Free PC Reporter Diagnostic Software for Windows
Your PC crashed, froze or slowed to a crawl, and Windows won't say why.
PC Reporter reads your hardware, sensors, drivers and Windows crash records, and it can keep watch in the background. Then it shows what went wrong in plain English, so you know what to fix first.
The Store version installs in one click and can update itself. The EXE needs no install and runs from a USB drive, even offline.
You can't install it on a phone, so send yourself the link and open it on your PC.
- Free, with no ads or account
- Windows 11 (64-bit)
- Reports stay on your PC
Everything PC Reporter checks, in one place
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Every part inside your PC
Name your CPU, graphics card, motherboard and RAM. See memory speed, timings and whether your RAM runs in dual channel mode.
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Heat and fans
Watch live temperatures and fan speeds, and see when heat slows your CPU down. Some sensors need administrator rights.
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Drive health and space
Read the SMART health data and SSD wear your drives report. The drive map shows which folders fill your disk.
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Drivers and power settings
Search every driver and spot devices with errors or unsigned drivers. Check whether your power plan holds the PC back.
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Slowdowns and upgrade tips
Record a Diagnostic Session while a slowdown happens to see which programs were busy. Then read tips on what to upgrade first.
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Crashes, freezes and restarts
Get a timeline of what went wrong, with possible causes ranked by the evidence behind them.
How Crash Trace works
How Crash Trace explains a crash
Windows keeps records of every crash and unexpected restart, but they are scattered and hard to read. Crash Trace pulls them together in three steps.
- Scan Windows history. Select Scan recent Windows history to read the last seven days of crash, restart and reliability records.
- Read the likely causes. Each cause gets a Low, Medium or High confidence label, the records behind it, and a next step to try.
- Export the evidence. Save a ZIP with a readable timeline and JSON data to hand to a technician.
Catch problems while PC Reporter is closed
Turn on Background recording in the Crash Trace tab, and a small recorder starts with Windows. It runs quietly, with no window of its own. If you use the EXE, keep it in a folder on the PC, since Windows starts the recorder from there.
It saves an incident when the whole PC freezes for a few seconds, or when the app you're using stops responding. It also picks up blue screens, app crashes, graphics driver resets and sudden restarts.
Each incident comes with readings from the 30 minutes before it: CPU and memory use, graphics card load and heat, free space and the busiest programs. Older readings are deleted after 3 days, and you can switch the recorder off in Windows under Settings > Apps > Startup.
What Crash Trace never collects: browser history, passwords, window titles, file lists, command lines, serial numbers or memory dump contents. Your user name and PC name are replaced before anything is saved.
What Windows records can and can't prove
Crash Trace uses Windows Reliability records, application faults and WHEA hardware events to explain an incident.
Microsoft notes that Kernel-Power event 41 confirms an unclean shutdown but may not show its cause. A bug check code can narrow it down, though finding the faulty part can still take more testing.
PC Reporter notes the name of a nearby memory dump without opening it.
Pro Optional add-on
What Computer Info Bits Pro adds to Crash Trace
Everything above stays free. Pro is for people who track a problem over weeks, or who fix PCs for other people.
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A full year of history
Keep up to 100 incidents. The free version keeps 30 days or 10.
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Repeating problems
See what your crashes, freezes and restarts have in common, like the same app or stop code.
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Your brand on reports
Add your business name, contact line and logo to exported incidents.
Already subscribed? Select Get Pro in PC Reporter and enter the license key from your receipt email.
Save a report for a repair or an upgrade
- Open PC Reporter and let the readings load. Choose Restart as administrator if you need every sensor and drive health reading.
- Check the Overview and Recommendations tabs. A finished Diagnostic Session is added to the report for you.
- Select Export. Pick an HTML report that opens in any browser, or a PDF you can print or attach to a support request.
Save one report before a repair and another after it. Comparing the two shows exactly what changed.
Planning an upgrade? Enter the CPU and graphics card from your report into the PC bottleneck calculator to see which one holds your games back.
Download help and release notes
Windows SmartScreen prompt for the EXE
Microsoft Defender SmartScreen warns about files that are not downloaded often yet. If you got PC Reporter from this page, select More info, then Run anyway.
The Microsoft Store version does not show this prompt.
Verify the EXE with its SHA-256 checksum
The EXE is 72.6 MB. Open PowerShell in your Downloads folder and run Get-FileHash on the file. The hash it prints should match this one exactly.
Get-FileHash "CIB PC Reporter.exe"
9C77CE58419A85CD293A1792B1D2C3D86309480C356E6B560F61CB96DCAD8C87
Store releases can arrive on a different schedule, so the Store version number may differ from the EXE.
What changed in version 1.3.1
- The active power plan and the TPM now show without administrator rights. Before, they could show blank or "Not present".
- Crash Trace incidents found by a scan now include this PC's details, such as Windows, the CPU and memory.
- The driver search box now has a label, and screen readers can reach the contents of every tab.
- Version 1.3.0 added background recording to Crash Trace and optional Computer Info Bits Pro features.
Download the user guide (TXT) for a tab-by-tab walkthrough.