Jam Software’s quick and easy PC stress-tester HeavyLoad has just been updated to version 3.4, its first release in more than two years.

The package is as easy to use as ever, maxing out your CPU, allocating RAM and drive space and stressing your GPU with a click.

This release is mostly about compatibility, in particular improving results with the latest OpenGL drivers and handling individual cores in Windows 10.

Unfortunately it’s not so compatible with older PCs any more: XP and Server 2003 are no longer supported.

Choose the components to test and start stressing them with a click

The “Simulate Disk Access” test now uses the latest version of Jam Software’s TreeSize Free, and the company reports several other non-specific “minor fixes”.

As ever, the download page offers 32 and 64-bit versions, both portable and installable editions, and they’re all adware-free.

This kind of tool is mostly used for testing hardware stability, maybe after overclocking, but we’ve also found it helpful with Process Lasso-type software which claims to tame “resource hogs”. If you’ve installed something which says it can optimise CPU or memory usage in real time, confront it with HeavyLoad and see what happens.

HeavyLoad is a free application for Windows Vista and later.