CPU Graph Vista Gadget

CPU Graph Vista Gadget is a simple gadget that can be used on computers running Windows 7 or Vista to keep an eye on your CPU usage.
It contains a couple of practical options which are intuitive enough to be figured out by all types of users, even the ones inexperienced with tools dedicated to monitoring system resources.

View a graph with your CPU usage

The widget gets seamlessly integrated with the operating system and shows a small graph that immediately starts keeping track of your CPU at launch. The colors indicate the level of consumption, from green to yellow and red. Your processor's name and capacity are displayed as well.

Configure monitoring options

As far as settings are concerned, you can select the CPU core to monitor or ask CPU Graph Vista Gadget to calculate the average between all cores, set the update frequency to slow (1000ms), normal (250ms), fast (100ms), super (50m) or to a custom value, as well as hide the CPU display name.
All changes are applied with the click of a button. Too bad that it doesn't implement options for recording log files with statistics about the CPU evolution, which would've come in handy to study it later and carry on with your regular PC activity in the meantime. Plus, it doesn't have indicators to notify you when the CPU level gets too high.

Evaluation and conclusion

We haven't experienced any stability issues in our tests, thanks to the fact that the application didn't hang, crash or show errors. Unfortunately, the project is no longer in development, so it won't receive any further updates.
Nevertheless, CPU Graph Vista Gadget offers a straightforward solution to find out how much CPU your active applications are using, provided that you're running Windows 7 or Vista, regardless of the architecture type.