Audit to PCs . The variety of prices and offers has made the client approach the selection process of these machines with a very economic criterion. It is clear that a novice buyer would need the help of an expert or a company that wants to make a major purchase would require technical advice. This encourages the development of a computer-oriented branch of auditing associated with the review of personal computers: the audit of Pcs.
Summary
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- 1 Objectives of the audit to PCs
- 2 Aspects to analyze in the audit
- 1 Other elements to consider
- 3 PC Audit Software
- 4 Source
Audit objectives for PCs
The purposes of the personal computer audit are as follows:
- Know and analyze the components that make up the system of a personal computer to detect possible incompatibilities between them and inconsistencies of each separately that can affect the performance of the system as a whole.
- Make comparisons of the system as a whole and its elements separately with other computers or elements of these to establish relative performance ranges between them.
- Inform the owners of personal computers about the true characteristics of their equipment, possibilities, probable insufficiencies and deficiencies in order to advise them in the purchase, installation and use processes.
Aspects to analyze in the audit
All the elements of the system are analyzed, both hardware and software, taking into account some points such as:
- System as a whole.
- Motherboard : characteristics, advantages, limitations; chassis types, chipsets, available buses, supporting memory system and other devices.
- CPU and BIOS : microprocessor, coprocessor, cache memory and bios.
- Condition and characteristics of the equipment’s power sources, both from the external electricity supply and the batteries it uses.
- Cards and devices connected to the PCI and Agp buses.
- Video system: monitor, adapter and video manipulators installed.
- Memory: available resources, used drivers, memory status and other useful data, both for Windows and for DOS applications.
- Local and remote disk controllers used, as well as disk utilization statistics with both physical and logical approaches.
- Communication ports, such as parallel (LPT), serial (COM), USB and others, as well as the devices connected to them.
- Keyboard, manual input devices for essential equipment information.
- Mouse and penlight, primarily command input devices.
- Sound card and other installed audio devices.
- Printers available, both local and remote.
- Installed multimedia devices.
- Operating system that can be Windows or another installed system.
- Information about the installed sockets for connection to the Internet .
- Information about the processes running in the system at any given time.
- Information about the modules loaded in the system at any given time, including tasks, drivers, libraries, etc.
- Information about the OLE objects available within the system.
- DOS drivers installed for discs, memory, CD-ROMs, video and others.
- Installed communication devices such as modem, terminal adapters, etc.
- Networks you are connected to and available resources.
- Letter fonts installed and available in the system
- Remote service connections existing in the system.
- CMOS pills: content and status.
- Support for the elaboration of graphics in two and three dimensions.
- Attention of interruptions (IRQ) and hardware and software devices.
- Direct access channels and hardware devices that use it.
- Input – output ports and hardware devices that use it.
- System memory ranges and memory devices each uses.
- Existing plug and play devices.
Other elements to consider
Similarly, it is interesting to make comparisons of the performance of the system or elements of it with other analogues. The auditor should be able to respond to these user requirements, to allow and report on such comparisons. It is useful to know the organization of the equipment, in relation to its programs (Autoexec.bat), (Config.sys), (MSDOS.sys), (Autoexec.dos) and (Config.dos). The most important thing is to know the probable contradictions and the problems found when doing it. The auditor must have a broad knowledge of PC hardware and software, as well as being up-to-date on the options available on the market in order to offer alternatives to any undesirable situation discovered.
PC Audit Software
The Windows operating system has software that allows you to carry out this type of activity. It is found in Settings, Control Panel and within it, in the System option. This utility describes how the system is used as a whole and defines its level of utilization. In case of contradictory or improper installations, Windows warns with question marks in front of the installed component. However, it is not the best tool for an audit, as it was not created for that purpose. However, there are other much more complete programs that have quality and are much more in-depth. Capable of detecting errors, such as incompatibilities between the BIOS and the DMI core, which are not always solved by the manufacturers. As the case of (Sandra Q and A). Generate complete reports on the work done and audit a machine to its most detailed edges, without having to open it. The most important thing about PC auditing is the auditor. Without your specialized technical judgment, all the information from the most complete software can be useless.
