Thumb-drive friendly, no-install Windows hardware health check toolkit powered by Sysinternals and PowerShell.
A zero-dependency PowerShell solution that runs a comprehensive, curated set of Sysinternals and Windows diagnostic tools. It then processes the raw data to produce two essential reports: a Clean Summary Report (human-readable, de-noised, with recommendations) and a Detailed Report (cleaned tool outputs).
The essential utility for:
- Field diagnostics and client handoff reports.
- Establishing a system baseline health check.
- Quickly identifying performance bottlenecks.
v2.6 is a quality and reliability release. The network speed test engine has been fully rewritten around curl.exe to resolve systematic TLS failures on modern endpoints. GPU tool downloads now work reliably via a new PowerShell function that fixes a batch-file parser bug triggered by Windows delayed variable expansion. A PNWC branded startup banner has been added. Thirteen bugs have been corrected, including six recommendation engine false positives and three tool output cleaner failures discovered during live test validation.
- PNWC Startup Banner: Branded ASCII art header with version, contact info, and system context painted on launch; uses
Clear-Hostfirst to eliminate PowerShell startup noise; pure 7-bit ASCII (no UTF-8 box characters that mangle on older console hosts) - GPU Tool Auto-Download: New
Invoke-GPUToolDownloadPS1 function handles MSI Afterburner and FurMark with a curl.exe → BITS → IWR cascade; batch launcher GPU Tools Manager now includes Option 5 to trigger downloads directly without opening a browser
| # | Area | Issue | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Network Speed | All 3 test URLs failing: Cloudflare and OVH with TLS handshake errors; Hetzner hostname (speed.hetzner.de) retired — DNS resolution failed on all systems |
Critical: speed test always failed |
| 2 | Network Speed | .NET ServicePointManager SSL bypass cannot resolve TLS 1.3 handshake failures — the bypass callback fires too late in the stack |
High: fundamental architectural limit of the previous approach |
| 3 | Batch Launcher | setlocal enabledelayedexpansion consumed ! characters in inline PowerShell strings before PowerShell received them, generating Missing closing '}' and missing Catch/Finally block parse errors |
Critical: GPU tool downloads always failed |
| 4 | WHEA Events | Level 4 informational events (including "WHEA-Logger started" fired on every Windows boot) triggered "Hardware errors detected" recommendation | High: false positive on every healthy system after a reboot |
| 5 | Disk Performance | Multiline regex (.*) cannot cross newlines in PowerShell — Write/Read speeds stored on separate output lines were never matched |
High: disk performance recommendations never fired on any system |
| 6 | Recommendations | Battery check matched the string "No battery (desktop)" on desktop systems |
Medium: phantom laptop battery alert on desktops |
| 7 | Recommendations | 802.11n Wi-Fi adapters at 100 Mbps triggered "Upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet" recommendation | Medium: false positive on all wireless-connected clients |
| 8 | SMART Detection | "Unhealthy" HealthStatus from Get-PhysicalDisk not included in the recommendations pattern |
Medium: actively failing drives not flagged |
| 9 | Windows Update | Two separate check blocks both fired "ACTION: N update(s) pending" for any pendingCount > 0 |
Low: doubled recommendations on most systems |
| 10 | Windows Update | After removing the duplicate early check, 1–5 pending updates produced no recommendation at all | Low: silent gap in coverage for minor pending counts |
| 11 | Tool Output | clockres and du not in the -accepteula list — full Sysinternals EULA text was written into the clock resolution and disk usage report sections instead of actual data |
Medium: two report sections always empty/garbage |
| 12 | Security Analysis | autorunsc argument -a -c caused autorunsc to consume -c as the type-selection character for -a (codecs only), leaving no CSV flag — tool printed usage/help text instead of autorun entries |
