RunCat

RunCat is a fun and super-cute way of staying aware of your CPU utilization rates and your PC's usage in general.

As technology is rapidly advancing and new innovations constantly appear, we must become more aware of the technology's impact on our environment. At a general level, we must understand how our devices work and why it is important to reduce our carbon footprint. Yes, indeed, regular tech consumers do not have massive supercomputers; however, we must always remember to lower our devices' consumption, and get better at it, over time.

Your CPU (or Central Processing Unit) is a like the machine's brain. This component processes all requests a user gives to their computer — all sorts of instructions and inputs. If you give it too much to do — for example, open multiple power- and resource-draining apps at once (also considering your CPU's model and power) — your electricity/power consumption will instantly increase, and there will be less processing power left for other applications.

RunCat is a small-packed tool written in C#, a low-level programming language that is suitable for programs which should integrate very well in your Window OS. The tool is free, open-source, and even better, it is constantly updated. If you spot any malfunctions, have suggestions, or want to contribute, you always have the possibility to contact the developer and give them a hand.

RunCat is a portable tool, meaning it does not have to be installed. You can place it on your desktop and quickly open it. Every time your machine gets clustered with too many instructions and requests, or if you simply forget to close your programs and your CPU usage increases, the cat will start running faster. When the cat animation is running at full speed, it means your device has reached alarming utilization levels or it has exceeded a normal usage threshold. It could be because of programs that cause abnormal CPU spikes followed by rapidly decreased consumption.

Generally, a good practice for making an informed decision is to take the pros and cons into account. The program is small in size, integrates well, looks cute, and offers a practical visual indicator of your CPU's and device's functioning mechanisms. There are quite a few benefits and almost non-existing downsides to installing RunCat. Besides a small bug where pressing the dark mode button makes the cat animation white instead of black, and the other way around, the tool has no other issues. Even for that minor bug, you can quickly set the tool to default and it will adapt to your Windows dark/light theme.