When you're troubleshooting problems on a PC, it's important to be able to dig into the hardware and software of the machine to see what's installed. There are plenty of free programs around that claim to help you do this, but finding good ones which are both comprehensive and free can be difficult. I tend to write about such examples here, whenever I find a new one. And today I found something that's both new (to me) and good.

The program is called WMI InfoView. The WMI part comes from the fact that it uses the built-in Windows Management And Instrumentation system that's been part of the operating system for many years. It allows programs to glean reliable information about what's installed, and how well it is performing.

As you can see from the screen shot, WMI InfoView is a great way to explore what's happening in your computer. The software is a 1.5 MB download and it's free, portable, and is malware-free according to VirusTotal and Web of Trust.  Read More