btop4win: View System Resources in the Command Line, More Detailed Than Task Manager

Solves in one sentence: Task Manager doesn’t show enough detail about resource usage, but you don’t want to install those flashy desktop monitoring tools? btop4win displays all system metrics with charts right in your terminal.

Task Manager is too simplistic, and third-party desktop monitoring tools are too bloated. Many developers like running top or htop in the terminal to check system status — but Windows doesn’t have a native equivalent.

btop4win brings this experience to Windows. And it’s not just a text interface — it comes with charts.

What Is btop4win?

btop4win is a Windows port of btop, the famous Linux system monitoring tool. It uses a terminal UI (TUI) with colorful charts and progress bars to display CPU usage, memory usage, disk read/write, network traffic, process lists, and other system resources in real time.

The problem it solves: Provides a graphical, information-rich system resource monitoring tool in the Windows terminal.

Highlights

• CPU monitoring: Overall usage + real-time load curve for each core
• Memory monitoring: Physical memory and virtual memory usage
• Disk monitoring: Read/write speed and total read/write volume
• Network monitoring: Up/down speed and total traffic
• Process management: Sort by CPU/memory, search and filter processes
• GPU monitoring: NVIDIA GPU temperature and usage
• Theme system: Multiple built-in color themes

btop4win’s most distinctive feature is its CPU load graph — real-time curves for each core overlaid, distinguished by different colors, making it very intuitive.

Comparison with Windows Built-in Tools

Feature	btop4win	Task Manager	Resource Monitor
Display	Terminal charts	Window	Window
CPU History Curve	Per core	Overall	Per core
Network Traffic	Real-time chart	Simplified	Yes
Disk I/O	Detailed	Simplified	Yes
Remote Use	SSH accessible	No	No
Resource Usage	Very low	Medium	Medium

Download

• GitHub Releases: https://github.com/aristocratos/btop4win/releases
  • Download btop4win-*-x64.zip (64-bit systems)

Tip: Download, extract, and run btop.exe directly. If prompted about missing fonts on first run, you need to install Nerd Font for best icon display. Can also be installed via Scoop: scoop install btop.

Quick Start

1. Download, extract, and run btop.exe
2. System overview displays automatically on startup
3. Press number keys 1-4 to switch between different views
4. Mouse clicks work directly (mouse interaction supported)
5. Press Esc or q to exit
6. Press m to switch theme colors