CPU and RAM load on the Windows desktop

The widget shows what people usually open Task Manager for, and does it on the wallpaper, without a window.

• Ten metrics. CPU, memory, disk, network, battery, GPU with its temperature and video memory, and in a game also FPS and ping. Show any of them: from one number to all at once.
• Five layouts. Line, Bars, Rings, Graph and Stack for different spots on the desktop.
• Over the game. A separate mode lifts the widget above the game: GPU load, temperature and memory are visible right in the fight. Works in windowed and borderless games; clicks pass through it.
• Out of the way. On an empty desktop the widget is visible, with windows open it sits under them.

Turns on with a button, metrics are picked with chips.

1. Open Studio: the panel hotkey, Ctrl+Shift+F by default, or click an empty spot on the desktop and then the gear.
2. The Widgets tab, the System row: pick any view instead of “Off”.
3. Tick the metrics you need and pick a layout. For games turn on “Over the game”; the FPS counter is installed once as a tiny service, the app will ask you itself.
4. Moving: with the mouse while the Widgets tab is open, or Shift plus the right mouse button at any moment, even with the panel closed. The position is remembered.

Layouts and the set of metrics are chosen independently.

• Line: metrics in one row, for the bottom or top edge of the desktop.
• Bars: each value with its own scale, as in the mock-up above.
• Rings, Graph and Stack: circular gauges, a live graph of the last seconds and a vertical stack of metrics.
• Metrics are switched on with chips: CPU, RAM, disk, network, battery, GPU, GPU temperature, video memory, FPS and ping. The “Game” row has three buttons: “None”, the widget lives only on the desktop; “Over the game”, on the desktop and above the game; “Only in game”, absent from the desktop, it appears when a game starts and disappears with it.
• Like the other widgets except the clock: five materials (soft, torn, glitch, pixel, wire), colour from the theme or your own with an eyedropper, backdrop and outline, its own size slider. More in the features reference.
• Free: the Line and Bars views. The other three are part of Pro.

• For a clean desktop one metric is enough, CPU or memory. Bars with every metric look best in a corner where they do not fight the wallpaper.
• Turn on the over-the-game mode only for gaming: on an empty desktop the widget is visible anyway, and there is no reason for it to sit above windows.
• Network and battery are useful on a laptop: the speed shows what is downloading in the background, and the battery saves a glance at the taskbar.

All six widgets in one article: Desktop widgets for Windows. Ready desktops with widgets are in the Steam Workshop.