scbs29 wrote:

I have always used the free version of Everest to explore my system,
eg. ID of mobo etc. I have just been given a Packard Bell X6620UK with
Win7 64-bit Home Premium (which I intend to replace with Pro) and
Everest no longer appears to work.
Can anyone recommend a free replacement for Everest ?

http://www.piriform.com/speccy

Been way too many years since AIDA got acquired by Lavalys who then
crippled it into a reduced-feature "home" edition to remember much about
it anymore to know how Speccy compares against it. AIDA was free until
2004, it became Everest with payware (full featured) and freeware
(crippled) versions, and then Lavalys yanked away (discontinued) the
freeware version a year later in 2005. I recall freeware AIDA would
show software product keys but that was removed when it became Everest
Home. Speccy doesn't show software product keys, either. There are
plenty of other tools, like Belarc Advisor, to show those.

It was AIDA before Lavalys acquired it in 2004. Lavalys renamed it to
Everest. Now it's back to the AIDA name after Lavalys got acquired by
FinalWire 6 years later in 2010. The Home edition died back in 2005
with the 2.20 version so you're already using an old and discontinued
freeware edition. That Everest (and Home) are discontinued don't
necessarily stop them from working. I'm posting here using a newsreader
that was abandoned back in 2005 but still far surpasses Microsoft's
offerings and many other free NNTP clients (but only if you're willing
to figure out how to use scripts to modify behavior and add features).

"No longer appears to work" says absolutely nothing about what happens
when you attempt to install or run the program. Since the old Home
freeware version died back in 2005 with real development stopping back
in 2004, that was 5 years before Windows 7 was even released.

For other freeware suggestions, you might want to ask in the freeware
newsgroup at alt.comp.freeware.