The free version of SiSoft Sandra is SiSoft Sandra Lite. You need a minimum of 35MB of free space to install the program. (If you are confident with downloading software from the web, skip ahead to the actual use of SiSoftware.) From the downloads page, you will see the features of the five different versions listed in a table. Click on the download link at the bottom of the "Lite" column. You will be taken to a list of links where you can download the file from. SiSoft Sandra Lite is available for download from a handful of trusted sites. Click on any of the links in the "Affiliate Free Download Sites" list. This will open a new browser window with one of those websites, on the page where you can download a copy of SiSoft Sandra Lite. Click on the download or download now link You may be asked to choose a server to download from as well. You will also be asked to agree to a standard license agreement to download the software.

I, for example, clicked on the Guru of 3D link and that website then opened and I clicked on the Download Now link on their site.

When prompted, click Save and choose a location on your hard drive where you keep small utilities. (Personally I have a folder under c:/downloads/tools)

When the download is complete, go to the location where you saved the zip folder. Right click > Extract All and follow the prompts.

Double click on the .exe file to start the installation of SiSoft Sandra Lite.

Click Run.

Select your language.

At the welcome screen, select Next.

Select the button next to "I accept the agreement" and click Next.

At the Information screen, select Next.

Enter a username of your choice and organization (if applicable). By default your computer name will be entered as the username (in the screenshot above you will notice my computer's name of BFH - don't try and guess what it stands for!).

The Additional Requirements screen explains the requirements for additional features. If you have been keeping up to date with your Microsoft Windows updates, they should all be enabled, except for the Windows Mobile feature, which will only be enabled if you have a mobile device that you sync with your computer. In a nutshell, don't worry about this screen. Just click Next >

The Remote Network Services screen lets you choose whether or not Sandra Lite can provide remote network services. Since this guide is focusing on using Sandra Lite to identify hardware components, we're not concerned with this, so just leave this as the default selection, "Disable remove services (recommended for stand-alone computers)" and click Next >

Price Engine Functionality is essentially advertising - but it could be useful. Let's say you use SiSoft Sandra to identify your hardware and you find that you only have 1GB RAM and you think you could stand to benefit from adding another 1GB. This service in SiSoft Sandra acts like a PriceGrabber ad to list the best prices for a suitable component. It doesn't matter if you choose to enable or disable this feature - all other features in SiSoft Sandra will work with or without it. You can enable or disable it after the installation as well.

The Theme is just the skin on the application. The version I downloaded only provides the option for the original metallic theme by SiSoftware.

The next step is to select a destination location - the place on your computer where SiSoft Sandra will be installed. By default this location will be c:\Program Files\SiSoftware\ and there is no reason to change this unless you are an advanced user who has their own file storage system for applications and utilities. Click Next.

In the Select Components screen you can choose:

• a Full installation (which will be selected by default);
• a Compact installation (which does not include the .NET Framework and Java Runtime Agents or the Help Files and Examples);
• or a Custom installation (which allows you to specifically tick or untick the .NET Framework and Java Runtime Agents and the Help Files and Examples).

Choosing to not install the documentation will save you 2.2MB of space on your hard drive, but help files can be ... well, helpful. I'd recommend that you just stick to the Full installation.

In the Select Start Menu Folder you can choose where to put access to SiSoft Sandra Lite from the Start Menu. By default, a new folder called SiSoftware will be created. There's really no reason to change this unless you have your own quirky Start Menu folder system. Click Next.

Installation is almost complete. Not too many check boxes to go! There's three options in the Select Additional Tasks screen. We recommend you leave them all ticked so that Windows Firewall knows SiSoftware is OK with you, the SiSoftware document type is recognized and you get a nice pretty little desktop icon for quick access to the program. Click Next.

Ready to Install?!! Absolutely - click on Install. SiSoft Sandra will promptly do it's thing. The little green light with flitter until, hey presto:

Leave the "Launch SiSoftware Sandra Lite" box checked and hit Finish because we're going to go straight into it!