PC review is a job that should be done in companies and offices, but even on a single home computer it can be useful to make a diagnosis, every now and then, with an inventory of what you have on your computer, both from the point of view hardware view that, above all, from the software point of view. For home PCs, you can use a simple and very detailed tool such as Belarc Advisor, a Windows control software that collects all information concerning a computer.
This program, useful for knowing what's inside the computer, is also important for improving system security, having full evidence of any vulnerabilities.
After downloading the free Belarc Advisor program, you can quickly install it on Windows and start the first check which will result in a very detailed report on the state of the computer and everything inside it .
The revision report shows, at the top, an overview of the system, below instead all information on installed applications, users, network status and Windows updates.
The report contains, reading it from top to bottom:
- USB Storage : information on USB sticks connected to the computer in the last 30 days.
This is very useful for checking, especially on a laptop, which USB sticks have been used on the computer, perhaps to copy data.
- Drives, SMART Status: Healthy indicates the state of good health of the hard disk .
The program also shows the free space and maximum storage capacity for each volume.
- User accounts and logins made on the system useful for checking if any unrecognized user exists (see how to disable guest and administrator accounts)
- Virus protection tells which antivirus is installed on the pc.
The important part is where it reads: Realtime File Scanning which must be ON and not OFF .
- Communication shows the IP addresses used by each network connection.
Check that there are no unrecognized connections and that the IP addresses and above all the DNS is correct.
- On the Missing Microsoft Security Hotfixes line, verify that there are no problems detected and that there are no Windows and antivirus security patches .
If an update is missing, install it immediately from Windows Update and the antivirus update.
- Software licenses : Those who have purchased Windows, Office or other programs, can find here the license keys that would be good to keep in case you had to reinstall Windows or other software.
- Which programs have not been used ( Unused Software ) in the last 7 days, 90 days or a year (iiii).
If a program has not been used for a year and more, it is probably appropriate to uninstall it.
- Hotfixes installed on Windows is the list of patches and updates on which you can see all the details.
At the top of the web page opened by Belarc Advisor you can read a score called the Security Benchmark score .
The detailed analysis of the protection settings of the computer and the check that everything has been configured, generates an overall score also based on the average.
In detail, all possible PC vulnerabilities are indicated with a red cross.
Better not to be frightened seeing a very low score with many red crosses.
On my computer I got the poor score of 1.25 out of 10, because I haven't changed my password for years, because the PC is accessible from the outside, because I don't have a backup plan and because of many other critical points.
Now, Belarc Advisor does not say how to correct the various security problems, it just says what they are.
Furthermore, it is all in English, although the web page can be easily translated with the Google translator.
Without therefore armoring the PC so as to be unable to do anything more, the important thing is to follow the general rules for computer security to better discourage virus or hacker attacks.
Belarc Advisor is a really useful and recommended program, to be used once in a while to do a PC review and really know what's inside, especially in case of problems.
