LoadView

Task Manager's performance graphs, pinned to the corner of your screen. LoadView is a lightweight, always-on-top overlay showing live CPU, GPU, RAM, disk and network graphs — plus temperature tiles for the CPU, GPU and every disk, fan speeds, per-drive usage, top processes, a clock and your IP — as a single portable .exe. No install, no dependencies. A tiny, portable alternative to Rainmeter, Sidebar Diagnostics and heavyweight monitoring suites. ⬇ Download the latest release  ·  Windows 10/11  ·  free & open-source Highlights Everything at a glance — live CPU / GPU / RAM / disk / network graphs, plus session data-transfer totals (downloaded / uploaded), top-5 CPU & RAM processes, and a clock, date & weekday. Temperature tiles — CPU, GPU and every disk that reports one, as labelled squares. Disk temperatures need no driver and no administrator (SATA drives included, read from SMART). Each kind of component has its own "too hot" threshold, because 70 °C is an ordinary CPU and a worrying disk. Fan speeds (RPM) — their own section on boards that expose them, next to a chipset temperature. Accurate CPU temperature (optional) — one administrator prompt once, then it starts silently on every launch, works with Windows Memory Integrity on, and keeps working even when your Windows account is not an administrator. Drives & IP — per-drive usage bars with free space, including mapped network drives, plus your LAN and public (WAN) IP with an optional country and flag. Dark, light or follow-system theme; vendor-neutral and DPI-agnostic — the same counters Task Manager uses, crisp at any scaling, and it remembers its position per screen resolution. Fully configurable — resize, reorder or hide any section; per-graph colours, max & red alerts; MB/s or Mbps; °C/°F; opacity; always-on-top or coverable; lock. Single portable exe — one LoadView.exe, no install and no dependencies; runs on any Windows 10/11 PC.

Build

Requires nothing beyond a stock Windows 10/11 (uses the in-box .NET Framework compiler).

./build.ps1

This produces bin\LoadView.exe.

Run

./bin/LoadView.exe

• Drag anywhere on the panel to move it; the position is saved per screen resolution (each display layout remembers its own spot and is restored when you return to it).
• Right-click the panel (or the tray icon) for: Lock, Always on top, Refresh WAN now, Reset position, Settings…, Contact me, About, Exit.
• Left-click the tray icon to bring the overlay to the front (even in background mode).

All settings are stored in %APPDATA%\LoadView\settings.ini (delete it to reset to defaults).

Settings

Right-click → Settings… opens a dialog with a category sidebar on the left; picking a category shows its options on the right. Changes preview live on the overlay as you make them — OK keeps them, Cancel reverts. Categories:

• Layout — window width, graph height (applies to all graphs), drive-bar height, refresh interval.
• Sections — a checklist that controls both visibility (the checkbox) and order (the ▲▼ buttons) for every section: clock, each graph, net totals, top CPU, top RAM, drives, IP, date/weekday.
• Graphs — per graph: accent color, max (0 = auto / 100% default), and a red alert threshold (e.g. CPU ≥ 90 turns the whole graph red; 0 = off). The network max is in the selected unit.
• Clock & date — show-seconds; size + colour for clock/date/weekday; bold toggles for date and weekday.
• Drives & lists — drive-label size + bold; Top CPU/RAM text size; IP text size.
• Network — unit (MB/s bytes or Mbps bits); download / upload colours (default green / red); net-totals text size; LAN / WAN IP refresh intervals (seconds); show WAN country and flag under the public IP (off by default).
• Behavior — opacity; Always on top; Lock position; show external IP; Start with Windows; write debug log.
• Defaults — Save current as defaults writes your config to defaults.ini; Reset to defaults restores it. When settings.ini is absent the app falls back to defaults.ini (then to the built-in defaults), so you can copy defaults.ini to other machines.

Only one instance runs at a time (launching again is a no-op).

The right-click menu order is Lock · Always on top · Refresh WAN now · Reset position · Settings… · Contact me · About · Exit. Refresh WAN now re-fetches your public IP on demand. About shows the version and changelog.

Start with Windows

Tick Start with Windows in Settings. It creates a shortcut in your Startup folder (shell:startup) — no admin needed. (It deliberately does not write the HKCU\…\Run key; see Antivirus / Defender below.)

Antivirus / Defender

LoadView is a single unsigned exe, so Microsoft Defender's machine-learning heuristics may occasionally flag a freshly-downloaded build as a false positive — typically Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.B!ml, a generic ML "catch-all" for unknown, low-reputation executables. The !ml suffix means it's a heuristic guess, not a signature match, and the Microsoft encyclopedia page for it is generic family boilerplate, not an analysis of this file. Because every new unsigned release starts with near-zero reputation, this can recur on new versions until reputation builds up (or the exe is signed).

