Icon Meter

There are plenty of ways to monitor your computer’s resource usage, but most of them aren’t as unobtrusive as users would like. If you prefer not to have gauges on your desktop or bring up the task manager just to check your system’s performance, this utility may be what you’re looking for.

Icon Meter is a tiny application that adds an icon to the system tray area, which can be used to monitor CPU, memory, disk and network usage. It can be customized to a certain extent, and it is very simple to set up.

After installing the program, a new icon will be added to the system tray. Through several vertical or horizontal bars, the current CPU, memory, disk and network usage are indicated.

If you wish to get more detailed information, you only need to hover over the icon, as the exact values will be displayed in a tooltip. You can click the icon to bring up the task manager.

Of course, you may be interested in all the data this utility can provide, so you should start by opening the settings. You can choose which components are monitored, as well as change the color and orientation of the bars.

It is worth noting that a second icon can be added, which is used to monitor individual logical processor usage. This feature is disabled by default.

When it comes down to it, Icon Meter is a relatively basic utility suitable for users who need a straightforward way to keep track of resource usage. It only runs in the system tray, so it should not interfere with your work, is very quick to set up and offers quite a few customization options.