#46

A system utility tool that is for a x32 architecture, should not be run in any kind of a virtual machine. It, by definition, reads the hardware & HWI software. So, what you need is a base OS installation machine to use as a test platform, for System Utility Software Testing only. Windows 8.1 x32 will install on most old XP machines, be sure to backup the current OS before starting.

Of course, Win 8.1 does not have an XP mode, so not all of the old applications will run. But this is not a upgrade of XP, wipe the old HD, then let the W8.1 install do the re-formatting, install, reboot, and verify. Then do another backup of your new HD, & OS!

Now, you install some usual software, whatever you use. Then, you are ready to test some GOTD!!!

Good hunting!!!

Reply   |   Comment by pcwiz  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#45

@ Karl. I, too, thank you and support you. I also want to agree with the sentiment that the reviews should not be personalized. We are all simply commenting on our experience and opinion of the software (YMMV). People may have different experiences and if yours is different just post that, no need for personal attacks. In this difficult world (e.g., "Je suis Charlie") we can afford to be civil & kind.

Peace to all.

Reply   |   Comment by aj  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#44

I had the exact same problem as Karl. Twice. Win 8.1 64 bit but NOT virtualized.

Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure I had this installed on the same machine from the first giveaway (I have since "refreshed" the computer and lost all GoTD programs) and it worked fine.

Reply   |   Comment by Matt  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#43

I have godmode set up on my computer that pretty much tells me everything I need to know and allows me to make changes...create a folder and name it godmode.GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} then open it and check it out. Careful you change the wrong things you can make a mess if you dont know whatyoour doing.

Reply   |   Comment by MEAGAIN  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#42

SIW has been a staple for years - the free version anyway - looking forward to checking this out

Reply   |   Comment by wyrwolf  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#41

Installed easily and quickly on high spec Win 8.1 64 bit desktop machine - wow - very impressive.
What's wrong with the interface...it may not be 21st century pretty pretty...but works beautifully

Thank you very much

Reply   |   Comment by Peter - UK  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#40

I love this software. Today's giveaway is one I use very frequently and find it to be ,at times, invaluable. Like all software that accesses the deepest parts of your system it will absolutely cause issues if your system is set up not to allow access to these parts..how can it not?? it wants access..system doesn't want to let it, results may vary..but for the sake of being honest..I have been a long time follower of all the regular contributors of the members of this site and have learned a lot from them... one of the most important things I have learned is that they are only tying to help.. Thank you to all who regularly post here and thank you to Gaotd for offering us the opportunity to have a place to test try and discuss our concerns in efforts to improve the quality of the products we use on our computers in our day to day operations. Thank you Topala for a very useful piece of software. speed test ability does sound like a good idea :)

Reply   |   Comment by BigJoe  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#39

Harry 26 cont./ I should add this helped clear a gigabyte or two of useless files which junk file finders wont find. Even its errors are very usefull

Reply   |   Comment by Harry  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#38

Give it time to finish! I have thought it hung only to find I was to impatient in allowing it to do its work. It seems to slow down when doing network scans and such when it is working. It does not only scan hardware but networks to some degree. If it has not finished after 10 minutes likely it really has hung. Also if running Process Lasso it can lower the priority which can also be another source of the slow down or hang. Some programs like this should have exceptions made in Process Lasso or even have a rule to raise the priority to above normal to keep them from hanging. Anyway that is my 2 cents worth...

Reply   |   Comment by Leland  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#37

Installed on a 32bit XP sp3 and all updates. Interesting results. On motherboard components it found the the Nvidia chip on the motherboard of the computer the hard disk came out of as well as various devices on the okd computer not on the new one. So does SIW detect the devices installed, the software on the disc or both?

Reply   |   Comment by Harry  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#36

 
► Question: Does today’s version of SIW offer a portable option?

Reply   |   Comment by glnz  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#35

Hi guys - rousing rounds of "he said - she said" this morning. I do want to address a few of the remarks, but first - I installed today's giveaway on a "REAL" Dell Inspiron - Win 8.1 (64 bit) 8Gb RAM & the rest is unnecessary & as with many of the installs in the past - IT WORKS! No slow down, no problems, and I have spent the better part of an hour, trying line by line & no freezing. I was a programmer (started in 1969) and in some ways - I'm still doing it today, & I have found I won't take advice from a programmer who either won't take the time to use spellcheck or is just lazy & doesn't edit his own "typed" answers - BEFORE, posting them for everyone to see (quit picking on Karl - he takes precious time out of his day to give us the benefit of his knowledge, to help us make better 'informed' decisions - Keep it up Karl!). Yes, this is a blast from the past (except the pics). I admire & LIKE the fact, that this programmer KEPT good old-fashioned words, to help us navigate this software - I REALLY LIKE IT & APPRECIATE IT! I owned one of the very first mice ever put out by Logitech & I had to re-write their routines for my DOS & beta versions of Norton Desktop for DOS & beta versions of Win95 & Win98 - NOBODY GETS IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! So far, with all of my trials with different versions of this software - this company is really trying to get it right - and doing a very good job at it to! For the person looking for battery-life (?) of the CMOS battery - I have 4 computers (2 PC's & 2 Notebooks - 4 different OS's & 4 different architectures), they ALL came back with accurate info, but only 2 returned info on my CMOS battery(s) - they were the notebooks (Both Dell's) and they had sensors installed - PC's did not. Thank you Karl - keep it up! Thank you to Topala and GOTD for today's offering & if I run across something that may help - I will forward it to the company as always. And, see you tomorrow GOTD. ;)

