Email contact@gramshift.com in English or Japanese. We reply within 7 business days, usually sooner. Please include your Windows version (Settings > System > About), your Stream Deck app version, and a photo or screenshot of the key and of its settings (the Status line says what the plugin read).
not running. Both limits can be set.A press on any key opens Windows Task Manager. The plugin only reads: it does not end, pause, slow down or change any app, and it changes no Windows setting.
| Number | What it is |
|---|---|
| CPU % | The processor time the app's processes used, divided by the number of logical processors, so 100% means every core of the PC is busy and an app that keeps one core of sixteen busy shows about 6.3%. Windows is read every 2 seconds and the key shows the average of the last three reads (about 6 seconds), so the value does not jump. The source is the Windows performance counter Process V2 \ % Processor Time (on Windows 10: Process \ % Processor Time). On a PC where the performance counters do not work, the plugin reads the process list instead (see below): there, the CPU value is the growth of each process's CPU time between two reads. |
| Memory | The private working set: memory in use (in RAM) that belongs to that app alone. The source is the Windows performance counter Working Set - Private; on the process list, the private working set Windows reports for each process (where Windows does not report it; Microsoft lists it from the September 2023 update of Windows 10 and 11 version 22H2: the commit size, which is often larger). 1 GB = 1024 MB. Memory an app shares with other apps, and memory Windows moved to the page file, are not counted. |
| App | Every process with the same program file name is one app, and the values are added up: a browser and all its helper processes show as one line. The name is the file name without ".exe" (for example explorer). |
Compared with Task Manager. Task Manager shows friendly titles ("Windows Explorer" for explorer) and groups processes in its own way; the key shows file names and groups by file name. Task Manager's memory column also shows private working set memory, but it groups processes differently and refreshes at another moment, so the numbers are close, not identical. For CPU, Task Manager shows the latest second or so, and the key shows an average over about six seconds. On Windows 11 versions before the May 2025 update, Task Manager's Processes tab also used a different formula (processor utility, which depends on the CPU's clock speed), so its CPU values can differ from the key by more than the averaging explains; the key always shows processor time divided by the number of logical processors.
Not listed as apps: the idle time ("System Idle Process"), the total, and "Memory Compression" (Windows' own store of compressed memory, which Task Manager does not list either). "System" and Windows services (svchost) are listed, because they do use CPU and memory.
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Dark, name and green value | The app that uses the most now (or the app you watch), below your limit. |
| Red | The value is at or above the limit set for this key. |
Gray, --, "not running" | App Watch: no process with that name is running now. |
Gray, --, "not found" | App Watch, while the plugin reads the process list: no process with that name could be read. The app is not running, or it runs as a process your user account cannot open (see below). |
Gray, --, "choose app" | App Watch: no app has been chosen in the settings yet. |
Yellow frame, --, "not readable" | None of the plugin's three ways of reading worked at this read (the two kinds of performance counters and the process list). The key shows no value. If it stays, see below. |
Yellow frame, FAILED, "not opened" | The press could not open Task Manager (for example when an administrator has disabled it). After a few seconds the key shows the value again. |
Yellow frame, --, "reinstall plugin" | The plugin could not load its Windows part. Remove the plugin in the Stream Deck app and install it again from the Elgato Marketplace. |
How does the plugin read the processes?
It tries three ways, in this order, and keeps the first one that works: the Windows performance counters "Process V2" (Windows 11), the older "Process" counters (Windows 10), and the process list (the documented Toolhelp functions, with GetProcessTimes and GetProcessMemoryInfo for each process). When a way fails, the plugin writes one line in its log file that names the way and the step that failed (with the code Windows returned, when there is one), and tries the next way within the same read.
The settings page says "Read from the process list".
The performance counters failed on this PC (they can be disabled or damaged), so the plugin reads the process list. On that list, a process your user account cannot open is not counted: for example Windows services, system processes, antivirus engines, and apps that run as administrator while Stream Deck does not. So the top app on the key can differ from Task Manager, and App Watch on such an app says "not found". Microsoft describes how to rebuild the performance counters (search for "rebuild performance counters lodctr /R"); the plugin tries them again when the Stream Deck app restarts.
The key always says "not readable".
Please send us the plugin's log file: %APPDATA%\Elgato\StreamDeck\Plugins\com.gramshift.topprocess.sdPlugin\logs\com.gramshift.topprocess.0.log (paste the path into the address bar of File Explorer). It names the step that failed; the plugin writes no app names into it. Please also tell us your Windows version and whether Windows runs in a virtual machine.
An app I just started is not on the key.
A new process has no CPU value until the second read after it started, and the average needs a few more seconds. Its memory shows at the next read.
Can it close the app that is slowing my PC down?
No. It only shows the name. A press opens Task Manager, where you can decide yourself.
The top app is "System" or "svchost".
That is Windows itself or its services. The key shows what uses the most, whatever it is (on the process list these are usually not counted, see above).
Does it show GPU, disk or network use per app?
No. CPU and memory only.
Does the plugin itself use CPU?
Very little: it reads all processes once every 2 seconds (on our 16-core test PC, about 4 to 7 milliseconds per read with the performance counters and about 20 to 40 milliseconds with the process list), and only while one of its keys is visible.
Does it work on Mac?
No. This plugin is for Windows 10 and 11 only.
The plugin reads the names of your running programs to draw the keys. It runs on your PC and sends no data to us or to any online service. See the Privacy Policy.