When Microsoft announced Windows 11 and its system requirements, many people wondered if their machine would be able to run it. They released PC Health Check (formerly Windows 11 Compatibility Tool) to verify your computer hardware and required elements to see if they meet the standards needed for the newest Windows 11. Since then, the tool has grown in usability and allows you to check your system performance and troubleshoot minor issues, making it the perfect lightweight solution to get basic information on your computer that runs on Windows.
Why should I download PC Health Check?
If you’re using Windows 10 on your current computer and are wondering about upgrading to version 11, downloading and running PC Health Check will tell you in detail if your machine is ready for it and push the upgrade to your laptop or PC automatically. Some of the things it checks for are the processor type that supports the 64-bit architecture, if you have a minimum of 4GB of RAM, what’s the status of the TPM 2.0 chip, and if your machine can utilize UEFI secure booting. If there are some issues with your current setup, it will also suggest solutions to increase your system compatibility, for example, by enabling the TPM chip in BIOS. It also verifies whether you have at least a 720p HD screen and if your additional monitors have at least 9 inches.
However, now, when you download PC Health Check, you get to do more than just check if your machine is compatible with the requirements of Windows 11. You can use this tool to verify your system health and get back a report that includes your storage use, battery health level if you’re on a laptop, status of your security settings such as Windows Defender and its updates, as well as various security fixes and patches. It can also check if you’re running the most updated Windows version that’s available for your desktop, as well as for how many years and months your computer has been in service. Checking all of those details with PC Health Check will help you understand if your machine is in good condition and possibly catch issues before they become serious problems.
The tool, as basic and simple as it is, is enough for most users to assess their system, and what brings people to it is that it’s completely free, limited to what it needs to do, and comes from a trusted source as it’s a utility developed by Microsoft and it’s available on their website. A lot of other tools can bring in ads or hide some of the essential features behind a payment or a subscription, so for users who don’t have significant needs or expectations, PC Health Check is enough.
Is PC Health Check free?
Yes, the tool is offered on the official Microsoft website, and you can download PC Health Check for free. There’s no premium version of the tool with more features, so if you need some other functionalities like real-time monitoring, you’d have to look for a different app.
What operating systems are compatible with PC Health Check?
Since the tool was created to check Windows 11 compatibility, you can only download PC Health Check on Windows 10 in the 64-bit infrastructure. You can’t use it on 32-bit machines or on computers that run on Windows 7, Windows 8, or MacOS/Linux.
What are the alternatives to PC Health Check?
While PC Health Check is a solid tool, its features are pretty basic, so there are some good alternatives on the market for any user who needs a more comprehensive tool for system diagnostics. One of them is Speccy, which provides system information with in-depth breakdowns of the machine hardware (CPU, GPU, RAM, motherboard, and storage), as well as its temperatures and specifications. With the premium version, you also get real-time performance monitoring and automatic updates, which make Speccy a helpful utility to determine if your machine is overheating or if there are some hardware issues in place, but you can only get it on Windows computers.
Coming from the same company, CCleaner is one of the most popular tools of this sort among both Windows and Mac users. Apart from diagnosing the system and its components, it helps with cleaning unnecessary and temporary files, fixes registry errors to improve the machine speed, and can manage startup programs to speed up the booting times. While the free version of CCleaner still offers basic computer cleanup, the Pro version offers more in-depth cleanups and real-time monitoring.
Anyone looking for a free solution for Windows computers should also check out Belarc Advisor. It doesn’t cost anything, and it’s intended for personal users only. It’s a system audit tool for checking your hardware and software and their configurations. Apart from returning a report with a detailed inventory of what you have installed and built into your computer, it can also provide you with product keys for the various licenses you might have, check the status of your system security, and even provide details of your internet network.
If you’re a Mac user, one of the best tools available is CleanMyMac, which is a really powerful tool for optimizing your system. In addition to comprehensive disk cleanups, it also offers malware protection and real-time monitoring. You can test this utility during a free trial period, but then you must pay to upgrade to the full version, which gives you access to different advanced features for system maintenance.
For those who run their computers on Linux, there’s a great open-source tool called Stacer, which is available entirely for free. It can help optimize your system, has monitoring features for tracking your CPU and RAM usage, allows easy access to the management of startup programs, and allows you to uninstall software from within its interface.