Reply   |   Comment by Thomas Roberts  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#34

This soft is quite amazing. 3 thumbs up. All possible details on hardware AND software installed. No problem concerning installation and operation (sorry for Karl). Win 7 pro 64b heavily charged.
Thanks to the developer and to "Give away of the day".

Reply   |   Comment by Roland  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#33

It installed fine on one windows 8.1 64 bit desktop. But, when I try to install it on my windows 8.1 64 bit laptop I get the message that the setup files are corrupted. I have re-downloaded the zip file many times with the same result/ What could my problem be? Please help if you can/

Reply   |   Comment by Roy  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#32

Somewhat quickly/briefly, as I don't know that this will make it past moderation as it's getting a bit late...

I feel a bit sorry for Karl -- he reported what he experienced, which doesn't open anyone up to critique... if it did, then everyone who posted positive results should receive the very same.;)

That said, the reason for this post is to hopefully clarify some stuff related to virtualization.

Virtualization software, e.g. Time Freeze, intercepts anything headed for the protected drive(s) & writes it instead to a virtual hard drive. Assuming the software works correctly, the only effects it can have on other software is if there's a conflict between the 2 programs, which can happen between any two apps. RE: Virtual Hard Drives or Disks themselves, they have so little potential impact that from win7 onwards Windows can be installed & will boot & run on a VHD. That said, if in Karl's case there is a conflict, the developer's requested troubleshooting should hopefully find it so that it can be fixed.

Virtual Machines [VMs], are full versions of Windows that run on virtual [or fake] hardware. Some software will detect if it's running in a VM, though AFAIK this is mostly something practiced as DRM or by mal-ware [cyber criminals do not want to make things easier on security researchers]. Some software will not run in a VM, usually because that software requires some hardware function(s) the emulated environ of a VM does not provide, but outside games [that can require a real graphics card etc.] it's really pretty rare.

That said, the copy of Windows running in or as a VM usually has software installed to help it run better on the Virtual Machine Host -- the overall program that runs the VMs is called the Host -- the Windows installs that run in or as VMs are the Guests. Software is software, & whenever you have 2 apps running at the same time they can conflict. An app that runs fine in a copy of win7 may not work in that same Windows install running as a VM, because of that added software. Such conflicts are thankfully rare, but there's simply too much software available for anyone to test everything beforehand.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#31

That's a really interesting discussion between the pros and the cons today, though some of the cons seem to get quite emotional. Therefore I was very curious to test it on my Windows 8.1 Pro x64 notebook. Specially because in the past I appreciated Karl's conclusions and tips (reboot!) very much.

After installation the program - that really gives a quite nostalgic impression - started smoothly. But after some clicks the arctic winter put his cold hand on my computer - it froze more and more, not even the task manager did its job anymore. The last exit was the power button, luckily at least Shadow Defender (from GAOTD!) did its job well.

So Karl was right - at least for my machine, which normally works like a charm.

Reply   |   Comment by irene  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#30

Downloaded/Installed/Activated with no problems on my Win7x64 machine.After an admittedly short trial spin all I can say is "get this". Very straightforward UI,everything you need/want to know is clearly marked and accessible. Some have commented on the design as "old" or not modern enough, well all I can say is its nice to see something besides those flat washed out colors Win8 was so kind to force down our throats.Too bad so many software developers jumped on the pastel parade with MS these days. (Yeah, I'm looking at you Ccleaner among others)

Absolutely NO problems as far as crashes/slowdowns are concerned. I do have a pretty powerful laptop with plenty of memory though, so maybe that aspect is what has given some the slowdown/crash problems. I also keep my machine in tiptop condition with regular cleaning and maintenance.

Anyway, this software is going to be taking the place of my previous goto software for system information, Speccy/Belarc. (They both are very good btw)

Thank you to GOTD and Topala for this excellent little program.

Reply   |   Comment by indianacarnie  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#29

Karl posted: "This software freezes my computer. "

Monitoring SIW Pro in 32 & 64 bit win7 VMs I got somewhat confusing results -- if someone has problems perhaps this *might* aid in their troubleshooting to get things right again?