Medium: autorun entries never captured |
| 13 | Tool Output | 2>&1 stderr capture produced raw PowerShell NativeCommandError / CategoryInfo / FullyQualifiedErrorId formatting inside tool output sections |
Low: error-object noise cluttering report output |
Test-NetworkSpeed (full rewrite)
- Three-method cascade: curl.exe (primary) → BITS (fallback) → Invoke-WebRequest (last resort)
- curl.exe and BITS use WinHTTP/Schannel natively — completely unaffected by
.NET ServicePointManagerTLS limitations; both support TLS 1.3 out of the box - Replaced retired
speed.hetzner.dewithspeedtest.tele2.net/10MB.zipin the fallback slot
Invoke-GPUToolDownload (new function)
- Accepts
-Tool("MSIAfterburner"or"FurMark") and-TargetDirparameters via new$DownloadGPUTool/$DownloadDirscript params - Batch launcher calls
-File "%SCRIPT_PS1%" -DownloadGPUTool "..." -DownloadDir "..."— avoids all!delayed-expansion issues entirely
Recommendation Engine: False positive fixes
- WHEA:
Where-Object { $_.Level -le 3 }— excludes Level 4 informational events (normal boot activity) - Disk perf: split single
Write.*Readmultiline regex into two separateif (-match "Write:")/if (-match "Read:")blocks - Battery: match narrowed from
"Battery"to"Battery: "(colon + space) — only matches actual battery data lines - NIC exclusion: added
Wi-Fi|Wireless|WLANto the virtual/non-physical adapter exclusion pattern - Windows Update: consolidated into a single check block covering the full range:
>20(WARNING),>5(INFO),>0(ACTION),0(GOOD)
Convert-ToolOutput cleaner: Output quality fixes
- Added
clockresandduto the-accepteulainjection list so clock resolution and disk usage sections show actual data instead of EULA text - Added
NativeCommandError|CategoryInfo|FullyQualifiedErrorId|RemoteException|At .*\.ps1:to the per-line skip pattern to strip PowerShell error-object formatting from2>&1captures - Fixed
autorunscargument from-a -cto-c:-awas consuming-cas its selection character (codecs), leaving no CSV flag; default logon-entry CSV output now works correctly
- Zero-Install: Portable execution from USB or network drives.
- One-click Menu or Autorun: interactive menu or
-AutoRunparameter - Output Cleaner: removes banners, EULA text, usage blocks for readable reports
- Comprehensive Tests: CPU, RAM, Disk, GPU, Network, OS Health, Windows Update status
- Smart Hardware Detection: Accurate VRAM reporting for modern GPUs (RTX 30/40/50-series) bypassing WMI 4GB limits.
- Enhanced GPU Testing: Multi-GPU support, NVIDIA/AMD vendor tools, display configuration
- Network Speed & Latency: Multi-URL fallback download test, PsPing integration, VPN-aware
- Deep Diagnostics: Automated DISM/SFC, Storage health, and Network throughput testing.
- Tool Integrity Verification: Digital signature checking for all Sysinternals tools
- Smart Reporting: timestamped Clean Summary + Detailed TXT reports with recommendations
- Fully Portable: runs from USB; no installation required
- Graceful Degradation: missing tools detected and skipped automatically
- Robust Elevation Handling: reliable admin detection (Windows Home compatible)
- Auto-Download Tools: built-in Sysinternals Suite and GPU tool downloader via batch launcher
- Resilient Downloads: Triple-redundant download engine (curl.exe > BITS > IWR) for speed tests and GPU tool downloads — native TLS 1.3 via WinHTTP/Schannel.
- Windows Update Integration: checks pending updates and service status
- Modern PowerShell: uses CIM instances (not deprecated WMI) for better performance
- OS: Windows 10/11 (Home/Pro/Enterprise & Windows Server supported)
- PowerShell: 5.1+ or PowerShell 7 (Standard Windows PowerShell)
- Permissions: Administrator rights recommended (some tests require elevation)
- Internet: Required for Option 5 (Sysinternals Download)
- Sysinternals Tools: Auto-downloadable via launcher or manual installation
- Note: v2.6 uses curl.exe (WinHTTP/Schannel) as the primary download engine for native TLS 1.3 support on all systems.
