Rainmeter Skin CPU Usage Temp Issues

As a long-time user of Rainmeter and its popular Illustro skin, I've been experiencing some frustrating issues with CPU usage monitoring in recent versions of Windows 11. The problem appears to be related to changes made by Microsoft in the way they report CPU usage, starting from Windows 11 version 22H2.

The Issue

In my case, the Illustro skin (System.ini) consistently shows lower CPU usage compared to Task Manager. For instance, it might display 1-2% usage, while Task Manager reports a much higher figure of around 20%. This discrepancy has been increasing over time, with the last two days seeing a significant gap of 20-30% between the two.

History of the Issue

I've been using Rainmeter and the Illustro skin for the past couple of years without issues. However, about three months ago, I started noticing that the CPU usage was slightly out of sync (around 5% lower than Task Manager). Over the last month, this discrepancy has grown to around 5-10%. The last two days have seen a significant worsening of the issue.

Alternative Solution

As an alternative to using Rainmeter, you can try using HWiNFO as a source of CPU usage data. Version 7.46 of HWiNFO includes a fix for this issue, which allows you to display CPU usage similar to how it was done in Windows 7. To achieve this, simply change the CPU measure to a UsageMonitor measure, as described in this post.

While I'm not alone in experiencing this issue, it's clear that it's not specific to the Illustro skin or Rainmeter itself. This problem affects multiple tools and applications, including HWiNFO, MSI Afterburner, and others that rely on Windows time-based performance counters. Task Manager has also been affected by these changes, which is why I'm seeing discrepancies in CPU usage.

Call to Action

If anyone can provide insight into the cause of this issue or offer a solution, I'd greatly appreciate it. As a long-time user of Rainmeter, I'm reluctant to switch to another tool, but if this problem persists, I may have to consider an alternative. If you're experiencing similar issues with CPU usage in Windows 11, please share your experience and any potential fixes you've found.

Note

This issue is specific to systems running Windows 11 version 22H2 or later. In earlier versions of Windows 11, this problem did not occur.

Rainmeter skin cpu usage temp