SimpleTrafficMonitor

SimpleTrafficMonitor is a compact and portable piece of software that allows users to easily monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic from the system tray area, as the name suggests. Therefore, their usual activity on the computer is not interrupted by this tool.
Since the app does not come with a setup pack, you can drop the executable file anywhere on the hard disk and run it directly.
As an alternative, SimpleTrafficMonitor can be saved to a USB flash disk or other similar storage unit, from where you can run it on any computer effortlessly.
An important factor is that, thanks to its portability, the Windows Registry does not receive new entries, thus reducing the risk of system errors. Plus, files do not remain on the hard drive after removing the app, as it sometimes happens with install kits.
Upon initialization SimpleTrafficMonitor creates an icon in the system tray section. Clicking it brings up a simplistic window where you can view the current and average sent and received packets.
In addition, you can view a list of network devices, as well as set SimpleTrafficMonitor to run at system startup automatically. Unfortunately, the utility does not comprise a function to log all activity to file, in order to view the traffic evolution and make comparisons.
SimpleTrafficMonitor barely uses CPU and system memory, hence it doesn't burden the computer's performance. It has a good response time and works well, without freezing, crashing or popping up errors. On the downside, SimpleTrafficMonitor has not been updated for a pretty long time.