Getting to know your Mac: System Profiler

One of the handiest tools in the Mac OS X arsenal is its self-identification tool, System Profiler. Located in the Utilities folder (in the Applications folder), System Profiler provides essential and extended hardware and software information about your entire system.

System Profiler breaks your computer's information into three groups: Hardware, Network, and Software. When seeking troubleshooting advice for issues you may be having on Web site like MacFixIt, the more in-depth information you can provide, the better opportunity forum users and experts have at solving your problems.

Clicking on each of the Contents headers will give you an overview of that section. Using the drill-down triangle before each header, you can reveal detailed information about your computer.

Hardware

ATA: Shows your ATA Device tree and provides information about your drive model(s).
Audio (Built In): Describes your built-in audio drivers, speakers, headphones, and more.
Bluetooth: Details your Bluetooth software version, services, incoming and outgoing serial ports, and more.
Diagnostics: Shows recently run tests and results.
Disc Burning: Shows disc burning capabilities and available burn speeds (with media inserted).
Fiber Channel: Contains information regarding fiber channel devices (when installed).
FireWire: Speed information about your FireWire bus.
Graphics/Displays: Information about your installed graphics processors including chipset model, vendor, display resolution, display connector (when secondary display connected).
Hardware RAID: Displays hardware RAID device information (when connected).
Memory: Shows memory slot breakdown and information on each DIMM including size, type, speed, and status.
PC Cards:  Information on connected PC cards.
PCI Cards: Information on connected PCI cards.
Parallel SCSl: Information on Parallel SCSl adapters (when connected).
Power: Includes model information, charge information (for battery-operated machines), system power settings, hardware configuration, and AC charger information.
Printers: Displays information about each active printer queue, individual status, print server, and driver versions.
SAS: Provides information for SAS devices (when installed).
Serial ATA: Shows your Serial ATA device tree and provides information about hard disk including capacity, available space, writability, files system, and BSD name.
USB: Contains information for USB Bus ports including the Bluetooth USB host controller, Apple internal keyboard / trackpad, IR receiver, and built-in iSight.

Network

Airport Card: Includes your wireless card type, locale, firmware version, current network, and wireless channel.
Firewall: Displays your current firewall settings.
Locations: Gives detailed information about your saved locations including IPv4 and IPv6 configuration methods, AppleTalk configuration, proxies, and preferred networks.
Modems: Offers information regarding modems (when connected/found).
Volumes: Provides information for network volumes including type, mount point, mounted from, and automounting configurations.

Software

Applications: Provides a list of all installed applications, their version number, and location.
Extensions: Details any installed extensions, their versions, last modified status, and whether they have been validated and recognized as authentic.
Fonts: Detailed information about fonts installed on your machine including their kind, validity, enabled status, any copyright information, and whether the font is copy protected and embeddable.
Frameworks: Provides detailed information about each framework installed on your computer including its location and privacy settings.
Logs: A detailed list of system logs including recent contents and last modified information.
Managed client: Provides information about managed clients (when found).
Preference Panes: Includes a list of Preference Panes installed, their version, visibility status, and whether Apple or a third party supports them.
Startup Items: A list of processes designated to begin at start-up. It includes location, enabled status, description of the process and what it provides, and its order preference.
Universal Access: Displays a breakdown of U.A. features including cursor magnification, display settings, flash screen, mouse keys, Slow Keys, Sticky Keys, VoiceOver, and zoom.

You can also access System Profile by clicking the  logo in the upper left corner of the your Mac and selecting "About this Mac". Click on the "More Info..." button and System Profiler will launch.

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