Sidebar Diagnostics is a lightweight open source program that allows you to monitor the health of your computer's hardware components
Utility Sidebar Diagnostics is open source and distributed free of charge. When installing the program, a side panel is added to the right side of the screen with information from five monitoring tools: processor, RAM, video card, disks and network.
The sidebar location allows you to view the data every time you open the desktop. If you prefer to use programs with a separate window, then consider HWiNFO, Windows Resource Monitor, or SpeedFan (for temperature monitoring).
The program displays detailed information from each monitoring module, for example, processor core frequencies, temperature, load (in%). The RAM monitor shows the amount of consumed and free memory. The module for analyzing the status of disks displays the amount of occupied space and other data. The current date and time is displayed at the top of the sidebar.
Hover your mouse over the sidebar and you will see three icons at the top of the screen: Graph, Settings, and Exit. Select Graph to switch to a visual representation of information from any of the five monitoring modules. The processor temperature readings are taken at time intervals from 15 seconds to 15 minutes.
Let's move on to the settings. Selecting the Settings icon will open a pop-up window with five tabs. On the General tab, you can adjust the location of the sidebar (left or right), select the screen on which the panel will be displayed (for systems with multiple monitors), and configure it to auto-start when the computer boots. Turn on the always on top option so that the panel is displayed over open icons - this option will be useful when you want to check temperature conditions, memory load, processor and video core during gameplay or when performing resource-intensive tasks.
The Advanced tab contains several options for customizing the interface. The Customize tab allows you to specify the panel width, background color and transparency. Here you can also adjust the text alignment, font size and color, turn off the clock, and set the date display format. When higher loads or temperatures are reached, the software will use flashing effects and red to grab your attention.
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The Monitors tab is one of the most useful in the app. Here you can enable or disable each individual monitoring module. Each of the monitors can be customized, although this is not obvious. Just hover your mouse over the name of any of the monitors and left-click on it. Then you can change the settings for the selected monitor.
- CPU (Processor) - frequency, temperature, voltage, cooler rpm, total load, core load
- RAM (Memory) - frequencies, voltage, load, amount of used and free memory
- GPU (Video chip) - core frequency, memory frequencies, core load, video memory load, voltage, temperature, cooler speed
- Drives - Used space bar, load, used and free space, current read and write values
- Network - IP address, inbound and outbound traffic
You can configure the processor and GPU to use GHz and Fahrenheit instead of MHz and Celsius. The Hotkeys tab lets you assign custom keyboard shortcuts for various functions, such as toggling visibility, showing and hiding the sidebar.
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Sidebar Diagnostics uses the Libre Hardware Monitor codebase to collect data. Thus, the limitations of Libre Hardware Monitor are inherited in Sidebar Diagnostics.
Note: The interface may not look very attractive if your system has many disks or partitions. Uncheck some of the options to see only the information you need. If you are unable to use the applications in full-screen mode when exiting the application, then restart the Explorer process in the Task Manager.
Sidebar Diagnostics is a useful specialized application for Windows for monitoring the status of PC hardware components, diagnosing problems and monitoring the temperature of the computer.
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