Running the SIW Pro installation [setup] program adds a asyncmac.sys service to Windows -- the same happens trying to run the app without installation -- though those asyncmac related entries all referred to the Microsoft Security Essentials I have installed in both VMs. Google & asyncmac *may* have been involved in folks having isolated BSOD problems, so it seems possible it could have some undesirable effects. But as I said, in these two instances asyncmac appears to be all about Security Essentials -- not SIW Pro. I could be wrong -- despite those registry keys referencing Security Essentials they could have been added/required by SIW Pro. And/or if Security Essentials reacts to SIW Pro, perhaps other security software will as well?

Essentially SIW Pro appears to be a portable app -- all files are kept in the program's folder & there do not appear to be any necessary registry entries added during installation. However when I tried to run SIW Pro without installation [I simply copied the program's folder from one VM to the next], instead of the program running I got an error that the software had not been installed. Running the setup program the only change I recorded was an uninstall registry entry & a TCIP key with values detailing my network connection to my ISP.

It would not be unheard of for a program to require registry entries stored in its install/uninstall key(s), but the possibility also exists that changes were made that could not be recorded -- that is also not unheard of, e.g. a developer might try to hide parts of their DRM.

I don't know if that will help anyone or not -- hopefully no one else has any problems, & if they do, hopefully they are not the sort of thing that prevents Windows from starting, so the software can be uninstalled.

I don't mean to discourage anyone from trying SIW Pro. I didn't see SIW Pro doing anything unique, but it does bring together several capabilities that would otherwise require separate research, downloads, & installations, so it could potentially be useful. The only caveat I would add is that such utilities report the data that Windows stores, & when it comes to hardware, that data can be wrong -- drivers report the hardware they are supposed to work with, rather than what's actually there, & that hardware may or may not be a match.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#28

I think that it may be time to add my comments to this far ranging discussion. This will be very high level, without many details, since I am not writing a article for budding software and hardware engineers. The first is that not every piece of software, or Operating System will work with every Windows computer. There are so many different manufacturers of computers, home built, motherboards, memory sticks, assembly lines, logic and bus chips, cables, hard drives, video cards, usb cards, and everything else, that may or may not interfere with the timing or instructions. The instructions sent from the CPU, GPU, et. al., tell other specific pieces of hardware what to do and when. Think of a synchronized dance with tens of thousands of dancers, perhaps. Everything is timed to fit in to specific places, at specific millisecond times. Usually it works, but not always. Also, if a specific background activity, or video or music is running, it may change the timing enough for one instruction to not work correctly. It may be intermittent, because a specific combination of many things have to come together at the same instant, and we may never know what it is, causing the issue.

Obviously, not every piece of hardware or program can be tested with all configurations of software. This is true of the PC environment, which IBM let all have the first standards for free, or Apple, which has its problems, once in a while.

My summary is this. Not all failures to work show that a program will be a problem for everyone, and not all problems are evident. And also, snarky comments won't help convince anyone, who does not already agree with you of the validity of your points.
,

Reply   |   Comment by Rick_S  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#27

Great comments!

Portable AIDA64 and AIDA32
Portable CrystalDiskInfo 6.3.0 (1-1-15)
Portable CPU-Z 1.41

Portable Disk Investigator 1.31
Portable HWM BlackBox 2.3 [http://hwmblackbox.com/en/home]
Portable Bitdefender [http://www.bitdefender.com/freetools/]
http://www.bitdefender.com/toolbox/freeapps/desktop/
(You may find the above Bitdefender on freewarefiles.com

OR JUST GO HERE:
http://www.freewarefiles.com/search.php?categoryid=&subcategoryid=&action=sort&sort=date&query=information&boolean=exact&type=all&currentorder=DESC

Reply   |   Comment by Software Babe  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#26

Yeah, it looked very useful, despite it's retro look, but then it locked up my system completely. Foreced reboot - Uninstalled. Seriously, if there is a way to get around this, then fine. I don't see why I should have to fight to find a way to make a program work.


Got this info very quickly from - Belarc Advisor (freeware) -

Operating System System Model
Windows 8 (x64) (build 9200)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)
Installed: 12/30/2013 8:13:43 PM
Boot Mode: UEFI with successful Secure Boot LENOVO 20263 Lenovo G500s Touch
System Serial Number: 3266642800802
Chassis Serial Number: CB27384891
Enclosure Type: Notebook
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
2.60 gigahertz Intel Core i5-3230M
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
3072 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Hyper-threaded (4 total) Board: LENOVO 31900003Std
Serial Number: CB27384891
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
UEFI: LENOVO 7BCN36WW(V2.02) 08/28/2013
Drives Memory Modules c,d
983.40 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
828.06 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ8DB [Optical drive]

ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- drive 0, s/n S2SMJ9HDA06147, rev 2AR20002, SMART Status: Healthy 6042 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 2048 MB (serial number 00A24C8D)
Slot 'DIMM1' has 4096 MB (serial number 4B463608)

...


Oh well.

Reply   |   Comment by Ozara Zee  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#25

FORGOT TO ADD THIS PORTION OF MY COMMEND:

I have tried to install this program on windows 8.1 64 bit but I get the fallowing warning SIW is running in emulation mode and it is not designed to run in this mode, what am I doing wrong?

