14 DAY TRIAL // No matter what I do, I can't escape information, and since I love computers, information about the computers I work with is on the first place. If you ask a specialist about a good system information tool, the answer will probably be Everest or Sandra; but since those are so well known and have been already reviewed here, I spotted another victim...
The name of my last subject today is ASTRA32 - Advanced System Information Tool, but I'll call it just ASTRA from now on. This application recently reached version 1.41 and comes with an installation package having 1.2MB in size, extremely easy to download and install.
As usual, after the setup process ends, you end up facing the interface of the program you have just installed, or...the nag screen. This time, it's going to be a nag screen, because what I have here is the 14 days trial version that is also feature limited. Once you leave this obstacle behind, you will notice an interface that doesn't have anything special, but it's not bad either. ASTRA32 has the same interface that I have seen times and times again so far and I am sure it's not the last system information tool that uses this approach either...
The File menu contains links to all the tools available in this program, over twenty in number, while the Report menu should enable you to export your system information report into TXT, INI, HTML and XML formats...in the full version, because here it's disabled. Too bad, but let's move on and see what we can find out about computers that are using this program, shall we?
The left panel of the main window contains a tree with the topics you can get info on, the same ones as those present in the File menu. As usual, this starts with an overview of your hardware and software components, called System Summary.
As I move through the branches available in the ASTRA32 tree, I find all the items I could be interested in - CPU, BIOS, memory, network, monitor and all the rest, but there's something else that I have to tell you about now: diagnosis.
The description sounds good, but we only get two diagnosis areas. The first one is dedicated to the hard drive and shows current temperature and SMART status, along with some other information that can prove useful for troubleshooting purposes, and the last item is the Drivers Troubleshooter. Fortunately, I've got no problems with my drivers, and this is the only thing that I wish for you to see here: "All devices are working properly".
At last, the software information has three areas - Windows Info, Installed Programs and Installed Hotfixes. It would have been nice to have some program management features here, but that's life...you can't always get what you want, but nobody can stop you form getting what you need, and ASTRA32 is none of those two, so let's jump to the conclusions, I'm done here!
The Good
ASTRA32 can be used for getting basic system information quickly and efficiently, and beginners shouldn't have much trouble with this program.
The Bad
Even the most basic benchmarking tools are missing from this program, and the fact that the program is a time limited trial version, but also a feature limited one, makes things even worse. For as much as 29.95$, I require a lot more than what you can get with ASTRA32, and for a trial one, I think that one nag screen when starting, the missing features and the two nags at shutdown are way too much. The rotten cherry on top of the ASTRA pie is the fact that the program stops refreshing its information windows without any warning, the only solution being to close it and start all over again.
The Truth
As always, it was a pleasure to play with a program from this family, no matter its drawbacks, but when the trial period ends, you should reconsider it. There are a lot of good system information tools that come for free, and if you want to spend your money on such a program, Everest and Sisoft Sandra Professional are the best options I can think of right now. Without competition, this world would be at least boring, since I don't want to say "dead", and the advice that ends this review is to try this program, I am sure it can only improve in future versions.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
