Sysinternals Suite 13.11.2023

Overview

If you’ve ever thought about collaborating your own collection of useful tech tools into one location, the Sysinternals Suite from Microsoft's technet website is a great place to start. It has over 70 executables archived together in a .zip file, making it easy to add any additional support tools you may use that aren’t included. You’ll find a large range of tools from a standalone active directory explorer, advanced task managers, system cache management, even an application that gives better control over managing multiple virtual machines. If you’re a techy kind of person, there’s a good chance that you’ll find some useful tools in this little tech treasure chest.

Just note before you get too carried away with these fun little tools that many of the executables in the Sysinternals Suite can make drastic and even damaging changes to your computer if not used correctly. If you find yourself looking at an executable that you’re not quite sure what it does, it’s probably best to do some research online before using it. Don’t let that scare you away from this tech kit gold mine though. If you’re looking to expand your tech knowledge this is a great way to do it. Find an executable in the Sysinternals Suite and do an internet search on it. I can guarantee you’ll find results pretty quick. You may even find your next favorite system tool!

Many of the applications do support a GUI like vmmap.exe which is an application that you select a task from the Windows task manager and vmmap will give you a very detailed break-down as to what the task is doing on your machine. You’ll also find that many of the executables like PsExec require you to use them through a command console.

Sysinternals Suite offers tools that work on a wide range of Microsoft Windows operating systems from Windows NT to Windows 8. Some tools may have compatibility issues with some operating systems. As I mentioned before, if you’re not sure what the tool does it would be best to research before playing with it too much. There is also a readme file that will give you a short description of what each tool does.

Installation

Sysinternals Suite is actually compressed archive file which holds many different support applications. Each of the applications are standalone, but few have dependencies on other files in the Sysinternals directory. Each application launches directly from the executable with any installation.

Interface

Some tools do have a GUI and many of them are used only through a command prompt. Even the tools with the UI can come across as complex if you’re not sure of all the ins and outs of that tool.

Pros

• More than enough tools for any tech to find useful
• Comes with a readme file with a short description of each tool
• Several tools come with a help file

Cons

• Requires some technical knowledge to use most tools
• Some tools could cause issues on a system if not used properly

Alternatives

Glary Utilities is another free pack that offers several easy to use tools to fix, speed up, and maintain your PC. There is also TuneUp Utilities which is more of a commercial alternative to the Sysinternals Suite which focuses on fixing PC problems and speeding up your machine.

Conclusion

Sysinternals Suite is an excellent way for you to manage and optimize your PC and with many of the applications being created by Microsoft you know you’re getting trustworthy tools. It may not include every useful tool out there, but it certainly has an impressive line-up.