I found the run in the compat software mode worked for me.

Reply   |   Comment by Donald Bowker  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+14)
#24

Great software...!

Reply   |   Comment by PCMAN  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#23

I support Karl on this. Not everyone is right all the time. Karl is honest and gets it right most of the time.
I too found that the only way I could run this software was to install in the compat mode. Does not like the
the 64bit so much. Runs good in the 32bit mode. One does not have to make harsh commends when one does not
agree with the reviews. My two cents worth from and American senior citizen. GO GAOTD.

Reply   |   Comment by Donald Bowker  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+20)

The SIW 64bit version is still in Beta phase (issues with Passwords module)

Reply   |   Comment by Gabriel Topala  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#22

Froze on my slim Win 7 Home Premium.

It also froze on my Vista Home Premium while creating a licence report.

My both systems are clean and very slim (they contain just a small number of programs).
Yet, in both cases I had to use Task Manager to stop SIW.

In light of that I am not going to keep this program.
Thank you though for allowing me to test it for free.

Regards,
consuella

Reply   |   Comment by consuella  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+17)
#21

This did not work well for me on my Win 8.1 laptop. The program started okay but then hung up. Could not even get the task manager to stop it. Had to turn the power off. Luckily I had my Toolwiz Time Freeze. Thank you for the offer but I must pass.

Reply   |   Comment by dadams  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+15)

Just as a follow up, this works fine on my XP SP2 desktop.

Reply   |   Comment by dadams  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#20

I've been using the paid version for many years. It is an excellent program. Also, the tech support for author is fantastic!! This is a program to get for sure if you want to know what's going on inside your computer.

Reply   |   Comment by Marty  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#19

@Karl
The developer's site does have a "What-can-I-do-if-SIW-doesn-t-start-freezes-my-system-or-causes-a-blue-screen" troubleshooting process in SIW Support Forum - General - FAQ for situations such as yours:



Best of luck and thanks for your honest reviews.

Cheers

Reply   |   Comment by Johnnie Walker  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+17)
#18

Long-time user of this program; like it, but miss the connection speed test that earlier versions had.

Reply   |   Comment by FeAudrey  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)

It was using too much bandwidth. Microsoft Azure charges 12$ for 100GB.

Reply   |   Comment by Gabriel Topala  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

My speed is shown under 'NETWORK ADAPTERS'. I'm running WIN7-SP1. SIW-2015 loaded without problems and the program works very well on my system. Only (non)-problem so far, is failure of 'PASSWORDS' to find any on my PC ( my password manager is RoboForm ).

I want to thank GOTD and Topala Software Solutions for this giveaway!

Reply   |   Comment by harry12  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#17

Thanks to Topala and GOTD.
I already had their freeware portable version, but installed this anyway.
I have some feedback for the software programmers.
SIW Pro cannot measure the voltage of the CMOS backup button battery CR-2025 in my PC correctly. Maybe they can look into it for the next version.

I have done a full list of checks of what software for this aspect in the past.

Software that can measure CMOS voltage (VBat) accurately
--------------------------------------------------------
HW-Info by RealiX portable Ver4.48 Freeware
Open Hardware Monitor portable Ver0,4,0 beta Freeware
SIV by Ray Hinchliffe portable Ver4.47 Freeware




Software that CANNOT measure CMOS voltage (VBat) accurately
-----------------------------------------------------------
PC Wizard portable Ver2010.1.95 Freeware
ReSysInfo System Information portable Ver2.2.0 Freeware
SIW-System-Info by Topala portable Ver2011.10.29 Freeware
Speccy(sysinfo) by Piriform portable Ver1.27 Freeware
SysResourcesManager by OptWin Ver12.3 given by GOTD on 29 Apr 2014
System Spec by Alex Nolan portable Ver3.08 Freeware
SystemExplorer by Miroslav Topolar portable Ver6.0.1 Freeware
WinAudit by Parmavex portable Ver3.0 Freeware

Reply   |   Comment by ric  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+35)

Hi ric,

SIW uses CPUID SDK
Can you create a TXT report using CPU-Z and send it to support@gtopala.com?

Reply   |   Comment by Gabriel Topala  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

Errata.

The button battery in my PC was a CR-2032 and not CR-2025.

Reply   |   Comment by ric  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#16

Installed over older version, works great (Win XP-SP3), thank you very much!
BTW, would be of great help if providers of software will advise whether "installing over" older version is possible, or advisable or not.
Thanks again!

Reply   |   Comment by Eldad  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+20)

Agreed, Eldad, an important factor.
And a note as to whether they've made provision for their program to run in limited Standard User mode - somewhere where programmers rarely seem to visit...

Reply   |   Comment by Phaedron  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#15

Appreciate all comments here - pro and con. Very much appreciate the frequent comments from Karl, Giovanni, XP-Man and others!

Question: Does today's version of SIW offer a portable option?

Thanks.

Reply   |   Comment by glnz  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+16)

Nope, SIW Pro is not portable. But SIW Technician's Version is.