An older heuristic, Behavior:Win32/Persistence.A!ml, used to trip on apps writing to HKCU\…\Run. LoadView hasn't done that since v2.4.0 — it uses a Startup-folder shortcut — so that one shouldn't occur on current versions.

Why it happens: the exe is unsigned and each release is freshly built (near-zero download reputation), and the optional accurate-CPU-temp feature downloads and installs a driver and runs an elevated helper — benign and off by default, but a pattern ML models are trained on. None of this is malware; the binary is built by GitHub Actions from the public source in this repo.

Verify integrity: compare your download's hash with the release asset — Get-FileHash LoadView.exe -Algorithm SHA256 — or upload it to VirusTotal: only a couple of engines flagging it with generic/!ml names is the hallmark of a false positive.

If Defender flags it:

1. Restore / allow it: Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Protection history → allow or restore the item; optionally add a folder exclusion while testing.
2. Report the false positive so Microsoft clears it for everyone (free, usually 1–3 days): https://www.microsoft.com/wdsi/filesubmission — submit as Software developer → Incorrectly detected as malware, include the SHA-256 and a link to this repo.
3. Reputation heals it: as more people download the same build, the ML reputation score rises and the detection typically fades on its own.
4. Sign it (the durable fix) — see below. A signed binary with reputation is trusted; CI signs automatically once the signing secret is set.

Continuous build & releases

A GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/build.yml) builds LoadView.exe on every push to main using the in-box compiler and uploads it as an artifact; pushing a tag like v2.1.0 publishes a GitHub Release with the exe attached.

Code signing (optional)

The exe is unsigned by default, so SmartScreen / some corporate antivirus may warn on first run. Where to get a certificate:

• Azure Trusted Signing — Microsoft's service, ~$10/month, real Authenticode, CI-friendly.
• SignPath.io Foundation — free code signing for open-source projects.
• Certum Open Source — cheap OSS cert (USB token).
• Commercial OV/EV (Sectigo, DigiCert, GlobalSign, SSL.com) — ~$100–700/yr; EV gives near-instant SmartScreen reputation. (Self-signed certs do not help.)

To sign locally:

signtool sign /f your-cert.pfx /p PASSWORD /fd SHA256 /tr http://timestamp.digicert.com /td SHA256 bin\LoadView.exe

CI signs automatically if you add repo secrets SIGN_PFX_BASE64 (base64 of your .pfx) and SIGN_PFX_PASSWORD; otherwise that step is skipped.

Sections (default order, all reorderable & hideable)

Section	Shows
Clock	current time (HH:mm:ss or HH:mm)
CPU	% utilization (· 52°C when a temp is available)
GPU	% of busiest GPU (· 61°C on NVIDIA / AMD / Intel)
MEM	% physical RAM, e.g. 20.3/31.7 GB (64%)
DISK	% active time across all disks + R / W MB/s
NET	down + up graph, in MB/s or Mbps
Net totals	session download / upload volume, e.g. Total ↓ 1.2 GB ↑ 350 MB
Top CPU	top 5 processes by CPU (aggregated by name)
Top RAM	top 5 processes by memory
Drives	per drive: usage bar (red ≥90%), used/total, free space on the right; includes mapped network drives
IP	LAN: internal + WAN: public address, optionally with the WAN country + flag
Date	29.06.2026 then the weekday below

If a metric's counter isn't available on a given machine, that row shows n/a and the rest keep working.

Temperatures

Temperatures have their own section of labelled tiles — CPU, GPU, every disk that reports one, and the chipset where the optional driver can reach it. Under Settings → Temperatures you choose which of them to show and in what order, switch °C/°F, and set the temperature each turns red at.

That red threshold is one per kind of component, because they do not share a normal range: 70 °C is an unremarkable afternoon for a CPU and a bad day for a hard disk. Each of CPU, GPU, Disks and Chipset & others has its own, and each can be off. The suggested starting points are 90, 85, 55 and 80 °C — for disks that is a "worth a look" figure rather than a failure, since a drive typically declares its own warning around 83 °C.

• GPU is read in user-mode from the GPU vendor's own driver library — NVIDIA (NVML), AMD (ADL) and Intel (IGCL) — so it works across vendors with no admin and no extra files (nothing is bundled; the libraries ship with the graphics driver). The hottest GPU is shown. Very old Intel iGPUs expose no sensor and simply stay blank.
• CPU uses the ACPI thermal zone (WMI). Many machines — most Intel laptops included — expose nothing there, or report a chipset zone rather than the CPU die, so the CPU temperature is often blank or approximate. Reading the true per-core temperature requires a kernel driver, which LoadView keeps as an opt-in feature (off by default) so the default stays a portable, no-install, no-admin single exe.

If a temperature isn't available it is simply omitted and everything else keeps working.

Accurate CPU temperature (optional driver)

The true per-core CPU temperature lives in the CPU's MSR registers, which can only be read from a kernel driver — there is no user-mode API for it. LoadView keeps this as an opt-in so the default download stays a portable, no-install, no-admin single exe.

