Is it safe to run on someone else's laptop?
Yes. This page is written for buyers and for sellers who want to know what's being run on their laptop. Feel free to show it to them.
What Know Your Buy does and doesn't do
It does
- Runs from the USB stick. Nothing is installed in Windows.
- Reads hardware information: model, temperatures, fan speeds, battery and drive health.
- Puts the processor, graphics and memory under load for a few minutes.
- Writes one test file of at most 1 GB into free space to measure drive speed, then deletes it. Less on a nearly full drive.
- Saves its report and log on the USB stick.
It doesn't
- Open, read, copy or change anyone's documents, photos or other files.
- Connect to the internet or upload anything.
- Change Windows settings.
- Format, wipe or repair drives.
- See or store passwords.
Why it needs administrator access
Windows only lets administrator apps read temperatures, fan speeds and drive health counters. That's the only reason Know Your Buy asks.
Because it runs with that access, Know Your Buy is careful about the few helper programs it starts:
- It only starts its own bundled helpers and built-in Windows tools, from their exact locations.
- Each helper is checked against a known fingerprint before it runs, and locked so it can't be swapped.
- The temperature driver must carry a valid signature from its known publisher, or Know Your Buy refuses it.
- Reports open as the normal user, not as administrator.
Heat and noise are normal
The processor, graphics and stress tests run the laptop at full power for a few minutes. It will get hot and the fan will get loud. That's the point: it shows whether the cooling can cope.
A healthy laptop handles this easily; laptops are built to throttle or shut down before they overheat. The longest test, Stress All, runs for at most 5 minutes and asks before it starts.
Clean up & Exit
When you're done, press Clean up & Exit. It removes:
- Know Your Buy's temporary files
- Any leftover test files
- The working folder it creates for the programs it runs
- The PawnIO temperature driver, only if Know Your Buy was the one that installed it
Works completely offline
Know Your Buy never connects to the internet. Nothing about the laptop or its owner leaves the machine, except the report you choose to save on your own USB stick. See the privacy policy.