System profiler

A system profiler is software that reports information about a computer's software and hardware components.^[1] A system profiler may provide real-time information on aspects such as CPU state (i.e. clock speed), GPU state, and attached hardware state (i.e. USB or FireWire devices).

History

System profilers came into use after punch cards were no longer needed to run programs. Mainframe computers evolved into modular architectures at the same time punch cards were being abandoned as input devices. Punch card based mainframe computer systems typically had very rigidly fixed architectures with little variation in input or output devices. On a mainframe, a system monitor provides the same essential function as a modern system profiler.

Prior to the development of graphical user interfaces many of the functions of a system profiler were available as commands. For example the VM/370 command QUERY command can display the real addresses of all devices attached to the system, and the size of real storage.^[2]

Since the 1990s, hardware independent system profilers have emerged in some computing architectures, like Linux. Most Unix-like (aka POSIX compliant) operating systems have system hardware independent profilers. Since the mid-1990s, most personal computers have included a system profiler.

Use

In classic Mac OS, profiling was done via an application called Apple System Profiler.^[3]

The macOS profiler is called System Information, and can be accessed via two methods. A GUI application, System Information.app, provides system information in simplified tables and trees, whereas detailed, highly-verbose information can be viewed upon executing /usr/sbin/system_profiler via a terminal emulator.

In Windows, similar information can be found by viewing the properties of "My Computer" or "This PC," pressing the Windows key and Pause/Break key simultaneously, or by executing msinfo32.exe.

Examples

Windows

System Information – built-in component
CPU-Z – useful when overclocking processors
System Information for Windows (SIW) – portable freeware with software, hardware, and network information as well as miscellaneous tools
Belarc – freeware for personal use PC Auditing Software lists hardware, as well as software installed on the local machine and displays as a local webpage. Belarc also makes a security assessment for checking how secure a system is, and links missing updates directly to a Microsoft website for download.
systeminfo – native windows command line, returns OS version, uptime, CPU, physical memory, network cards, etc.
SekChek Local – an automated security audit tool which scans multiple Windows workstations and servers, from the network. It creates a security assessment report file which is presented as a Microsoft Access dataset.
Speccy – detailed specifications of various PC subsystems

Unix-like

Modern Linux systems include a graphical monitor application such as Gnome System Monitor.^[4] Linux also includes a number of command-line utilities to display system information, such as:

uname -a – prints basic information about the current machine and its OS
lshw – prints a list of hardware devices and their properties
dpkg -l – prints a list of all installed packages and their versions (for Linux distributions using Debian-style package management)
rpm -qa – prints a list of all installed packages and their versions (for Linux distributions using Red-Hat-style package management)

References

^ Van Dyk, Vaughan; Bey-Miller, Rachael (2009). Introduction to Systems Development. Pearson Education South Africa. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-7702-5598-2. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
^ Systems File No. 8370-40 Order No. GC20-1806-9 I BM Virtual Machine Facility/370: Operator's Guide (PDF) (10th ed.). IBM Corporation. 1979. pp. 123–129. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
^ Langer, Maria. "Apple System Profiler". oreilly.com. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
^ Wallen, Jack. "5 of my favorite Linux system-monitoring tools - and why I use them". zdnet.com. Retrieved November 7, 2025.

[1] Van Dyk, Vaughan; Bey-Miller, Rachael (2009). Introduction to Systems Development. Pearson Education South Africa. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-7702-5598-2. Retrieved November 7, 2025.

[2] Systems File No. 8370-40 Order No. GC20-1806-9 I BM Virtual Machine Facility/370: Operator's Guide (PDF) (10th ed.). IBM Corporation. 1979. pp. 123–129. Retrieved November 7, 2025.

[3] Langer, Maria. "Apple System Profiler". oreilly.com. Retrieved November 7, 2025.

[4] Wallen, Jack. "5 of my favorite Linux system-monitoring tools - and why I use them". zdnet.com. Retrieved November 7, 2025.

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