- GPU Tools (Optional): NVIDIA drivers (nvidia-smi), AMD drivers, GPU-Z
SystemTester/
+-- SystemTester.ps1 # Main PowerShell script
+-- SystemTester.bat # Batch launcher
+-- README.md
+-- LICENSE
+-- Sysinternals/ # Auto-created by launcher (Option 5)
| +-- psinfo.exe
| +-- coreinfo.exe
| +-- pslist.exe
| +-- handle.exe
| +-- psping.exe # Required for latency testing
| +-- autorunsc.exe
| +-- ... (60+ other tools)
+-- Tools/ # GPU testing tools (optional)
| +-- GPU-Z.exe # Via launcher Option 6
+-- Reports/ # Auto-created on first report generation
+-- SystemTest_Clean_20260423_143022.txt
+-- SystemTest_Detailed_20260423_143022.txt
+-- energy-report.html # If power test ran (admin only)
- Download or clone this repository
- Run
SystemTester.bat(will request admin elevation) - Choose Option 5 to auto-download Sysinternals Suite (first time only)
- Choose Option 6 to set up GPU testing tools (optional)
- Choose Option 1 for interactive menu or Option 2 to run all tests
- Reports are saved in the script directory
# Interactive menu
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\SystemTester.ps1
# Run all tests automatically
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\SystemTester.ps1 -AutoRunIf Sysinternals tools are missing:
- Automatic: Use launcher Menu Option 5 to download (~35 MB)
- Manual: Download from live.sysinternals.com, extract to
.\Sysinternals\For enhanced GPU testing: - NVIDIA GPUs: Install latest NVIDIA drivers (includes nvidia-smi)
- AMD GPUs: Install latest AMD drivers
- GPU-Z (Optional): Use launcher Menu Option 6 -> 1 to download
| # | Category | Description | Key Tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | System Information | OS details, computer info, clock resolution | psinfo, clockres, CIM |
| 2 | CPU Testing | Architecture, performance benchmarks | coreinfo, synthetic test |
| 3 | RAM Testing | Capacity, usage patterns | CIM queries |
| 4 | Storage Testing | Drives, performance, fragmentation | du, contig, read/write test |
| 5 | Process Analysis | Running processes, handles, process tree | pslist, handle |
| 6 | Security Analysis | Autorun entries, startup items | autorunsc |
| 7 | Network Analysis | Connectivity, latency, speed, adapters | netstat, psping, Test-NetConnection |
| 8 | OS Health | System file integrity, component store | DISM, SFC |
| 9 | Storage SMART | Drive health | Get-PhysicalDisk |
| 10 | SSD TRIM | TRIM enablement status | fsutil |
| 11 | Network Adapters | Link status, speed, IP/MAC | Get-NetAdapter |
| 12 | GPU (Enhanced) | Multi-GPU info, vendor tools, memory | CIM, dxdiag, nvidia-smi |
| 12a | Basic GPU Info | Details, displays, drivers, DirectX, OpenGL | CIM, dxdiag |
| 12b | Vendor-Specific | NVIDIA/AMD metrics, temps, utilization | nvidia-smi, AMD registry |
| 12c | GPU Memory | VRAM capacity, usage, performance counters | CIM, perf counters |
| 13 | Power/Battery | Battery health, energy report | powercfg, WMI |
| 14 | Hardware Events | WHEA error logs (last 7 days) | Event Viewer |
| 15 | Windows Update | Pending updates, service status | Windows Update COM API |
The speed test engine was fully rewritten in v2.6 after all three test URLs failed simultaneously:
- Speed test method 1 — curl.exe: Uses WinHTTP/Schannel directly; supports TLS 1.3 natively; completely unaffected by
.NET ServicePointManagerlimitations that caused failures under Mullvad, WireGuard, and corporate TLS-inspection proxies - Speed test method 2 — BITS: Background Intelligent Transfer Service also uses WinHTTP; TLS 1.3 capable; activates if curl.exe is unavailable
- Speed test method 3 — Invoke-WebRequest: .NET fallback with TLS workarounds; last resort only
- URL updated: Retired
speed.hetzner.de(DNS failure) replaced withspeedtest.tele2.net/10MB.zip - Adapter recommendations: Wi-Fi, Wireless, and WLAN adapters added to the exclusion pattern — 802.11n at 100 Mbps no longer triggers "Upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet"
