mCPU Meter

mCPU Meter is a simple desktop gadget capable of displaying the current CPU and memory usage of your system, along with the uptime. It is very easy to install and set up, since it comes packed with limited features.

The interface of the gadget is based on a small, rectangular-shaped frame that you can move to any position on the screen, with the help of the mouse cursor. It supports up to eight logical and physical cores; their and the memory's levels are represented numerically through percent values, as well as graphically through meters (orange and green, respectively).

From the Options panel available through the context menu, you can set up the CPU read interval (ranging from 500ms to 5000ms) and display only one bar for the CPU level. Unfortunately, mCPU Meter does not comprise any other options of its own.

However, thanks to the options provided by the operating system by default, you can increase the frame size, make it stay on top of other windows (which is particularly useful when you're working with other applications), as well as set its opacity level.

The gadget has a minimal impact on the system performance, using low CPU and RAM, along with a good refresh rate, delivering correct information. No error dialogs have been shown in our tests, and the app did not hang or crash.

Aside from the fact that it's feature-limited, mCPU Meter has some stability issues on newer OS platforms. For example, it failed to display the system uptime on Windows 7 during our tests. But we must also take into account that the gadget has not received updates for a pretty long time.