GSmartControl vs PC-Doctor Toolbox

GSmartControl is a graphical interface for smartctl, used to inspect drive SMART data and run tests. It displays drive identity, capabilities, attributes and device statistics, and automatically highlights anomalies. Users can enable or disable SMART and adjust global or per-drive smartctl options. Saved smartctl output can be opened as a read-only virtual device. The software supports ATA drives, including SATA and PATA, and NVMe drives, plus some devices behind USB bridges and selected RAID controllers. SCSI and SAS drives are not supported, though some information about them may appear. GSmartControl is free software under the GNU General Public License version 3. Downloads include Linux packages, Windows installers and portable archives, FreeBSD ports, macOS packages and source code. smartmontools is a runtime requirement, but official Windows packages include the required software. Useful operations require root or Administrator privileges because operating systems restrict direct hardware access. Supported systems listed include Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFlyBSD, macOS and Solaris; QNX support is described as untested.

PC-Doctor Toolbox monitors Windows PC health and provides hardware diagnostics, system information, history, troubleshooting, and monitoring tools. Its library contains more than 300 tests for storage, audio, graphics, networking, memory, CPU, systemboard, and peripherals. The My Device Dashboard shows overall health, alerts, and real-time system metrics; users can also run Quick or Full Scans and use a Blue Screen Troubleshooter.

System History tracks hardware scans, system changes, unexpected shutdowns, restore points, and application crashes. Toolbox Remote provides a cloud dashboard for monitoring Toolbox-equipped PCs remotely, including test results, blue screens, crash events, and system details. Security monitoring checks whether antivirus solutions are enabled and up to date, while Windows monitoring includes update settings, last check time, and recently installed updates. The product page lists support for Windows 10 and Windows 11 64-bit. Free personal use covers up to five systems, but requires a Toolbox Remote account and opting in to technical and interaction data sharing with PC-Doctor. The product supports multiple languages, including English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.