Reply   |   Comment by Gabriel Topala  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

'Portable', ginz, effectively means 'free', so, for commercial programs like today's SIW, probably not.
(Some publishers make additional portable versions available free, but usually after you've paid in cash for the prime version.)

Reply   |   Comment by Phaedron  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

I let Cameyo.com make a portable version for a 32 bit version of it. That portable runs fine on my W8.1 64 laptop.

Reply   |   Comment by gergn  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#14

Seems like a coin toss to me: not worth the risk nor the trouble. I'll pass on this one.

No insult intended but I've never heard of most of you, and 99% of you have never heard of me either. Karl is here everyday sharing his knowledge and experience with us and I respect that. I don't necessarily agree with him all the time but I do respect his willingness to try to help us. Examples of those that have also earned my respect and don't always agree with Karl are XP-man and Chewy, when they disagree they do it with class and respect, consequently, I respect their views (keep up the good work). Some of you hard ass know-it-alls only show up to put someone down, never sharing a possible cause AND fix to an issue some of us might be having with a program.

NOTE TO Karl, Jahid, Giovanni and others like you (you know who you are): Don't let small minded people upset you or deter you from trying to help us. Most of us respect your input and look forward to it everyday. I'll be back tomorrow to read your reviews.

Madmaler

Reply   |   Comment by Madmaler  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+79)

Thank you, Madmaler for your insights. It’s nice to see someone take a stand for someone else in their defense. I also appreciate the list of those whose reviews you respect and I will start watching for them. I’ve been a GOTD follower for a long time and I don’t usually leave a comment.

Reply   |   Comment by RRVH  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+22)

I totally agree! I don't usually chime in, but I always look for the guys you mentioned to help determine if I should give the offering a go. When disrespect is shown I basically ignore that review but usually mark it down

Reply   |   Comment by Ed  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+21)

I have been going to this site for several years now and for the most part enjoy reading the reviews, etc. I thought the original purpose of this site was for vendors to have the opportunity to distribute their software (free) for people to test and comment. Unfortunately in some cases it had been a venue for people to criticize (not constructively) each other, brag about their so called knowledge, and badmouth the featured software they haven’t even had enough time to fully test.

I truly wish we can travel back to the original intent; test the software, give your opinion, and offer alternatives. Everyone is entitle to their opinion, except when it becomes overly negative towards people and the software offered for free. If you like it, tell us why, and if you doing, give your reasons as well. The comments can only be beneficial when the information is useful. I like others, seek out certain testers because they consistently follow the original intent of this site. I also don’t agree with everyone all of the time, but I still respect their opinions and appreciate the time they spend sharing their knowledge on this site. I have created an arsenal of useful programs (many free) thanks to this site and its many contributors.

Just my two cents…

Reply   |   Comment by John Davidson  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+36)

Totally Agree!

Karl, Jahid, Giovanni, xp-man,.... and others like you (you know who you are):

Don’t let small minded people or occasional differences of opinion upset you or deter you from trying to help us. I admire and respect you because of your independent thoughts and experience, not succumbing to group think.

(Almost)ALL of us value and respect your input and look forward to it everyday. You are the primary reason why many of us come to GAOTD every day.

I applaud you. Please continue to share your insights and advise, we’ll be back every day to read your reviews.

Thank you all for your great work!

Reply   |   Comment by vin  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

And I believe we owe a vote of thanks, along with Karl, XP-man and Chewy, to mike, and/or mikeR - if they're different, for their insights into program vicissitudes and the vagaries of PC hardware.
Many thanks from me.
PhredE
9th Jan. '15

Reply   |   Comment by Phaedron  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#13

Used the previous version of this software finding it worked superbly. This version now installed is even better. It's a bit scary to see all my supposed secure passwords appearing in plain text, but then again, good to know that this can be done so I can be on the alert for it.

Reply   |   Comment by paul  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#12

I have long used the free version successfully with Windows 7, no crashes, no issues.
Except, one day the 'Passwords' option vanished - seemingly forever, an option I'd used regularly.
The good news is that it's back with this version, and all seems to run perfectly as before.
Belarc, somewhat similar and another 'must have', lives happily alongside SIW.

Many thanks to SIW and GAOTD for this very welcome giveaway! :)

Reply   |   Comment by David Bee  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+13)
#11

Installed Windows 7 and Windows 8 64 bit (dual boot), and it worked well on both, lots of useful information.
I did not leave it running, but noticed no slow downs whilst it was running. (not too sure why you would want to leave it running to be honest). I found the password list very useful as I had forgotten some of the less used ones. Unable to print these off direct, I needed to do a print screen, the on screen options to print etc. did not seem to work? probably me not doing something.
Anyway, a thumbs up from me. (A previous post mentioned the beta copy, but when I tried to run this, Malwarebytes grumbled saying it was a "PUP, a possible unwanted program, so I did not bother with that.
Thanks for the program :)

Reply   |   Comment by Brian Hughes  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+15)

A great free program will capture the information in the password window and others in text format, one that scrolls if areas off screen, is available at the following link:-
http://techylab.com/673/free-download-snagit-7-2-5/

This is the old version of Snagit that TechSmith the developers have put out as freeware.