=========================================
SYSTEM TEST REPORT v2.6
CLEAN SUMMARY
=========================================
Date: 04/23/2026 14:30:22
Computer: DESKTOP-ABC123
Admin: YES
SUMMARY:
Total Tests: 33
Success: 31
Failed: 0
Skipped: 2
Success Rate: 93.9%
KEY FINDINGS:
-------------
SYSTEM:
OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200
Architecture: 64-bit
Computer: DESKTOP-ABC123
Manufacturer: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
Model: MS-7D30
RAM: 63.73 GB
MEMORY:
Total RAM: 63.73 GB
Available: 42.07 GB
Used: 21.66 GB
Usage: 34%
DISK PERFORMANCE:
Write: 200.51 MB/s
Read: 222.35 MB/s
GPU:
Name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
Adapter RAM: 10 GB
Driver Version: 32.0.15.9621
NETWORK SPEED:
Active Link Speeds:
Wi-Fi: 2.5 Gbps
Mullvad: 100 Gbps
Tailscale: 100 Gbps
Internet Download Test:
URL: https://speed.cloudflare.com/__down?bytes=10000000
File Size: 9.54 MB
Time: 0.84 sec
Throughput: 906.7 Mbps (113.3 MB/s)
NETWORK LATENCY:
Target: 8.8.8.8
Test-NetConnection:
Ping Succeeded: True
Ping RTT: 12 ms
PsPing Summary:
Min: 11.2 ms
Max: 14.7 ms
Avg: 12.5 ms
WINDOWS UPDATE:
Service: Running
Pending: 0
Pending Updates: None
RECOMMENDATIONS:
----------------
* GOOD: Low memory usage (34%) - plenty of RAM available
* GOOD: Windows is up to date
* INFO: GPU drivers are over 1 year old
-> Update to latest drivers for best performance
-> NVIDIA: GeForce Experience or nvidia.com
-> AMD: amd.com/en/support
For detailed output, see: SystemTest_Detailed_20260423_143022.txt
Note: Report files use plain ASCII: bullets are * and arrows are ->. This ensures correct display in Notepad, legacy terminals, and any text viewer without encoding configuration.
The batch launcher (SystemTester.bat) provides:
- Run Interactive Menu: Select individual tests (includes GPU sub-options 12, 12a, 12b, 12c)
- Run ALL Tests Automatically: Complete system scan with auto-report
- Fix PowerShell Execution Policy: Set CurrentUser to RemoteSigned
- Verify Tool Integrity: Check digital signatures and file sizes of Sysinternals tools
- Download/Update Sysinternals Suite: Auto-download from Microsoft (~35 MB); uses curl.exe for TLS 1.3 compatibility
- GPU Testing Tools Manager: Download and manage GPU testing tools (sub-menu includes Option 5: Download GPU Tools Automatically — MSI Afterburner and FurMark via curl.exe)
- Help / Troubleshooting: Comprehensive troubleshooting guide
- Exit
Cause: VPN or proxy performing TLS inspection (Mullvad, Tailscale, corporate proxy). Status: Fixed in v2.5. The script now tries three different servers and bypasses certificate validation per-attempt. If all three fail, check firewall rules blocking outbound HTTP/HTTPS.
Cause: Bug in v2.21: an undefined $targetPort variable caused Test-NetConnection to receive Port=0, which Windows rejects.
Status: Fixed in v2.5.
Cause: PsPing output formatting variation not matched by the old strict regex. Status: Fixed in v2.5. If it still shows, the debug line will display the raw PsPing output for diagnosis.
Cause: Old recommendation logic matched 100 Mbps anywhere in the adapter list, including virtual adapters.
Status: Fixed in v2.5. Virtual and VPN adapters are now excluded from the physical NIC speed check.
Cause: Report was written as UTF-8 but viewed in Notepad or a tool expecting ASCII/Latin-1.
Status: Fixed in v2.5. Reports now use ASCII encoding and plain * / -> characters.
Solution: Use launcher Menu Option 3, or run:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser -Force
Solution: Right-click SystemTester.bat and choose "Run as administrator".
Solution: Use launcher Menu Option 5 to auto-download, or manually download from live.sysinternals.com.
Reports are saved to a Reports\ subfolder inside the script directory: not the script root itself.
