ASTech SysMon Detailed User Guide

This guide walks you through SysMon from first launch to daily use. It is written as a practical step-by-step reference for trial users, licensed users, and advanced users who want richer telemetry, HUD layouts, and detailed hover tooltips.

Windows Desktop App
7-Day Trial
Lite / Pro / Max Tiers
Optional Advanced Telemetry

1. Getting Started

Use these steps the first time you run SysMon.

  1. Launch SysMon.exe.
  2. The activation window appears on startup.
  3. If this is a new installation, SysMon starts with a 7-day full trial.
  4. Choose Continue Trial to enter the app.
  5. Once the overlay appears, right-click it to open the main menu.
SysMon is designed to be usable immediately. Core widgets such as CPU, RAM, VRAM, GPU, Network, Disk, Audio, and Power do not require extra downloads.

2. Trial and Activation

SysMon uses a trial-first model so users can explore the app before choosing a tier.

During Trial
  • Full feature access is available during the 7-day trial.
  • The activation window shows live trial time remaining.
  • You can activate Lite, Pro, or Max at any time.
After Trial Expiry
  • The app does not hard-lock completely.
  • It falls back to a restricted mode with a single Network widget.
  • License Details and Factory Reset / Key Migration remain available.

How to Activate

  1. Open the activation window at launch, or use License Details... from the menu.
  2. Paste your activation key into the key field.
  3. Submit the key and let SysMon validate it.
  4. Once accepted, the resolved tier and license type are shown inside the app.
The app can show license type such as Permanent, Reseller, or Test in the License Details view for easy visual verification.

3. Basic Controls

The main interaction model is simple: hover, left-click, right-click, and optional hotkeys.

Action What It Does
Right-click overlay Opens the main SysMon menu.
Hover a widget Shows the advanced tooltip when hover tooltips are enabled.
Left-click some widgets Cycles widget display mode where applicable. Network and Disk now use fixed split widgets.
Drag overlay Moves the overlay when lock/interaction rules allow it.
Ctrl + Alt + M Show or hide SysMon.

4. Widgets Explained

Each widget provides a compact glance view, while the tooltip gives the detailed breakdown.

CPU / RAM / VRAM / GPU
  • Main utilization or memory status.
  • Advanced tooltip can show temperatures, clocks, power, top tasks, and extra telemetry.
Network / Disk
  • Use fixed split widgets.
  • Network: left = download, right = upload.
  • Disk: selected disk only on the widget face, with write on the left and read on the right.
FPS / Audio / Power
  • FPS shows live frame/refresh data depending on the available source.
  • Audio can show output or microphone level.
  • Power reflects battery / AC state.
Selected Disk Behavior
  • The Disk widget face shows the currently selected disk.
  • The Disk tooltip can show all detected drives with separate graphs.

5. Hover Tooltips

Advanced tooltips are one of SysMon’s richest features.

  1. Right-click the overlay.
  2. Open System & Startup.
  3. Enable Show Hover Info Tooltips.
  4. Hover the widget you want to inspect.

What the advanced tooltips can show

  • CPU: clocks, temperatures, power, voltage, live core grid, top CPU tasks.
  • RAM: total usage plus top RAM-consuming tasks.
  • VRAM / GPU: load, temperature, memory, hotspot, fan, PCIe traffic, top GPU or VRAM tasks.
  • Disk: all detected drives, read/write values, split graphs, capacity details.
  • Battery: voltage, current, rate, remaining capacity, full capacity, design capacity, degradation when available.
SysMon omits fields gracefully when data is not available. It does not deliberately print meaningless placeholder lines for missing advanced values.

6. Layouts and Modes

SysMon supports multiple presentation styles depending on how you want it to live on screen.

Mode Usage
Floating Overlay Best for desktop monitoring with draggable widget strips.
Top-Docked HUD Pins SysMon across the top edge of the monitor.
Taskbar Mode Condenses the view into one active widget at a time.
Collapsed Mode Reduces the app to a single selected widget when auto-collapse is enabled.
Minimal Mode Shrinks visual overhead while preserving readable split speed displays.

Visibility changes

When you show or hide widgets, SysMon now animates both the widget visibility and the reclaimed space on a shared timeline. This keeps the transition smoother and avoids abrupt jumps in the strip layout.

7. Advanced Telemetry

SysMon is usable without extras, but optional helpers can enrich the data.

  1. Open Advanced Tooltip / Telemetry Helper... from the menu.
  2. Review which telemetry source is active and what extra data is available.
  3. Optional helpers may improve temperatures, fan data, voltage, power, hotspot, battery, or richer sensor coverage.
Advanced telemetry is an enhancement layer, not a requirement. If a provider is missing or unsupported, SysMon continues to run with native and fallback telemetry.

Examples of optional helpers

  • SysMonLHM bridge for richer hardware telemetry.
  • Core Temp for CPU temperature / power improvements on systems where fallback sources are limited.
  • RTSS for game FPS collection where needed.

8. Important Settings

These menu options matter most for day-to-day use.

  • Show Hover Info Tooltips — enables advanced hover tooltips.
  • CPU Core Info In Tooltips — shows a dynamic per-core load grid inside the CPU tooltip.
  • Widget Graph Update Rate — changes graph smoothness for Network and Disk widgets.
  • Require Shift For Top-Docked HUD Interaction — makes the HUD pass-through unless Shift is held.
  • Restrict Pointer From Top-Docked HUD Region — keeps the pointer out of the HUD strip in top-dock mode.
  • Top-Docked HUD — converts the overlay into a docked strip.
  • Taskbar Mode — switches to one-widget-at-a-time presentation.

9. Licensing and Reset

Use these controls when checking activation state or moving to a new key.

License Details

  1. Right-click the overlay.
  2. Choose License Details....
  3. Review the current status, tier, key type, integrity state, and expiry details.

Factory Reset / Key Migration

  1. Open the menu and select Factory Reset / Key Migration....
  2. Type the requested confirmation text.
  3. SysMon clears the paid key state and restarts.
  4. If the trial is still valid, the remaining trial tenure is preserved.
Trial users do not receive the same migration path as paid users. Reset and licensing behavior depends on current trial or paid status.

10. Troubleshooting

Tooltip data is missing

  • Confirm hover tooltips are enabled.
  • Open the telemetry helper and check whether optional providers are running.
  • Remember that SysMon only displays data that is actually available from live telemetry.

Network or Disk graphs seem too fast or too noisy

  • Use Widget Graph Update Rate to choose a smoother setting.
  • SysMon already smooths the displayed Network and Disk rates using a short rolling live average.

Minimal mode text looks cramped

  • Recent builds use a compact speed format and larger readability floor for split speed widgets.
  • If needed, disable minimal mode for the full text presentation.

Trial or activation questions

  • Use the startup activation window or License Details... to see current state clearly.
  • If a key is rejected, verify that it matches the intended machine and tier.
ASTech SysMon User Guide - HTML manual for app usage, licensing, widgets, modes, and telemetry.