Samurize – flexible system monitor with DIY interface

I like to know what is going on in the system. While for troubleshooting on the go portable and easy to use tools are a must (see TinyResMeter and Hexagora PerfMon), main system monitoring must be informative but without clutter increase.

Samurize is unique software that allows to build system monitor interface yourself.

What it does

Most system monitor software uses extensive performance counters and WMI built it Windows. So software itself only gives you interface with some (or none) customization as to what values and in what way are displayed.

Samurize takes drastically different route and provides you with editor to construct your own interface and pick your own scope of information.

I wanted minimalistic and unobtrusive config so after few variants I designed floating bar that sits on top of the screen.

It shows:

• date/time information (to stay in touch with reality);
• system clock and load values (there are some lurking alerts as well);
• network bandwidth speeds and graphs (ok it’s no NetWorx or NetLimiter but tiny);
• free hard drive space (didn’t fit in screenshot).

And all that without while only consuming title bar space that is usually wasted anyway.

If that is too boring for your taste just browse through album of Samurize screenshots – there are hundreds of config examples in various styles and sizes.

Creating interface

Interfaces are created in WYSIWYG editor. Can’t claim it is newbie friendly so my best advice is poke and experiment until you feel confident enough to compose something useful. Decent help is included to explain editor itself but composing good configs comes with practice.

Strong features

• most flexible output ever;
• extensible with scripts, plugins and integration of other software (like SpeedFan);
• config displayed separately or in Windows taskbar with additional extensions to display in taskbar clock and screensaver;
• can monitor remote computers and even export information as images and XML to embed online.

Overall

Long learning curve and requires initial time investment. But in the end Samurize is only system monitor that gives you complete control over what you see and how it fits rest of your computer environment.

Home http://www.samurize.com/