CPUsage

CPUsage is an application that can be configured to automatically turn off or restart the computer if the CPU usage level doesn't comply with the specified parameters. It's practical for shutting down the machine after leaving it unattended, in order to preserve power instead of sitting idle.

Installing this tool is a quick job that doesn't require special attention because there are only familiar options available in the setup wizard.

The interface of CPUsage is user-friendly. It's formed of just one panel that shows all settings put at your disposal.

The action time can be customized by indicating the CPU usage level (percent) and time (seconds) as well as the power mode between shutdown and restart. For example, if CPU usage is set to 10% and time to 600 seconds, then the program instructs the PC to turn off or reboot if the CPU usage has been under 10% for 10 minutes.

Settings are applied as soon as you confirm them by pressing the start button. Next to it, you can find out the current CPU usage of each core. Beneath is the status bar with the current date and time.

After committing modifications, the software utility begins to monitor the computer. It can be minimized to the systray to carry on with your typical desktop activity without interruption.

If you hover over the tray icon, you can view the current core levels in a tooltip. However, you should know that it doesn't warn you when it's about to shut down or restart the workstation. Instead, you can revisit the main panel to cancel the action.

To conclude, CPUsage offers an uncomplicated method for setting your machine to power off or reboot if CPU usage has been too low for too long. Unsurprisingly, it used minimum system resources.

On the other hand, the application doesn't integrate features for specifying an upper limit for the CPU usage to perform an action if it's too high. Also, it would have made sense to offer an option for auto-running at system startup, in order to restart the timer after rebooting the computer.