What the scanner does, exactly.
The CASH FOR PC Hardware Scanner is deliberately boring. It reads which parts are in your computer, sends that list to us, shows you exactly what it sent, and hands you back to your browser, where your offer appears. That is the whole program.
The file we publish
Check these against what you downloaded. If anything differs, don't run it — tell us instead.
- File namecashforpc.exe
- Current version1.5.7
- Size69.0 MB (72,323,752 bytes)
- Published byPC Builders Group LLC, trading as CASH FOR PC
- Windows publisherShown as PC BUILDERS GROUP LLC — the legal name behind the Cash For PC trade name. Our code-signing certificate is issued by SSL.com and every download is signed with it.
- SHA-256320f5736fceedb704c3c538ad1a86362bee036ade5992279bfedc7d0fd24ca09
To check it yourself, open PowerShell in your Downloads folder and run Get-FileHash cashforpc.exe. The result should match the line above exactly.
What it reads
- Processor model, core count and speed
- Graphics card: name, memory and its PCI hardware id
- Memory: size, type, speed and part number
- Storage: model, capacity, type (SSD or hard drive) and interface
- Motherboard make and model
- The PC's own make and model, and which edition of Windows it runs
- Whether the machine is a desktop or a laptop
- A one-way fingerprint of this PC — see below
What it cannot access
- Your documents, photos or any other file
- Passwords or saved logins
- Email, messages or browser history
- Your Windows product key
- Anything at all after you close it
How it behaves
- No installation. It's a single program you run from your Downloads folder. Nothing is added to Windows, and deleting the file removes it. The one exception: if the app ever crashes it saves the error to %LocalAppData%\CashForPC\crash.log so we can fix it. Nothing else is ever written to your PC.
- No administrator access. It never asks to make changes to your device.
- Nothing runs in the background. No service, no startup entry, no scheduled task. When you close the window, it is gone.
- You see everything it sends. The parts list goes to us as the app finishes reading, and the same list is shown on screen — so what we received and what you can see are the same thing.
How we recognise the same PC twice
So that re-running the scanner gives you your existing offer back rather than a second, different one, the app builds a fingerprint of the machine: it takes the motherboard serial number, the processor's ID and the network adapter's hardware address, and turns them into a one-way SHA-256 hash. Only that hash is sent — the serial numbers themselves never leave your computer, and the hash cannot be turned back into them. It identifies the PC to us and nothing else; it is not tied to you, your accounts, or anything you do on the machine.
How your specs reach us
The scanner sends the list of parts over an encrypted connection as soon as it has finished reading them, along with the pairing code that ties it to the page you have open, and then shows you that same list. Two housekeeping details travel with it: the app's own version number, and the name of any reading that failed — just the word gpu or ram, so we can tell a part that isn't there from one we couldn't read, and price it honestly either way. Nothing else leaves your computer.
Pricing happens on our servers, not in the app, which is why the scanner contains no keys, no passwords and no pricing data. Read our privacy policy for how we handle what you do send.
Would you rather not run it?
That's completely fine — it exists to save you looking up model numbers, not because we need it. Email us your specs and we'll quote it by hand.