It provides a clear report showing installed hardware including CPU type and speed, motherboard brand and model including the serial number, amount and type of memory installed, hard drive/cd-rom drive information, video, sound, modem, network,printer and other installed devices.

It also shows in the report a list of installed software versions and licenses for that software with a link to the location on the hard drive where the software can be found.

Microsoft Updates

One of the best features of the Belarc Advisor is its report showing all the Microsoft Windows Critical updates that are installed on the computer and a list of any that are missing.  Included in the list are links to Microsoft’s support database for each security patch for anyone that wishes to read more about a particular update.

System Security Status

At the top of the Belarc report is a system security status report showing Benchmark score for the computer along with a quick visual representation of the status of virus protection and security updates. With a quick glance, anyone is able to see whether their system is currently at risk.

Where to Download Belarc Advisor

Since this inventory checkup of your computer system is absolutely free, I would recommend everyone download and install this program and print out the report. You can download Belarc Advisor by visiting their link below:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Privacy Warning

Although Belarc Advisor delivers excellent information about the hardware and software installed on your computer, it can also reveal more information that you want as well. For instance on a normal Windows XP installation, it will show your Windows XP CD Key. This may not seem like a big deal. However, if you post the report to the web and it gets indexed, you have now distributed your valid Windows XP key to the world. In many cases, a user with a pirated copy of Windows XP may use this key to valid their version of XP and cause you trouble in the future when you need to validate your own copy.

For this reason, its not a good idea to post the Belarc report to the Internet, but rather print it out and keep it in a safe place when you need it.