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Miscellaneous Ramblings

InforMac: A Free and Better Replacement for Apple's System Profiler

Charles Moore - 2006.08.07 - Tip Jar

InforMac is a utility that works like Apple's System Profiler. It displays information about your computer, such as hardware, software, and settings.

"I already have Apple's System Profiler, so why should I bother with a third-party application that essentially does the same thing?" you might ask.

Well, because InforMac does it so much cooler - and it's free, so why not?

InforMac has a much slicker interface than Apple's profiler. It's been around in the same beta version for some time, but I've found no obvious bugs (even though the developer suggests there may be some), and it works just fine on my computers. It's PowerPC only (so far).

With InforMac you can also save information as a file, protect the personal data it contains, and read this file on any other computer. InforMac can securly encrypt this data thanks to a built-in encryption engine that will make your personal information unreadable to any user without the proper password.

When you start the program, you are presented with a window similar to the System Preferences main window showing rows of icons that, when clicked upon, open information panes pertaining to various OS aspects and hardware specifications. You can also use a handy pull-down menu to navigate among the categories.

InforMac also displays a picture of your particular Mac in the Quick Profile window, which tells me some interesting things, like my Apple Certified Refurbished PowerBook , which I purchased in February 2006, got its remanufactured serial number in July 2005. If you have a non-refurbished Mac, the date and place of original manufacture should be displayed.

The Memory panel describes your machine's memory configuration and the type of memory recommended.

The Processor panel contains information about your CPU, system bus and caches.

The Volumes panel provides information about mounted volumes, including the make, type, and size of your hard drive(s), and some statistics since your last reboot. It confirmed that my PowerBook has a Toshiba hard drive, and that the nominal "80 GB" is really 74.53 GB.

The System panel tells you what OS version you're using, ROM specs, and uptime. It notes that there have been no kernel panics recorded with this machine.

The ATA Devices panel shows info about ATA drives, including Optical drives.

USB and FireWire panels show names and connection schematics of peripheral devices.

The Displays panel tells you about your display(s), including a thumbnail of your current Desktop Picture.

The Panels window lists all of the System Preferences panels or just the third-party ones,

The Applications window does likewise, and you can also specify whether you want ony apps.in the Applications Folder displayed, all on the startup disk, or all applications anywhere on mounted volumes.

There are also Users, Network, Frameworks, Battery, and PCI and AGP panels, the latter displaying video card information.

Besides the status panels, InforMac can also create an "identity card" for your particular system, and also a profile report.

InforMac works great, is very quick (except for loading the Applications pane, which takes a while), and is a lot more fun to use than System Profiler. There are no online Help files, but the program is quite intuitive and easy to use, looking and working very much like the OS X System Preferences panes.

In this version (0.1b1):

Tiger compatible
Added print function (that's right, you can print the app list)
Some of the panels can be exported to html/xml
Library now supports FTP
Some new info available
Fixes memory leaks
German and Japanese have been temporarily removed

System requirements: Mac OS X 10.2 or later

InforMac is freeware.

Link: InforMac

Charles Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1987 and began writing for Mac websites in May 1998. His The Road Warrior column is a regular feature on MacOpinion, and he is a news editor and columnist at Applelinks.com. If you find his articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Miscellaneous Ramblings

Soft Touch Keyboards, Wireless Mouse Options, Loving SeaMonkey 2, and More, 11.18. Also the future of browsing with PowerPC Macs and the multiple mouse input bug introduced with OS X 10.5.8.
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More Mighty Mouse Alternatives, Wireless Safety, Switching to ClipMenu, and More, 11.11. Also Apple's AirPort Card as the best solution for Pismo, Color It and Snow Leopard, and later revision Mac OS X install discs.
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More in the Miscellaneous Ramblings index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 15" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Jan. 2006 - The first Intel-based MacBook launched at 1.83-2.0 GHz, had several teething problems.
Group of the Day: System 6 is the email list for those who choose System 6.
November 21 in LEM history: 00: OS upgrades, downgrades - AltiVec vs. Pentium III - 01: Saved by the clones - Computer of the future - 02: Apple Education: Let's get to it - 03: Panther lets Macs and PCs work together, - Lombard SCSI bug - 05: 3 survivors from the 1970s - Real world battery life inadequate - Windows to Mac file transfer with Zip disks - $99 alternative to Microsoft Office - 06: Parallels 1.0 far more polished than beta
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Best Mac mini Deals, 11.16. Used 1.42 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.66 GHz Core Solo, $419; 2.0 Core 2, $450; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $769; Server, $990.
Best iBook G4 Deals, 11.16. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $210; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz, $479; SuperDrive, $498.
Best iPod shuffle Deals, 11.16. Used 1 GB, $35; 4 GB, $65; refurb 1 GB, $39; 2 GB, $59; new 2 GB, $55, 4 GB, $75. New and refurb prices include shipping.
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