Reply   |   Comment by XP-Man  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+25)

Thanks XP-Man, I seem to have installed SnagIt OK on my Win 7 x64 partition, and though the installation stopped with 0 seconds to go but not finished, it seems to work OK. (I hit cancel and it warned me it was not finished but I had waited an age). Re downloaded the .exe version which did the same, but like I say, it works as far as I tested it fine.

Reply   |   Comment by Brian Hughes  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#10

I have tried to install this program on windows 8.1 64 bit but I get the fallowing warning SIW is running in emulation mode and it is not designed to run in this mode, what am I doing wrong?

Reply   |   Comment by tkelly46  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+13)
#9

Installed with no problems on My 2007 Dell Dimension desktop. Intel P4 3.2GHZ, 3GB RAM. Windows 8.0 32bit Pro. Tried to create a report in .TXT format, but scan stopped at 71% completed.
Task manager was the only way to get control again. But on checking the programs folder, a .TXT file had been created.
All other parts of the program worked as expected, all hardware and software reports appear to be accurate, and it did list all my installed programs, codecs etc.
Only fault was the total system report.

Reply   |   Comment by Mike  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+23)
#8

I tried this software on my Windows 8 system it was working fine. But, same software trouble my wife. It hanged her Win 8.1 based PC. Same software but different experiences. So guy’s stop blaming each other for software abnormal behavior. On GAOTD everyone is free to share his or her experience.

Reply   |   Comment by Robert  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+36)

But, same software trouble my wife. It hanged her Win 8.1 based PC. Same software but different experiences.

It's all about good programming. A correct program, which handles exceptions and traps correctly (basic programming learning course), never crashes a system. It does not depend on the question old/new computer, last software or not. It is the incorrect programmed error handling, which causes the problems. In a good program, error handling is a big part of the code, often the biggest part. If a programmer does not do his job correctly, than it comes to such "problems". Don't blame the system configuration, blame the programmer, who was not willing to handle exception code.

Reply   |   Comment by Karl  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+25)

"Don’t blame the system configuration, blame the programmer, who was not willing to handle exception code."

Maybe they have missed a combination of result's
If .. then .. else ..
Or case ??? ; ...; ...; ...

And if there is no correct fault-routine, it can crash a Windows.
If nothing of the above . . . Display "I don"

You're right

Reply   |   Comment by Ootje  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-11)

Find it hard to agree Karl when you're dealing with such a complex system as to which process is causing the problem when it could be a combination of factors.
Regarding the amount of the program that deals with trapping exceptions; in my experience you are way off the mark, in my last program job very little of the very large source code source code dealt with this matter.

Reply   |   Comment by XP-Man  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+24)

@Karl: The question is if the error occured on Windows/System level or inside the application/SIW. I wouldn't blame SIW straight away, because it might just trigger a system level issue.

Reply   |   Comment by ProNoob  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#7

Installed on a w 8.1 64 bit system
Works ok. No crash. One thing where Karl i right. It's rather retro to look at.....last millennium.

Reply   |   Comment by Mahgong  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)

I have installed this program on my computer windows 8.1 64 bit but it keeps installing the 32 bit version and it will not run on my computer, can you tell me how to get the 64 bit version?

Reply   |   Comment by tkelly46  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#6

been running this program for years and to blame it for crashing your system is pure nonsense.might want to check some of the "tweaks" youve done to windows and blame that.installed on multiple computers and never missed a beat.

Reply   |   Comment by aldan  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)
#5

I´m not to familiar with SIW - but a small note on such stuff:
Direct hardware access and virtual machines is a contradiction in itself!

IF in virtual machines it WERE allowed to directly access addresses and interrupts, the virtual system (and as a result the underlying real system...) MUST crash.

Such software
EITHER MUST crash
OR will not get to the VERY BOTTOM of getting FULL information on some hardware!

I am not to convince anyone - but the conclusions of this is to you.

Reply   |   Comment by wosa  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+84)

Sorry no.

I run some other "system information" system. From HD Diagnostics, processor control to SiSoftware Sandra (which I recommend). None of the programs makes problems - and should not have - with a virtualized system. It is simple bad programming, when traps are not handled correctly.

Reply   |   Comment by Karl  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)

You can read my comment to HARDiNFO Professional 7.0, which was GOTD on September 22, 2014.

Here are the reviews:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hardinfo-7-0/

It did not satisfy me, because of some missing things, but it of course NOT crash my computer.

Reply   |   Comment by Karl  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

@Karl
I think You don't need to worry much as You have a really efficient system analysis, diagnostic and benchmarking utility " SiSoftware Sandra Lite " . Nice Recommendetion. Thanks . I forgot to mention.