Full path: <script directory>\Reports\SystemTest_Clean_*.txt
The Reports\ folder is created automatically the first time a report is generated. If reports are missing:
- Confirm tests were run before generating the report (PS1 menu option 17, or use autorun)
- Check the script directory is not read-only (this can occur on some USB drives formatted as FAT32 with a write-protect switch)
- The console output after report generation always shows the exact file paths
- CPU Performance: ~10 seconds
- Power/Energy Report: ~15 seconds (admin only)
- Windows Update Search: 30-90 seconds
- DISM/SFC Scans: 5-15 minutes each (admin only)
- DirectX Diagnostics (dxdiag): up to 50 seconds
- No Telemetry: Script does not send data anywhere; purely local operation
- Auto-Download: Downloads only from official Microsoft servers (download.sysinternals.com)
- Report Contents: Includes computer name, hardware details, installed driver paths: review before sharing with clients
- Admin Rights: Required for DISM, SFC, energy reports, SMART data, Windows Update queries
- SSL Bypass: The certificate validation bypass used during speed/download tests is scoped per-request and restored immediately. It does not persist after the test completes.
- Rewrote network speed test engine: curl.exe (primary, WinHTTP/Schannel) → BITS → Invoke-WebRequest cascade for native TLS 1.3 on all systems
- Replaced retired
speed.hetzner.de(DNS failure) withspeedtest.tele2.net/10MB.zip - Added PNWC branded ASCII startup banner with Clear-Host, version header, and system context
- Added
Invoke-GPUToolDownloadfunction: automated MSI Afterburner and FurMark downloads via curl.exe → BITS → IWR - Batch: GPU Tools Manager Option 5 now triggers automated tool downloads directly
- Batch: Fixed GPU download parser errors caused by delayed expansion consuming
!characters in inline PowerShell; moved all download logic to PS1 function, batch calls-Fileinstead - Fixed WHEA false positive: Level 4 informational events (including normal boot events) no longer trigger hardware error alert; filter now requires Level ≤ 3
- Fixed disk performance recommendations: split multiline
.*regex into two separate match operations - Fixed battery false positive on desktops: narrowed match from
"Battery"to"Battery: " - Fixed Wi-Fi NIC false positive: added
Wi-Fi|Wireless|WLANto adapter exclusion pattern - Fixed SMART detection: added
"Unhealthy"toHealthStatuspattern match - Fixed Windows Update: consolidated duplicate check blocks; added branch for 1–5 pending updates
- Fixed clockres and du EULA output: added both to
-accepteulainjection list - Fixed autorunsc producing usage text: corrected argument from
-a -cto-c(default logon entries, CSV) - Fixed PowerShell error formatting leaking into report output: added NativeCommandError/CategoryInfo filter to output cleaner
- Fixed latency test crash: removed undefined
$targetPortand brokenTest-NetConnectionargs - Fixed speed test SSL failure under VPN/proxy TLS interception
- Added 3-URL fallback chain for speed test (Cloudflare, Hetzner HTTP, OVH)
- Added per-attempt SSL bypass with automatic restore
- Fixed PsPing result parsing with flexible whitespace regex
- Added PsPing debug output when parsing fails
- Fixed false-positive "slow NIC" recommendation for virtual/VPN adapters
- Fixed report encoding mojibake: switched to ASCII, replaced Unicode bullets/arrows
- Removed Unicode box-drawing characters from menu display
- Reports now saved to
Reports\subfolder instead of script root; folder is auto-created on first run - Energy report (powercfg) also redirected into
Reports\subfolder - Batch: Added SSL bypass to Sysinternals Suite download
- Batch: Simplified VERIFY section, removed misleading exit-code branching
- Batch: Removed stale
SystemTester_FIXED.ps1legacy filename reference - Batch: Updated Help section to document v2.5 changes
- Batch: EXIT screen updated to show
Reports\subfolder path
- Added tool integrity verification (digital signature checking)
- Added dual report system (Clean Summary + Detailed)
- Fixed memory usage calculation (FreePhysicalMemory unit conversion)
- Added launcher batch file with admin elevation
- Enhanced GPU testing: multi-GPU support, NVIDIA-SMI integration, AMD detection
- Added GPU Tools Manager (batch menu option 6)
