Cannot get HWiNFO to autostart

[pi-town]

When I check the autostart box in settings, the error message "hwinfo cannot install the hwinfo driver..." pops up. In order to get HWiNFO working again, I must terminate the process in Task Manager and then proceed with opening the app. I would like this program to autostart but I am unsure what is causing the error. The only other apps I have set to autostart are Discord, Nvidia Control Panel, SignalRGB and Logitech GHub. Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Martin]

This might indicate something is not allowing HWiNFO to run with Administrative rights or some anti-virus software is blocking it.

 

[pi-town]

Is there a reason why it (anti-virus software) would block HWiNFO at start up but then allow HWiNFO to open after I terminate the process in Task Manager and then reopen HWiNFO?

 

[Martin]

I don't know, you'll have to ask them.

 

[pi-town]

The only anti-virus software on my PC is Windows Defender.

 

[Martin]

Does the account under which you run have Administrative rights? You might also check properties of the HWiNFO task in Task Scheduler.

 

[LiveOrDie]

I had this issue before when updating, I ended up deleting the folder and redownloading it and then setting the settings again, for some reasons if you update it or paste it over the top it doesn't auto start any more.

 

[rsbrux]

Why does HWinfo need admin privileges? Isn't the purpose of installing a driver to allow the driver (running with higher privileges) to provide the data to an interactive application, regardless of the interactive application's privilege level?

 

[Martin]

While it's possible to access a kernel mode driver by a user mode process, it's highly discouraged as it would pose a serious security concern. If this would be allowed, any user mode application (including malicious ones) could gain access to sensitive data available from kernel. Hence, HWiNFO always requires elevated Admin rights.

 

[rsbrux]

Isn't a common purpose of drivers to provide a secure interface between system resources, such as storage, audio and video (which are accessed in ring 0) and user mode (ring 3) applications? Isn't it the driver's responsibility to restrict the application's access to the appropriate resources and operations?
A system monitoring tool which seems to do this successfully is the Intel Power Gadget. It shows more than I need and takes up more screen real estate than I want, which is why I would prefer to use HWinfo. I am looking for an application which, like the Intel Power Gadget can autostart for a non-privileged user, but which, like HWinfo, can display the desired data in a systray icon.

 

[ralphclark]

Isn't a common purpose of drivers to provide a secure interface between system resources, such as storage, audio and video (which are accessed in ring 0) and user mode (ring 3) applications? Isn't it the driver's responsibility to restrict the application's access to the appropriate resources and operations?
A system monitoring tool which seems to do this successfully is the Intel Power Gadget. It shows more than I need and takes up more screen real estate than I want, which is why I would prefer to use HWinfo. I am looking for an application which, like the Intel Power Gadget can autostart for a non-privileged user, but which, like HWinfo, can display the desired data in a systray icon.

there is a "Core Isolation" feature in recent builds of Windows 11 (insider preview, at least) which does exactly that, but there is a problem with it and it wont allow the HWinfo64 driver to be loaded.