MenuMeters

When performing a resource-demanding operation, you may want to see how your hardware is handling the strain. There are many hardware activity monitors out there, but most of them display the information you need on small windows, which you will obstruct with other windows. MenuMeters displays these statistics on the menu bar, where you can see them at all times. The information includes CPU, disk and memory usage, as well as network traffic. What's more, the application places various customization options at your disposal, so you can decide how the information should be displayed.

MenuMeters can't be launched like a traditional application, through a .app file. You have to install it first, but the operation can be completed almost instantly and it takes a single click to start it. Once installed, the application will add a new option in your Mac's System Preferences panel. Clicking this option will display a tabbed menu, in which you may configure a series of meters, for the aforementioned components.

Each meter can be activated just by clicking a check box and you can change its appearance by selecting one in a drop menu. Meters can be displayed as percentages, bars, graphs, thermometers or colored arrows. It is also possible to display multiple indicators for a single meter.

In addition, the application provides a wide range of controls for each monitor. You can increase or decrease the update interval, change graph widths, select different colors and much more. As previously mentioned, the indicators are displayed on the menu bar. Clicking an indicator will display additional information in a pop-up menu and in certain cases, you will also find a few options for opening the operating system's activity monitor, console, network utility and other tools.