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Apple System Profiler provides information about your computer's software and installed hardware devices. It includes information about the version of system software you're using, how many and what kind of devices are connected to your computer, and what applications are installed on your computer.

The information that the Apple System Profiler provides can be invaluable when trying to reproduce a particular problem. You should always include an Apple System Profiler report when submitting a bug report. Many times, software and hardware problems are specific to an exact configuration. The Apple System Profiler is the best way to get detailed information about the configuration you are testing with.

This Note is directed at quality assurance engineers who are not familiar with Apple System Profiler.

Downloading the Apple System Profiler

Apple System Profiler can be downloaded from http://asu.info.apple.com/. It can be installed on versions greater than Mac OS 7.6 running on PowerPC.

Opening the Apple System Profiler

Open the Apple menu and choose Apple System Profiler.

Viewing different sets of Apple System Profiler information

• The disclosure triangles will hide or show information related to the label of the triangle. Clicking on the triangle expands or collapses the information it contains.
• You may use the tabs located at the top of the Apple System Profiler window or the items in the Commands menu to view more information.

Creating and printing or saving a report

1. Make sure to have a printer selected with the Chooser. The Chooser is located in the Apple menu.
2. Open the File menu and choose New Report.
3. In the dialog box that appears, select the items you want in your report and click OK.
4. Open the File menu and choose Print or Save.

Drag and Drop

Most information displayed in the system profiler window can be dragged and dropped to the Finder desktop or other drag aware applications. This provides a quick way to export specific portions of the system profile information.

1. Move the mouse pointer over a set of information until the pointer changes to a hand icon.
2. Click and drag the information to the Finder desktop.
3. A text clipping file will be created on the desktop.

Balloon Help

Apple System Profiler makes extensive use of Balloon Help to provide additional details about the information presented.

1. Select "Show Balloons" from the Help menu. Prior to Mac OS 8, the Help menu existed as .
2. Move the mouse pointer over a section that you want to know more about. A help balloon appears with additional information about that section:
3. When you are finished using Balloon Help, select "Hide Balloons" from the Help menu.