Glance

Free · open source · Windows 10 / 11

A system monitor at the edge of your screen

Push the pointer against the edge of the screen and a panel slides out with everything your PC is doing: CPU, graphics, memory, network, disks and temperatures. Move away and it slides back, taking no room at all.

Glance is a Windows app; it won't install on a phone. Copy this address and open it in a browser on your PC to download it.

this page's address
Download GlanceVersion 0.1.7 · free · 4.1 MB

For Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) · signed installer

Glance is Windows-only for now, so it won't run on this computer. Send this address to a Windows PC to download it there.

Try it: push the pointer against the right edge of this window

Features

Out of sight until you want it

Nothing parked on the desktop, nothing in the way, and no leaving your game for Task Manager to check a temperature.

  • Push the screen's edge

    Push the pointer against the right edge and the panel slides out; move away and it's gone. It takes a deliberate push, so scroll bars and dragged windows at the edge don't set it off. The edge and the push are yours to choose. Or press Ctrl+Alt+G to open it at the pointer.

  • Three looks, light or dark

    Chart paper, frosted glass and Windows 11. In frosted glass the desktop behind bends at the rim of each piece; Windows 11 is acrylic, as the Start menu draws it. Light, dark, or following the brightness of your wallpaper.

  • Real temperatures, power and fans

    Each CPU chiplet's temperature and the package power, the graphics card's power and fan, each memory module's temperature, and the motherboard's temperatures and fan speeds, read from the hardware's own sensors.

  • Only what you want to see

    Every part of the panel, and every reading in it, can be turned on or off. Processes sort by CPU, memory, I/O or GPU; turn the charts off and only the numbers stay, in a smaller panel.

Three looks, one click apart

Chart paper, frosted glass, Windows 11. The panel below is laid out as Glance draws it, readings running: try another look.

Small and quiet

Your PC won't notice it

Drawn natively with Direct2D, as Windows draws itself: no browser inside, no services running in the background.

~1 MB
The whole program is one small executable
≈ 1%
Of one CPU core while the panel is hidden, in about 110 MB of memory
Signed
The installer and the program carry the author's signature (Weiyi Shi)
Updates
The tray says when there's a new version; only one signed the same way installs

No account, no ads, no data collected. Its only network access is one daily question about a newer version, which the settings can turn off.

Questions

Installing and using it

Windows says "Windows protected your PC" when I run the installer.

Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Windows SmartScreen says this about new programs that few people have downloaded yet; it doesn't mean anything is wrong with the installer. Glance's installer carries the author's digital signature (publisher: Weiyi Shi, issued through Microsoft's Artifact Signing): right-click the installer → Properties → Digital Signatures to see it. The warning fades as more people download it.

Download only from this page, GitHub or Gitee, and don't run a copy someone passed on whose signature doesn't match.

Why does it ask for administrator rights the first time?

Reading the CPU's temperature, power and fans means talking to the hardware directly, which Glance does through the PawnIO driver the installer sets up (signed and open source too). It asks once, on the first start; after that it starts without asking, and can start with Windows.

It's installed. Where is the panel?

Glance doesn't open a window when it starts. It lives in two places:

  • The right edge of the screen: push the pointer against it and the panel slides out; move away and it slides back.
  • The tray, at the bottom right of the taskbar: hover over the icon for a summary, right-click it for the settings. The icon may be tucked under the ^.

Ctrl+Alt+G opens and closes it at any time, and the pin in its bottom bar keeps it open. The edge, the push needed and where the panel appears are in Settings → Opening.

In a game, pushing the edge doesn't open the panel.

The game is most likely in exclusive fullscreen, where it has the screen to itself and no other program's window, Glance's included, can appear over it.

In the game's display or video settings, switch the display mode to borderless (also called windowed fullscreen or borderless fullscreen) and the panel slides out as usual. On Windows 10 and 11 the frame rate is usually much the same either way.

Will it slow my PC or cost frames in games?

Not noticeably. With the panel hidden, Glance uses about 110 MB of memory and about 1% of one CPU core. Readings refresh once a second by default, and the settings can make that slower.

Does it collect my data?

No. No account, no ads, nothing uploaded. Its only network access is asking GitHub and Gitee once a day whether there's a newer version, and the settings can turn that off. The source is all open for anyone to check.

Will it work on my PC?

On 64-bit Windows 10 and 11. CPUs: AMD Ryzen and Intel Core. Motherboard sensors: ITE and Nuvoton chips. NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards show their power. A laptop's fans and motherboard temperatures are run by the laptop's own controller and don't show yet; everything else does. There's no Mac version yet.

