WhoIs for Windows

WHOIS is a protocol that lets users query databases to find out the ownership information behind Web domains. WhoIs is a simple program that lets users perform this task, though we're not sure what the point of the program is when you can get the same information from any number of Web sites. If you do want a program dedicated to WHOIS queries, though, we suppose that WhoIs is a decent choice.

The program's interface is quite plain, and not entirely intuitive. A text box lets users enter the domain they want to search for, and we liked it that this box also has a drop-down feature that displays recently searched domains. Once a domain is searched for, a box above displays the country of registration, while a box below displays the IP address. A large field below displays all the located registration information, including the owner's name, address, registration date, DNS servers, and so on. Depending on the domain and the owner's privacy preferences, not all of this information may be listed, but that's not the fault of WhoIs; that's the case with any WHOIS search. Radio buttons let users choose between UTF-7 and UTF-8, and a Servers button will reload the WhoIs servers, but we could not figure out what the Replace button did; it brought up a dialog box that didn't make much sense to us. Unfortunately, WhoIs has no Help file, so we couldn't get any guidance there. Overall, WhoIs worked, but we're not sure why you'd want to clutter up your hard drive with a program that does something that can just as easily be done online.

WhoIs comes as a ZIP file. It's accessible after extraction with no need for installation.