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Konfabulator users, looking for testers

Markbnj

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
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I've been working on a new widget to monitor CPU activity. What makes this one different is that it correctly handles multiple CPUs on dual core, or multiprocessor systems.

The widget REQUIRES Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. Basically it uses COM to interop with the Windows Management Instrumentation high performance class library. Those objects are only available on those two operating systems. This widget will not run on a Mac, but it should fail gracefully.

You can download version 0.9 (beta) here. This version is complete, and pretty much everything in terms of appearance is configurable through the preferences menus. There is no documentation at the moment, but it should be pretty self-explanatory. If you have any questions post them here and I will respond.

I am most interested in:

- whether it works reliably on other computers.
- whether it works on systems with more than 2 processors (post a screenie!)
- how the general appearance is regarded.

NOTE: This widget registers a custom dll with com interfaces. I have included the type library for anyone who is interested. After installation, if you simply delete the widget files, you will leave the entries in the registry for the objects. To get around this, open up the preferences, and check "Unregister objects on exit." Then after the widget restarts simply quit, and it will unregister everything. You can then delete the widget files. You can leave this setting enabled if you just want to be sure that the controls are unregistered after you're done with the widget. The only cost is a little extra startup time while the widget reregisters the controls.

Thanks in advance for any comments.
 
Hmm, nothing special is needed to register the .DLL. That message should only pop up if the call to regsvr32 fails for the cpuspy.dll module.

I think the most likely cause of this is that I am linking the DLL to the active template library and other resources dynamically. I will build a version that links the libraries statically and upload it.
 
Ok, I replaced the linked widget file with one that links the active template library statically, so that ATL80.DLL is not required on your system.

If it still fails there are two other possibilities: 1) that you don't have the ms foundation class DLL or visual C runtime DLL on your system. I can link these statically too, but they should be on most systems. 2) regsvr32 is being launched for the wrong location, but I don't think that is the problem, since the widget gets expanded into Konfabulator's standard storage location.

Let me know if this still fails, and I will take another stab at it. Thanks very much for the feedback.
 
Bump. Anyone? I'd really like to find out if this works on other people's machines now.
 
It uses the WMI classes to report processor load and details, so as long as the operating system thinks you have more than one cpu, it will report more than one cpu.

It works great on my system, and I am sure it will work on any XP box. The potential hitches are in whether people have all the right DLLs present. One user had a problem that I think was related to not having ATL80.DLL on the system, but I have recompiled the DLL to link ATL statically, so this shouldn't be an issue.

Haven't found anyone to actually test it yet, though.
 
Sorry I haven't replied earlier, but been kinda busy, preparing for the Holiday.
Thanks for the response, and the fix, cause it works fine now for me 🙂
I had another Widget that was just too big, for my preferences, but this one is a lot more reasonable in size.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/drwngflies/Konfab_CPUread.jpg
The Widget in middle: (Black one) also reads two cores, but it's size is too big for me. So I'll delete it and use yours. There is a small difference between values shown, but it's neglegible, I'll live with that... he he
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/drwngflies/Konfab_CPUread2.jpg
The last one I have, near bottom, has a SpeedFan reader, to monitor temps, but it reads only for one core, I'm guessing: total of 200%, cause it seems low, when I start a process. How much more programming is needed to add a temp gauge, in another bar under your orig. two?
(just a thought...)
Nice work, It's a "keeper" for me. If I ever get any issues later, I'll return with a post.
Thanks for the freebie, and Nice Work!
Peace
 
Thanks _very_ much. That's the first confirmation I've had that it works off my development platform. Really appreciate the feedback.

Looks like it chose some interesting fonts there 🙂. You can customize all of that, including the overall skin color, fonts and colors, etc., in the preferences menu.

For 1.0 I think I will make each bubble spawn in a seperate window so that they can be individually placed, with some auto-tiling options, and then get the thing out the door so I can get on to the next project.

The difference in the load values, by the way, is just timing of the reads. The loads on the processor change very fast, all over the place, and the WMI just takes a snapshot when you refresh.
 
Yeah, That little difference didn't worry me at all, after all, it was only 1% of the total, in difference.
And I had already changed the font when I took those screenies.
No prob on the feed back, sorry I was neglecting my visits here, been kinda busy preparing for the Holiday weekend.
Nice work. Let me know if you add a temp sensor, that would be sweet, I could remove that other Widget and use only the one you made.
 
Temp sensors are quite a bit tougher, I think. You have to know the board hardware, and read the correct bus ports directly. As far as I know Windows does not have an API into that hardware.

I'm thinking about expanding the concept to include other metrics, though, such as memory usage, network traffic, etc.

Fun to play with after the kids are in bed, anyway. 🙂
 
I have posted the release version of the widget to my website, and uploaded it to the gallery at Konfabulator.com, though they haven't evaluated it yet.

Release version 1.0 can be downloaded here.
 
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