Do You Know Where Your System Info Is?

It’s not something you’ll use every day, but the System Info menu item will tell you a lot about your computer, Photoshop and installed plug-ins, and may be vital when troubleshooting or optimizing your equipment.

When in Photoshop, select Help –> System Info… (seen in the image above) and you’ll be presented with the System Info window. It’s a feature of Photoshop not many people know about, and even less have had need to use it. But when you do need it, it’s an invaluable way to know what Photoshop is doing within that plastic box we call a “computer”.

Figure 1: A detail of what you see under System Info.

A part of the System Info readout is displayed in Figure 1. In general, System Info displays technical details about the computer, the Photoshop application itself, installed plug-ins and other add-ons. Specifically, these include:

• Photoshop’s version number
• System OS and architecture
• Processor count and speed
• Memory, both total and that used by Photoshop
• Serial number
• Application folder location
• Scratch disk
• Plug-in folder and installed plug-ins
• Twain devices

If Photoshop seems to be running slow or if there’s glitches popping up, it might be worth it to use System Info to pinpoint a probable cause. I don’t run into many problems requiring System Info, but I do use it from time to time to check my memory allotment or to grab the serial number.