Best Free Resource Meter

[George]

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Submitted by MidnightCowboy on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 08:01.

Try this little gem if you've not encountered it yet.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...iveGLEAM.shtml
Shows (selectable) drive activity, CPU (including dual), Ram and VRam use as separate icons in the tray. Output to parallel port if required. Even has a forum!
http://www.dirtcellar.net/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=ff76e8f2a6656b692...



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Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 08:29.

excellnet! it's even standalone - writes settings to an INI.
been looking for something like this for a long time.

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Submitted by MidnightCowboy on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 08:44.


Yes, simple and effective. I've posted a screenshot of my own installation here if anyone's interested. Resource use is minimal at 6+
DriveGLEAM.png

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Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 16:24.

Didn't see these mentioned:
GKrellM:
http://www.srcbox.net/projects/gkrellm/ (Windows Port)
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/gkrellm/gkrellm.html(Original Project)
Its a port of a unix program. The initial install is 30 meg but deleting the locale directory reduces it to 12.
Prefgraph:
http://codefromthe70s.org/perfgraph3.aspx)
Which has the unique ability to create taskbar toolbars for its graphs. The network chart requires snmp, so if your router doesn't supply it you have to turn it on in Windows.

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Submitted by MidnightCowboy on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 16:34.

I still believe Samurize to be the most configurable option available but unfortunately most users take one look at the default meter and uninstall it. You can make limitless desktop and/or tray meters, port skins from other apps and do a multitude of other things but it does take time to learn.
Unlike Rainmeter there is a GUI with this one though so you don't have to edit scripts to configure your meters.
http://www.samurize.com/modules/news/

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Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/31/2010 - 21:02.

Hi MC! I am considering trying Samurize & was curious if this can be used with my current theme-Royal Theme? Also is there a help file to learn how to configure tools & settings? Is there anything I need to know about installing this? How would you compare DriveGleam to Samurize, does Samurize offer more tools? Thanks, any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Submitted by MidnightCowboy on Mon, 02/01/2010 - 06:56.

I use Windowblinds for my themes and Samurize works fine with them. You can't really compare Samurize with anything else really except maybe Rainmeter. It's hugely configurable and there is a good help file but it does take some time to learn. The configs can all be made using the GUI editor unlike Rainmeter which have to be scripted unless you are just importing a ready made skin. What I like about Samurize though is that you can very easily add any compatible image to use as a skin, even those from Rainmeter which take on a totally different look when changed in size. The basic 4JL Rainmeter background skin is a good starting point to use with Samurize. It will even react differently if you turn it through 180 degrees before importing.

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Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/29/2009 - 19:37.

I agree Samurize is the most configurable and for a user willing to put in the effort great. But it's not for everyone. Having other programs to consider is always good.

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Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 08/24/2009 - 16:42.

i know it has been mentioned before but moo0 system monitor is a great utility,easy to install,configure and use.it should be in your top.thank you for all the free utilities listed here

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Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/25/2009 - 09:09.

Another vote here for Moo0 System Monitor and also their Network monitor (called Connection Watcher). This shows not only resolved host names along with the usual details but also download/upload speeds, a graphic for these plus the number of TCP and UDP connections.
The system monitor is very comprehensive and hugely configurable for an out of the box solution. Sure you can do a lot more with Rainmeter or Samurize but for an install and shoot program this is excellent. I especially like the display showing which apps or processes are loading into memory or initiating drive use. This is useful for determining the value of something you might have which feels the need to interrogate your hard drive every few seconds, as resource use is not just about a diminishing memory figure. The red highlighted bottleneck display and the process causing it is also a novel feature.

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Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 14:46.

Is Spotlight on Windows safe ?
I do not like pieces of sw, that wish to know (some) accounts with user names and passwords of all my home network machines.
In wrong hands this makes a perfect tool for e.g. botnet operators.

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Submitted by George on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 15:34.

Hi,
unfotunately I cannot give you a satisfying answer to that question.
Spotlight is supposed to connect to a remote workstation in a Windows network or domain. You need to know the login of that remote workstation and RPC service must be running on it. I, however, was not able to make such a connection in my local network. I was running Spotlight on a Vista machine and tried to access a remote XP machine via Windows networking. I tried several users on the remote machine (administrative rights) but to no success. Spotlight was not able to access it. So their either is a bug, or Vista/XP doesn't work or I did it wrong. But at least it seems safe enough though.
Best regards,
George

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[George]

I had a look at driveGLEAM but must say that I am not to happy with it. It only has a reduced set of features and customizability.

However, it depends on what your requirements are. If you just need some simple tray icons showing HD/CPU/RAM/NIC then this one is surely serving that purpose. But it does not do much beyond that nor are these functions much customizable.

Btw., if you just need CPU/RAM/IO tray icons, then Sysinternals Process Explorer is doing a great job too. Many don't know that PE offers to display those in your system tray.

@MC: In your screenshot, what are the icons on the far left? It should be pointed out that only the icons showing 'C', '3', '0', '16' and '12' are the ones from driveGLEAM.

[MidnightCowboy]

True about the limited customizations for DriveGLEAM but you do get a bit more info with a mouse over and you can change the icon colors/background by editing the .ini file

The other icons are from my self built Samurize tray display (all with mouse over tooltips). They are: (from left to right) Fan speed; %C used; CPU temp; HD temp; Download speed; Upload speed and number of established TCP connections. The * before the download indicator shows green with a normal connection speed, orange with low connectivity and red with none.
Being in Brazil with a broadband modem ensures just as many red ones as green

[George]

Looks good. Unfortunately it seems that Samurize development is stalling and that Vista and Windows 7 support will not be seen soon.

(wow. I like the "seen soon" phrase )

[MidnightCowboy]

Rainmeter now comes with a choice of defaults at install including "Gnometer".
There are a lot of meter options but all pretty uninspiring as they load out of the box. Below though is an example of how you can hack them around. In the example I've brightened the display by adding an AntiAlias setting, changed the bar color, edited the subtitle text and added temperature and fan speed meters courtesy of the SpeedFan plugin. The real advantage of these is that they will display as either static or pop up meters so choose the latter if you like a tidy desktop or if space is limited. Naturally they will look a lot sharper on your own screen than they do in the enlarged version here.
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