microsoft / microsoft/PowerToys
Feature Request: Detailed Resource Reports in System Monitor Widgets
- Dominant language
- C
- Stars
- 139k
- Forks
- 8.6k
- PR merge metrics
- PR metrics pending
Description
### Description of the new feature / enhancement
**Summary**
Add the ability to view detailed per‑application resource consumption when clicking on the **CPU**, **GPU**, **Memory**, or **Network** widgets in PowerToys System Monitor.
**Problem Statement**
Currently, the System Monitor widgets provide high‑level usage statistics (e.g., CPU %, GPU %, RAM usage, network throughput). However, users cannot drill down into which applications or processes are consuming those resources. This limits the usefulness of the tool for diagnostics and performance monitoring.
**Proposed Solution**
When a user clicks on a widget (CPU, GPU, Memory, Network), PowerToys should open a detailed report view showing:
- **CPU:** Breakdown of usage by process (system vs. user, top processes).
- **GPU:** Usage per GPU device, with per‑process consumption.
- **Memory:** App memory usage, wired/compressed memory, free memory, and top processes.
- **Network:** Upload/download speeds per process, interface details, and top consumers.
This behavior is similar to the **Stats app on macOS**, where clicking a widget expands into a detailed per‑app consumption view.
**Benefits**
- Provides transparency into which apps are consuming resources.
- Helps users quickly identify performance bottlenecks.
- Aligns PowerToys with professional monitoring tools while keeping the UX simple.
**Example UX Flow**
1. User clicks on the CPU widget.
2. A detailed panel opens showing per‑process CPU usage (sorted by highest usage).
3. Similar drill‑down views are available for GPU, Memory, and Network.
**Additional Notes**
- This feature could be optional (enabled/disabled in settings).
- Consider lightweight implementation to avoid overhead.
- Potential integration with Task Manager APIs for accurate reporting.
### Scenario when this would be used?
...
### Supporting information
_No response_
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by locating the System Monitor CPU, GPU, Memory, and Network widget entry points and reviewing how their current summary values are gathered. Evaluate the proposed Task Manager API integration and define the detailed report view, including per-process data, sorting, optional settings, and lightweight operation; done means all four widgets open accurate drill-down reports.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Domain
- desktop, observability-sre
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100