A Windows system-tray thermometer. The icon is the reading: the
rounded CPU package temperature, redrawn every two seconds in Segoe UI Bold on
a transparent 32×32 canvas — green below 75 °C, amber from 75,
red from 90, and a grey -- when no sensor answers. Hovering names
the sensor the figure came from, because on a given machine that is rarely
obvious.
Readings come from
LibreHardwareMonitor,
driven by a C# class compiled inline at startup: it opens the CPU, walks the
hardware tree and takes Package, failing that Tctl or
Tdie, failing that the hottest sensor on offer — an order that
survives both Intel and AMD naming. The elevated logon task exists because the
library loads a ring0 driver, and a VBScript launcher keeps the console window
from flashing at sign-in. Every icon handle is released through
user32!DestroyIcon; without that, a redraw every two seconds leaks
a GDI handle each time.