Reply   |   Comment by Jahid  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+21)

Karl,
Please thoroughly read my comment... your "reply" is NOT a reply!

... and be very cautious with words about "bad programming" (BTW: I doubt, you ever did REAL programming, beside some eventual and basic programming which can nowadays be done easily by almost everyone. Maybe I am wron, but I came to this conclusion by having read most of your comments on software here. Of course you can prevent most crashes but it depends on the WHAT KIND of software you are programming an with how many variants of hardware you HAVE to handle: using already implemented system calls and dll´s is easy...).

But nevertheless
I often REALLY appreciate your comments on software: it helps to decide if i will try out a giveaway at all!
Thank you

And be

Reply   |   Comment by wosa  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+14)

@ Karl

Maybe it is a stupid thing. Your PC/Windows and this program SIW. They don not like each other .

For 10 years ago a PC had faults.
I plugged it in; mouse, keyboard, monitor and it didn't start a all. Froze during BIOS-tests. I send it to the shop and they didn't find anything wrong: all perfect. In my house the same problem: it stuck in BIOS; self-diagnose. Back to the store and I waited: it was PERFECT. They showed me. At home it didn't work.
Solution: I attached another mouse to the PC and it worked fine.
And the old, wrong mouse worked fine on 5 different PC's. It used it for 5 more years and the PC worked also for 5 more years with another mouse.

And the GOTD-progam of today: SIW. It worked fine on several PC's Win7-64 and WinXP-32

Reply   |   Comment by Ootje  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+28)
#4

Been using the free version of this for many, many years, one of the first things that goes on my machine.
Great way of finding out information regarding your computer, I wouldn't be without it!

Reply   |   Comment by XP-Man  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+52)

One very useful piece of information I didn't know existed, possibly not in the free version, is a list of the programs installed.
When you expand the information for the program it gives details that would take forever to extract by yourself.
Two programs that I seem to have been using forever are ATnotes (desktop notes) and WisePixel HandySnap (a great little screen capture program), been using them for so long and on so many machines that I lost information about them, today's download found me that information.

When a program crashes a machine, but in general not others, it is more often than not just a combination of circumstances particular to that machine.
The complexity of Windows makes it very difficult to isolate one program as being the cause unless it happens on the majority of machines.

Certainly the free version has never given me the slightest problem and up to now nor has today's, as far as I'm concerned a brilliant little program at a great price.

Reply   |   Comment by XP-Man  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+56)
#3

Download and installed on Windows 7 64-bit OS

Old GAOTD users may had its previous version which was placed on April 3, 2014

If you already had its older version then just upgrade it to new version

Tool was ok. It help individual to recollect all system related information

All I can say good software, but not that much useful and even slow down my PC response....So I uninstalled it....

Reply   |   Comment by Luke Davies  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+39)
#2

Installed and selfregistered without problems on a Win 8.1.3 Pro 64 bit system.

A Canadian company with name and address. We had the previous version on April 3, 2014. Here are the old reviews:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/siw-pro/

I wrote in my April 2014 review:
LOL, I’m writig this now the second time, because…

Upon start 2007 comes back. An oldfashioned interface, I wanted to see the operating system details and then…

Unbelievable! This program crashed my computer, so that I have had to reboot. The computer freezes nearly completely, I could call the taskmanager, but I could not do anything to stop and come back to a working state. Only the hard reset was possible. I’m happy to run a virtualized system(*).


Same procedure again. This software freezes my computer. It is a different one from 2014 with a new installed operating system one month ago.
Unbelievable!

Automatically uninstalled, because I needed to reboot to get the system working again... Does not like 64bit systems.

Reply   |   Comment by Karl  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+110)

Karl nonsense you write. I have long been the program and Windows 7 64-bit behaves normally. If you have a mess on your system that does not blame the program.

Reply   |   Comment by Anton  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-31)

Karl,

In case you are interested: On their web site I found a link for a free Beta for the 64-bit Technician Version. Here is the link to the DL: http://www.gtopala.com/thank-you/siw-home-x64.php And here is the link to the page I found it on: http://www.gtopala.com/siw/buy_other.php Good Luck.

Reply   |   Comment by Chewy  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+95)

Karl's findings surprise me, my experiences with this program are very good. Is it possible that the virtualised environment in which he runs the program lies at the bottom of the crash?

Reply   |   Comment by Corno  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+123)

Karl,

I tested it in SandboxIE on my W8.1 64 laptop. It installed as a 32 bit application and ran without any problems.

Reply   |   Comment by gergn  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+71)

I also tested in a virtual XP Pro running in Virtualbox on my W8.1 64 laptop. N o problems there, either.

Reply   |   Comment by gergn  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+46)

Initially it works fine only but after certain span of time it start effecting system speed. Program stop responding, application get closed by their own etc and etc. To get over from this abnormal system behavior reboot is the only option left....@karl was right...

Reply   |   Comment by Ken weasley  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+56)

Karl, I think you need a new computer or a new HD. I have a toshiba L16H50 laptop with a i7. and 8G ram. SIW Installed really fast and didn't crash my system when I opened it. This version seems faster than the last one. SIW has helped me a few times with retrieving sys info that I hadn't written down.

