Common Q&A

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Martin

HWiNFO Author
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HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 and HWiNFO64 require constant and frequent updates in order to stay current with latest hardware. The target is to have accurate support for latest technologies and standards even before the products reach the market.
HWiNFO for DOS is in development since 1995 and was one of the first tools of it's kind providing accurate hardware information. HWiNFO for DOS reaches it's limit in size and available system (DOS) memory. The development has been ceased due to a low demand.
HWiNFO32 development started around 1999 and it was one of the first tools being able to give precise hardware information on the Windows NT/2000 platforms. It is still under heavy development (daily basis) adding new features, improvements and fixes. A stable release is available approximately every month, beta pre-releases are available more frequently (~ every week).
In 2011 HWiNFO32 has been ported to 64-bits, so HWiNFO64 was created. HWiNFO64 is a native x64 application and has some advantages over the 32-bit version: especially it's not limited to 64 logical CPU units as HWiNFO32 is. HWiNFO64 is currently able to support up-to 512 logical CPUs and this limit can be raised if needed.
Both HWiNFO32 and HWiNFO64 require a kernel mode driver to work, as this is the only way how to access hardware. This driver is used only to obtain precise hardware information for HWiNFO and Administrative rights are required to install it.
HWiNFO32/64 public beta pre-releases are fully functioning.

Software inventory
As the HWiNFO name implies, it is designed to provide Hardware-related information. Software information is not in plan.

Hardware monitoring
There are several models of hardware sensors available. Most of them are currently supported. However, every particular motherboard model usually has the sensor inputs connected a different way. This requires motherboard-specific sensor support. Since there are thousands of motherboard models available, it's not possible to support all of them properly. HWiNFO32/64 currently features support of many of them, but of course not all of them. Since there is no widely supported standard available, every motherboard requires specific handling. Notebooks usually have monitoring handled by an Embedded Controller (EC) microprocessor, which has a proprietary designed firmware, thus it's much more difficult to support monitoring advanced parameters on notebooks. Only few ECs are supported by HWiNFO32/64. There are some industry-wide standards for hardware monitoring that are also supported like Intel QST (Quiet System Technology), IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) available mostly on servers.

SMBIOS DMI Information
This information is provided by the BIOS and it's just interpreted by HWiNFO. It is quite common, that this information is not accurate, sometimes a BIOS update might help. Do not rely on this information always.

Virtual Machines
Running HWiNFO32/64 under a Virtual Machine will not provide correct information about the underlying hardware, since it's isolated by VMM. Do not run HWiNFO32/64 under Virtual Machines to get information about physical hardware.

Memory Module Information
Detailed information about memory module requires the following features: DIMM SPD EEPROM to be present on module (currently almost all modules support this) and a supported SMBus Host Controller and Chipset (currently there are no known SMBus hosts that would not be supported by HWiNFO/32/64). HWiNFO32/64 supports also the DIMM Temperature Sensor, which is currently present only on few modules.
 
Hi there,
Please would you add to this post: How do I know if I need HWiNFO or HWiNFO32 ? :?:

I don't see any way to tell. :?
Thanks,
Frank.
 
As the title on the main page says, HWiNFO (for DOS) can be run under DOS only (not under Windows). This is suitable for systems without operating systems installed. HWiNFO32 runs under Windows (Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7) and supports 32-bit and 64-bit systems as well.

bannerman said:
Hi there,
Please would you add to this post: How do I know if I need HWiNFO or HWiNFO32 ? :?:

I don't see any way to tell. :?
Thanks,
Frank.
 
Hi Martin,
Thanks for that ! :D I have Vista, but I happen to be very fond of DOS, so I shall download both ! Presumably I can run the DOS version in a Windows DOS box ?
Thanks, Frank.
 
Hi again,
I have just downloaded and run HWiNFO32, v3.67, but it popped up a box saying I needed to get an update. But it just took me back to the same page I just downloaded it from, which does not show a later version.
Any suggestions ?
Thanks,
Frank.
 
Hi Frank,
you downloaded the latest stable release v3.67 and the tool recommends you to upgrade to the latest pre-release (beta) v3.69-1140.
As for HWiNFO for DOS - no, it can't be run under Windows DOS box, it requires a pure DOS installation.

bannerman said:
Hi again,
I have just downloaded and run HWiNFO32, v3.67, but it popped up a box saying I needed to get an update. But it just took me back to the same page I just downloaded it from, which does not show a later version.
Any suggestions ?
Thanks,
Frank.
 
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