Enable Settings → Temperatures → "Accurate CPU temp (driver)" to turn it on. LoadView then offers to set it up; you get one administrator prompt, and after that the temperature appears silently on every launch — including when your own Windows account is not an administrator, which is the normal case on a managed work PC. What the setup does:

• Installs PawnIO — a free, open-source, digitally-signed sensor driver that is HVCI-compatible, so this works even with Windows Memory Integrity turned on (unlike the old WinRing0 driver, which HVCI blocks). A pinned version is downloaded from its official source and its SHA-256, its signature and its publisher's exact certificate are all verified before it is run; nothing is bundled in LoadView.exe.
• Copies the reader (LoadView itself) and LibreHardwareMonitor (verified by SHA-256) into C:\Program Files\LoadView\, and registers a Task Scheduler task named LoadView CPU Temp Helper that runs it as the SYSTEM account on demand. SYSTEM is what makes the sensor readable without you being an administrator: the driver's device can only be opened by SYSTEM/Administrators, and a task set to "highest available privileges" gives a standard user nothing extra.
• The task can be started by any interactive user but not modified by one, and every folder it involves is locked down (Program Files copy and library: read-only for users; the overlay may only write its heartbeat into C:\ProgramData\LoadView\in). That combination is deliberate — a SYSTEM task that could run or load a file a normal user can overwrite would be a privilege-escalation hole.
• Setup also empties those folders before using them, and never writes into a file that already exists. Correcting a folder's permissions is not enough on its own: files put there beforehand stay owned by whoever created them, and one of them could be a hard link — the reader's write would then land on the linked file instead, with SYSTEM's rights.
• The reader publishes the CPU package temperature to the overlay through C:\ProgramData\LoadView\out. The overlay itself always stays unelevated.
• If anything fails (offline, policy, or you decline the prompt), LoadView falls back to the ACPI / blank reading — nothing breaks. Diagnostics: C:\ProgramData\LoadView\out\helper.log.

To undo all of it, run once from an administrator prompt — this removes the task and both folders (PawnIO is deliberately left installed, since other tools may use it):

LoadView.exe --temp-remove

Leave the option off (the default) to stay completely driver-free and admin-free. It only affects CPU temperature; GPU temperature never needs a driver.

Temperatures and fans

Temperatures have their own section — small labelled tiles, under the clock by default:

• Disks need no driver and no administrator. LoadView asks the drive itself over a query that Windows allows any user to make, so an SSD's temperature just appears. Tiles are labelled by drive letter (C:) where one can be determined.
• GPU works wherever the graphics driver reports it (NVIDIA / AMD / Intel).
• CPU shows the ACPI sensor if your firmware exposes one — many laptops do not. For the real core temperature, enable the optional driver (see below).
• Chipset temperatures and fan speeds live on the motherboard's controller chip, which cannot be read without the driver and a second switch (Settings → Fans). Plenty of laptops expose none even then; the section hides itself when there is nothing to show, rather than showing an empty box.

Pick which components appear, and in what order, under Settings → Temperatures and Settings → Fans. Selections are remembered per component (by serial number for disks), so adding a drive later does not shuffle what you chose.

Theme

Settings → Window → Theme: Follow system (the default), Dark or Light. Follow system tracks the Windows app-theme setting and switches with it while running. If you never picked your own clock / date / weekday colours, they move to colours that suit the new background; colours you did pick are left alone.

Notes

• Metrics refresh once per second; drives, top processes and IPs are sampled on background threads so a slow disk/share or web lookup never stalls the overlay.
• After resuming from sleep/hibernation the rate metrics (CPU/disk/network) briefly hold their last value while the performance counters re-baseline — this avoids a false 100% CPU spike.
• Disk and network values are aggregated across all physical disks / real network adapters (loopback and tunnel pseudo-interfaces are excluded).
• The external IP is fetched periodically from a public service (api.ipify.org over HTTPS); turn it off in Settings if you prefer no outbound requests. It shows — when offline. Refresh WAN now (right-click menu) re-fetches it on demand.
• Optionally the WAN country + flag can be shown under it (Settings → Network, off by default): the country is looked up from the IP via ipwho.is and a small flag image is fetched from flagcdn.com and cached in %APPDATA%\LoadView\flags — both only when the option is enabled. Replies from those services are treated as untrusted input: size-capped, and the country code is only accepted as two letters, since it becomes part of a file name.
• Where you run it from matters. Windows looks for a program's libraries next to the program first, so a file named pdh.dll, nvml.dll, atiadlxx.dll or ControlLib.dll sitting beside LoadView.exe could otherwise be loaded as part of the app. LoadView refuses to use any of those libraries if it finds one there (the affected reading simply shows n/a). Even so, prefer a folder only you can write to rather than a shared or public one.
• Reading performance counters does not require administrator rights.