- Added Windows Update integration
- Added WHEA hardware event log check
- Added network speed and latency testing (initial implementation)
- Complete rewrite with modular function structure
- Added interactive menu system
- Added
-AutoRunparameter for unattended operation - Added recommendations engine
- Improved report formatting
- HTML report export with charts
- Baseline comparison mode (compare current vs. previous test)
- Skip flags (
-SkipCPU,-SkipNetwork, etc.) - CSV export for data analysis
- Memory leak detection
- Audio device testing
- Intel Arc GPU support
- WPF/WinUI graphical interface option
- Real-time monitoring dashboard
- Email report delivery
- Task Scheduler integration for scheduled testing
- Multi-computer report aggregation
- Signed releases with code signing certificate
- Pester test suite for CI/CD
Basic GPU Info (Option 12a):
- All installed GPUs with full specs (VRAM, resolution, refresh rate, PNP ID)
- Display/monitor configuration with manufacturer and model decoding
- Driver details with digital signatures
- DirectX version and capabilities from dxdiag
- OpenGL registry information
- Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling status Vendor-Specific Tests (Option 12b):
- NVIDIA: Real-time metrics via nvidia-smi (temperature, utilization, memory, power draw, clock speeds)
- AMD: Registry-based driver detection across all registry positions (
\0000,\0001, etc.) GPU Memory (Option 12c): - Total VRAM capacity
- Active GPU process detection via performance counters (falls back to basic info if unavailable)
| Tool | Required For | Status |
|---|---|---|
| CIM/WMI | Basic GPU info | Always available |
| dxdiag | DirectX info | Always available |
| nvidia-smi | NVIDIA metrics | Included with NVIDIA drivers |
| Registry | AMD detection | Always available |
| GPU-Z | Advanced monitoring | Manual download via Option 6 |
Recommended tools via launcher Option 6 -> 4:
- FurMark: GPU stress test (generates significant heat: use with caution on laptops)
- 3DMark: Industry standard benchmark
- Unigine Heaven/Valley: Graphics stress testing
- OCCT: Error detection and stability testing
Contributions welcome. Priority areas:
- Bug reports: test on varied hardware and network environments
- Parsers: new tool output cleaners for additional Sysinternals tools
- Tests: additional diagnostic modules (audio, temperatures, peripherals)
- GPU: Intel Arc integration
- Network: additional connectivity and performance tests
- Documentation: screenshots, wiki articles, tutorial content Before contributing:
- Open an issue to discuss large changes
- Follow existing code style
- Test on Windows 10 and Windows 11, admin and non-admin
- Test on systems with VPN software active (Mullvad, Tailscale, WireGuard)
- Update README and Help section in launcher
- Run PSScriptAnalyzer if possible Testing Checklist:
- Single GPU system (NVIDIA / AMD / Intel integrated)
- Multi-GPU system (discrete + integrated)
- System with active VPN (Mullvad, Tailscale, or similar)
- System with VMware or Hyper-V virtual adapters
- Paths with spaces in username
- Non-admin execution
- Admin execution
- Missing Sysinternals tools (should degrade gracefully)
- Menu Option 4 (Tool Verification)
- Menu Option 6 (GPU Tools Manager)
MIT License: See LICENSE file for details.
Copyright (c) 2025 Pacific Northwest Computers
- Sysinternals Suite: live.sysinternals.com
- Sysinternals Docs: docs.microsoft.com/sysinternals
- PowerShell Docs: docs.microsoft.com/powershell
- GPU-Z: techpowerup.com/gpuz
- NVIDIA Drivers: nvidia.com/drivers
- AMD Drivers: amd.com/support
- Issues: GitHub Issues
- Discussions: GitHub Discussions
- Bug Reports: Open a GitHub issue: include OS build, GPU type, admin status, and full error message
- Feature Requests: Start a GitHub discussion
- Commercial Support: jon@pnwcomputers.com / 360-624-7379
- Microsoft Sysinternals Team: For the diagnostic tools this project is built around
- Mark Russinovich: For creating and maintaining Sysinternals
- NVIDIA & AMD: For providing diagnostic APIs
- TechPowerUp: For GPU-Z
- PowerShell Community: For patterns and best practices
Tested on Windows 10 (1909+) and Windows 11: Enterprise, Pro, Home & Server editions
Last Updated: June 2026 | Version: 2.6 | Status: Production Ready