Reply   |   Comment by Paul  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+11)

Useful tip from me: First thing first, on every Giveaway always look for Karl's comment which exclusively ends with "uninstall via reboot". You'll save a lot of time.

Reply   |   Comment by Taufiq  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-22)

Karl... No problem here with Win 8.1-64. Not even a hint.

Try installing outside of your virtual system.

Reply   |   Comment by Manic Monde  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+16)

WOW, Karl's today's comments are not quite accurate as he normally is and it can easily lie down on the fact that he's running a virtual box, I also have VMPlayer and there are some programs that will NOT run properly or even NOT run at all on VM, a lot of software makers are wise enough to create an environment detection to see if the program will run smoothly, the most popular of course is differentiating between 32 and 64bit, Mac or Windows, etc and numerous programmers now include this detection whether you are going to be installing to a local machine or virtual machine (i.e.Crazy Talk) and if they are nice enough will tell you in a warning message so you know what's up. Karl, it's time you go over through ALL your old reviews and see if you were mistaken with your tuns of previous comments, one piece of advice I'll give you is..."have another HDD and attach it to your machine to use it as a test spare with a time freeze installed so yo can run your programs directly on a live machine, if something goes wrong well time freeze will put it back to normal on your next reboot, OR have an image of that test HDD and reload it as a plan B". Thank you for following my advice in advance.

Reply   |   Comment by Manny  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+25)

Hi Karl,
Can you help me, please, to fix the crash on your PC?
Please follow instructions from What can I do if SIW doesn't start, freezes my system, or causes a blue screen? page.

Reply   |   Comment by Gabriel Topala  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+61)

@ Gabriel Topala,

thank you for entering the discussion here. I see, that the thread
"What can I do if SIW doesn't start, freezes my system, or causes a blue screen?" is from November 2011. So I am not the first one, who encounters system freezes.
I'll try to give the the information (in German time) until tomorrow morning in the. I will install your software again - on my virtual system.
Greetings from Germany
Karl

Reply   |   Comment by Karl  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+37)

Which application did you download and review? If you are only referring to the free BETA Technician's version, this is different from the GiveAway. I downloaded and installed on Windows 8.1 x64 the GiveAway. I had a previous version and neither have caused any problems. You cannot compare a Beta version with a non-Beta version. It would be helpful if you reported your findings to the author. This is why it is a free version because it is "Beta" and you may have found a useful "bug". Usually there is a log that can be called upon to show the problem.

Reply   |   Comment by infotech  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)

Thank you Karl for putting in the effort to test this GAOTD, but may I suggest that you do yourself a favour and try to find out what actually crashed your system? In view of your comments below about exception handling and the quality of programming, I'm afraid reality is a bit more complicated than that.

As I happen to have some experience in troubleshooting software crashes using a symbolic debugger, you'd be surprised at how seemingly unrelated components can cause crashes. As this GAOTD probably "touches" most of your system components in one way or another (when executed), it is entirely possible that the crash may have been caused by a faulty driver or even hardware. In some such cases, the crash happens outside the "reach" of the program and no amount of exception handling will make any difference to the outcome. Knowing the exception code, module and fault offset would be the first step but a full memory dump is probably needed for a proper analysis.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy reading your comments (along with many others) but in this instance, I believe the conclusion is based on a view that doesn't do justice to the complexity of your system (and possible "hidden" fault or "component combination" within).

Reply   |   Comment by TJon  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

@ Gabriel Topala

Downloaded your test version siw-debug.exe, which is a different version 4.10.0.2. Slightly different behavior - finishes working after some time. But due my virtualization with the system partition C: I could not access/recover the test data. Tried to redirect without success. Will no longer test it. I hope you have other test files. I would nice, if you'll could present your software later again.
Greetings from Germany
Karl

Reply   |   Comment by Karl  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#1

Best Freeware Alternatives:-

*Belarc Advisor -one of the better free system information utilities. It can do full PC Audit and analysis.

*HWiNFO Portable

*Speccy Portable

*SIV - System Information Viewer

*CPU-Z Portable

*GPU-Z Portable - system utility designed to provide vital information about your video card and graphics processor.

Reply   |   Comment by Jahid  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+135)

What about the SIW Pro giveaway ? Just listing free alternatives without commenting is useless!

Reply   |   Comment by Stewart  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

AIDA32 version 3.94.2
Is an Other Alternative free and very useful One

Reply   |   Comment by jub wajub  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

It's great that these alternatives are freeware, but are you suggesting they are as good as or better than SIW Pro? If better, in what ways? I hope you wouldn't suggest less capable alternatives!

Reply   |   Comment by h3driver  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)

@ h3driver

I have personally tried all the above mentioned Softwares with appreciable success rate. All these programs are well-rated and widely used. So no need to hesitate .

Reply   |   Comment by Jahid  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
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