diagnostics

Get an accurate reading of your CPU speed and compare it online with other computers around the globe with this application.

CPU Speed Professional has a sleek, easy-to-use interface that resembles gauges from an automobile. The main function of this program is to test the speed of your CPU. It does its job quickly and efficiently in four automated steps. Results from the test are displayed in a pop-up window, on the gauge, and also in a flashing box below the gauges. It's hard to miss! There is a selection of tabs to choose from, including the CPU details … Read more

This free diagnostic program tests your processor speed, but the unreliable readings and error messages left a lot to be desired.

MSC CPU Benchmark 2008's user interface displays a graph that appears to display your CPU usage, along with your system's processor, model, type, and the availability of physical and virtual RAM. There are options along the left side of the interface for testing your processor speed, configuring the settings, and showing past and present test results. The program doesn't include any kind of temperature gauge commonly found in similar tools. From the Configurations menu, you can … Read more

Tracking how your system uses its resources can help you determine what may be limiting your system's performance. This free utility monitors 29 resources--including CPU, memory, network, and HDD usages--so you can pinpoint where your system needs optimizing.

Moo0 SystemMonitor launches a vertical bar you can drag anywhere on your desktop. You can specify its transparency or modify as a toolbar button through a right-click menu. Resizing the bar by turning the middle scroll button of the mouse made viewing and hiding the bar easier. Its color coding--light green for satisfactory or optimal usage, red for spikes and resource … Read more

GSA Cleandrive is a privacy tool that promises to rid your computer of harmful spyware and browsing traces. But thanks to its restrictive trial limitation, it failed to clean any of the problems it found on our PC.

The user interface is very straightforward and easy to navigate. You can view the overall status of your computer's privacy, and a one-click button lets you clean your system in one fell swoop. If you want a little more control over the scanning process, a custom cleanup button lets you decide which areas of your computer that you want to clean. … Read more

Anyone who wants to save a little money while helping conserve energy and protect the environment will want to check out this free monitoring application.

Verdiem Edison has a simple, easy-to-understand display with tabbed functions. This free program, which requires e-mail registration before use, rides the latest "green" craze, as it touts the capability to save money by scheduling times to hibernate and shut down your computer. While these basic functions already are enabled by default in Windows, Verdiem Edison adds two different time settings; work time and nonwork time. While working, users may not want to power … Read more

Symantec released a diagnostic patch for some of its older Norton products on Monday night that did not identify its origin and thus triggered alerts on user firewalls, the company said Tuesday.

The patch for 2006 and 2007 versions of Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus, a program dubbed "PFST.exe," (Product Information Framework Trouble Shooter) was distributed to collect anonymous statistics on matters such as how many computers are using the products and what operating system they are running, Jeff Kyle, group product manager for Symantec consumer products, said Tuesday.

Because it was unsigned--a result of human … Read more

ProcessActivityView is supposed to give you a summary of the files and folders being accessed by a specific process. But thanks to its extremely confusing and poorly designed user interface, we had a difficult time discerning the information being fed to us.

The user interface appears as two separate windows. The first window displays all of your system's active processes, and the second window displays the file and folder access summary for a selected process. The first few times we made a process selection, nothing happened. A visit to the Help menu only offered us a link to the … Read more

Hard Drive Inspector Professional keeps all of your system's attributes and hard disk health information in one, nicely wrapped package. However, we found a minor discrepancy with the information it provided us.

The user interface is beautifully designed, with large command buttons at the top for saving and sending data reports, and configuration options. Tabs organized the diagnostic information into three categories: Health Summary, Technical Info, and S.M.A.R.T. Details. From the Health Summary window, we got a brief summary of the amount of available space left on our hard disks, our disk model, and the … Read more

Vista users usually find lots of room to enhance their system's performance. DTweak helps optimize your OS by offering lots of info and options.

DTweak offers a sleek, stylish interface that houses a nice complement of tools that any user will appreciate. Besides the obligatory Registry cleaner and disk defragmenter, this utility offers a variety of system tools and settings to optimize memory and CPU cache, firewall handling, Internet Explorer tweaks, and Windows Update management. This utility responded well during our tests, and seemed to be designed with the user in mind. We liked the way it categorized its … Read more