CPU-Z is the work of Franck Delattre at CPUID.com, the same outfit that also offers the excellent freeware programs called PC Wizard and HWMonitor, (I've also reviewed HWMonitor on this site; see my article on TJMax). I've been using CPU-Z for years, thanks to its widespread use at Tom's Hardware for reporting on PC hardware and related configuration settings.

In trying to troubleshoot vexing Windows Explorer problems, I encountered one piece of advice repeatedly. It is best summarized as "Turn off unnecessary Explorer extensions." According to the company which makes ShellExView, NirSoft, "Shell Extensions are in-process COM objects which extend the abilities of the Windows operating system." In plainer English, this means that shell extensions in Explorer add to the range of objects you can access, and operations you can perform, using built-in menus and commands inside Explorer.