Is your computer running slowly? Could the be CPU maxed out? Is it short of memory? Too much disk activity? A system monitor can show you why your PC is slow.
Back in the days of early days of Windows Vista and 7, we had desktop gadgets. These were mini applications that had floating windows on the desktop, and they provided useful information or tools.
Microsoft abandoned gadgets a long time ago and we lost some useful tools. However, there are replacements and here is one to replace the system monitoring gadgets we used to have many years ago.
Monitor system resource usage
Wise System Monitor is a free utility that displays information in a floating window on the desktop. This is a small borderless bar that shows several indicators. The first is the download speed, the second is the upload speed, the third is the memory, then finally the CPU usage and CPU temperature.
The mini window appears in the bottom right corner of the desktop by default, but it can be placed anywhere. It can be dragged and dropped at the bottom, the top, in the middle or anywhere that is convenient.
Monitor CPU temperature
Each of the items is clickable and clicking the temperature displays a bar that shows how hot the CPU is. The colour changes and green is OK, but other colours are shown when the temperature rises.
Some people get to see the hard drive and graphics card temperatures too, but it depends on the hardware in your PC and whether Wise System Monitor can read the component temperatures. You won’t know until you try it.
High temperatures should be avoided and it is worth checking this after using a CPU or graphics intensive program, like a game. Very high temperatures can cause components to fail.
View CPU usage
Click on one item in the system information bar and move the mouse over any other item to view it. Hover over CPU and it shows a list of programs that are using the most processing power. This makes it easy to see if a rogue app is hogging the CPU and slowing down everything else.
There is a nice scrolling live history chart at the bottom so you can see CPU usage over time.
See memory usage in Windows
RAM is displayed as the percentage used in the floating bar, but click it and a list of the apps using the most memory is displayed. A coloured chart at the bottom shows the free and used memory.
It is very easy to run out of free memory with a Windows PC that has only 4 GB of RAM installed. A dozen tabs in Chrome can do it. When all the free memory is used up, the PC slows down to a crawl and almost stops. Keep an eye on the memory usage and close browser tabs and programs if there is little free.
Monitor internet activity
The upload and download speed indicators in the mini bar are useful for keeping an eye on internet activity. Click either of the first two figures in the bar to view a list of programs and the speed at which that are uploading and downloading data.
It can be useful when you are downloading something big, like a video or a Windows update, or are streaming video and want to see the data usage.
Monitor everything
The floating mini information bar can be right clicked to access a short menu. Check details opens a large window with three tabs. The first is Process Monitor and this is like an alternative version of Task Manager.
Clicking the headings enables you to sort the processes by CPU, memory and network activity, so you can see which ones are hogging the resources. It is OK, but it is really no better than Windows Task Manager.
The Hardware Monitor tab provides detailed information about the hardware in the PC, such as processor, mainboard, memory, graphics card. There is a lot of detailed information here and it is useful to know. The Operating System tab is less useful and it just shows a few details about Windows.
Summing up
This is an excellent utility for monitoring the system. It does not show anything you cannot see in Task Manager, but it is very small and takes up little screen space. It can be put in the corner of the screen out of the way and set to always on top so other windows never hide it.
It is great for keeping an eye on system resources and takes up little memory and processor time. It can be set to automatically load with Windows too.
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