How to calculate the CPU Usage Programmatically using C# or VB.NET

The PerformanceCounter class represents a WindowsNT performance counter component. To read from a performance counter, we first create an instance of the PerformanceCounter class supplying the CategoryName, CounterName, and InstanceName as parameters to the constructor and then call the NextValue() method to take a performance counter reading.

Import the namespaces System.Diagnostics and System.Threading.

C#

static PerformanceCounter cpuUsage;
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    cpuUsage =
        new PerformanceCounter("Processor", "% Processor Time", "_Total");

    Console.WriteLine(cpuUsage.NextValue() + " %");
    Thread.Sleep(1000);
    Console.WriteLine(cpuUsage.NextValue() + " %");
    Console.Read();
}

VB.NET

Private Shared cpuUsage As PerformanceCounter
Public Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)
    cpuUsage = _
    New PerformanceCounter("Processor", "% Processor Time", "_Total")

    Console.WriteLine(cpuUsage.NextValue() & " %")
    Thread.Sleep(1000)
    Console.WriteLine(cpuUsage.NextValue() & " %")
    Console.Read()
End Sub

Note: Observe that we are calling NextValues() twice and after a delay of 1 second. This is because performance counters need two samples to perform the calculation and the counter value is updated once per second, hence the 1 second delay between the two calls.

The output on running this code is as shown below:

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About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, ASP.NET Architecture MVP works as an Architect Consultant and provides consultancy on how to design and develop Web applications.

Suprotim is also the founder and primary contributor to DevCurry, DotNetCurry and SQLServerCurry. He has also written an EBook 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls.

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