Hi folks,
I haven't used windows for ages and when I did, I didn't care about usage so I didn't have a usage monitor running.

My girlfriend uses windows and tells me she cannot find a system monitor onboard anywhere.

is this just another - very basic - example of how "unfree" windows software is? or is she missing something in her toolkit?

I can hardly believe that windows people wouldn't be clammering -nay, breaking down the gates to the citadel - over such an outrageous oversight.

Can anyone put me right about this please: either an onboard windows 7+ system monitor to allow my girlfriend to read a "real-time" usage meter, or direct us to get one that may have been written for windows.

Thanks,
Tex

Isn't that what Task Manager is for? It's a bit basic in older Windows versions but in 7 and 8 I find it quite informative.

Thanks and point taken,
Cheers,
Tex

Thanks kindly. I sent her the one posted by Habitual.

Actually, Windows Vista/7 (don't know about 8) have a nice system monitor, if you open the task manager, go to the performance site and click on resource monitor, or something similar.

That's what I thought -- when I first saw it in Windows 7 I was impressed as it was better than the third-party ones I'd used in the (admittedly fairly distant) past. I'm not sure whether there's a Linux tool that's as good out of the box (e.g. I find conky much better but it takes a while to config).

That is what I am currently discovering: but boy! what a piece of software!
I've spend last 20 hours transfixed at screen trying to get a handle on where to start.
Think i'll just "pinch" someone else's config and try it on for size, tinker, tailor, snip and patch ...
]Oh what fun!