If a reading is wrong or missing, please open an issue on GitHub or Gitee: Settings → Diagnostics → Copy, and paste it in. It has no paths or user names in it.

How do I update it?

Glance checks once a day; when there's a new version the tray says so and the settings offer an Update button. It only runs an installer signed the same way as itself. You can also download the new version here at any time and install it over the old one; your settings stay.

How do I uninstall it?

As any other program: Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps, or Glance's own Settings → System → Uninstall Glance.

That removes Glance, its scheduled task and its settings, and asks whether to remove the PawnIO driver as well. Other monitoring programs may use it too; if you're not sure, keep it.

What's new

Recent versions

The full notes and the installer of every version are on the releases page.

0.1.76 October 2026Latest

Fixed

  • The panel keeps its shape from one opening to the next. Some readings come and go with what the hardware is doing (an idle graphics chip stopping its clock, a fan stopping, a sensor missing a read, the battery not answering for a moment), and each one used to add or remove a row, which could switch the panel between two and three columns. Anything read in the last few minutes now keeps its place and shows "—" while it is missing, and charts break there instead of dropping to zero. Thanks to the Xiaohongshu user who sent a video of it.
  • A virtual display's adapter (Parsec, game-streaming tools and the like) no longer shows up as a second, idle copy of your graphics card.

Improved

  • Updates also come from a mirror on Gitee, for when GitHub can't be reached. Glance uses whichever answers, and still runs only an installer that is signed like itself and is the version it was announced as. A check that gets no answer is retried within the hour instead of the next day.
  • The settings show which version you have (under Check for updates), and glance.exe carries its version in its file properties.
  • If the open panel ever changes shape, Glance notes it in its log, which Copy diagnostics includes.

Upgrading: Glance 0.1.4 to 0.1.6 offer this update from GitHub. If GitHub isn't reachable for you, download the installer from the mirror: https://gitee.com/lulu-loopp/glance/releases . Your settings stay.

0.1.66 October 2026

Fixed

  • The panel no longer changes its proportions while it is open. Some readings come and go (a graphics card's fan stopping and starting, a sensor missed now and then), and the panel laid itself out afresh each time; on a scaled screen this could switch it between column counts or zooms under the pointer. It now keeps the shape it opened with: the same columns, and each part only ever growing while it is up. Thanks to the Xiaohongshu user who reported it.

Upgrading: Glance 0.1.4 and later offer this update themselves; from earlier versions, run this installer once. Your settings stay.

0.1.56 October 2026

Changed

  • The tray icon's tooltip is set in columns: names at the left, use and temperature each lined up, in English and Chinese.

New

  • A log, glance.log, beside the settings in %APPDATA%\dev.weiyi.glance: crashes, a lost graphics device, a settings file that could not be saved, each step of an update (found, downloaded, refused and why, started), a missing PawnIO driver, a shortcut another program holds. Only the latest 200 lines are kept, a line that repeats is counted rather than written again, and any user's folder in a path is written <user>. Settings → Diagnostics now includes the latest lines; uninstalling removes the log with the settings.

Upgrading: Glance 0.1.4 offers this update itself (within a day, or at its next start); from earlier versions, run this installer once. Your settings stay.

0.1.46 October 2026

New

  • Updates: Glance asks GitHub once a day whether a new version is out (Settings → System → Check for updates, on unless you turn it off; this is the only network access Glance makes). When one is, the tray says so and the settings offer it; Glance downloads the installer and runs it only if it is signed by the same publisher as the Glance you have.
  • Ctrl+Alt+G opens the panel at the pointer and closes it again (Settings → Opening).
  • Pin: the pin in the panel's bottom bar keeps it open while you work elsewhere.
  • Tray tooltip: hovering over the tray icon shows the CPU, graphics and memory in brief.
  • Heat alert (off by default; Settings → Data): a tray warning when the CPU or a graphics card stays at the temperature alert for 30 seconds.
  • Diagnostics (Settings → System → Copy): what Glance found on your machine and which readings it gets, ready to paste into an issue. No paths or names in it.

Fixed

  • Installing again over a copy outside Program Files (for example D:\Glance) now updates it there; before, the installer proposed Program Files and a second copy could result.
  • The frosted glass no longer darkens where its rim reaches past the backdrop.

Upgrading: from 0.1.3 or earlier, run this installer once over the old one; your settings stay. From now on Glance offers its updates itself.

Download Glance

Free, a 4 MB installer, and a minute to set up.

Glance is a Windows app; it won't install on a phone. Copy the address and open it on your PC.

this page's address
Download GlanceVersion 0.1.7 · free · 4.1 MB

For Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit)

GitHub source code Gitee mirror for mainland China