Device Checker

Keeping track of what's happening on your computer is difficult without the appropriate tools. If you're interested in the technical details surrounding services, USB controllers, sound devices and other changes, you can turn to Device Checker. It's a simple Windows app that scans your system and generates reports with data to notify you of any modifications.

The program identifies new additions, removals or modifications. It's packed in an intuitive window that shows all options in plain sight, along with instructions. To get started, it's necessary to allow Device Checker to take an initial snapshot by collecting system data. This will be later used to compare with newer snapshots and observe differences.

Before generating a report, you can select the type of data to gather. By default, all data types are included in the scan but you can exclude anything you're not interested in: CD-ROMs, groups, keyboards, physical discs, SCSI devices, startup programs, video controllers, displays, IDE devices, logical disks, pointing devices, services, USB controllers, environment variables, installed programs, network adapters, printers, sound devices, and users.

Once the report is generated, you can view detailed information about new, deleted and modified items as well as switch to the data recorded in the last snapshot to compare it. If you wish to replace the initial snapshot, you just have to hit the "Save" button. Unfortunately, options have not been implemented for exporting old, new or difference data to file, which would've helped with closer inspection and safekeeping.

Taking everything into account, Device Checker is surprisingly thorough when it comes to the level of detail focused on system reports. It's a fairly new software project that hasn't reached stable development stage yet, so there's plenty of room for improvements (we're hoping for a file export option).