ARMtemp reads real ACPI thermal-zone sensors and displays a single honest CPU temperature plus genuinely per-core utilization — recreating the Core Temp experience for the Snapdragon X family (X1/X1P/X1E, X2/X2P/X2E — Qualcomm Oryon). Snapdragon X exposes no per-core temperature sensor, so ARMtemp doesn't pretend to have one: temperature is reported for the CPU as a whole, and per-core rows show real per-core load instead. Built as a small native ARM64 binary (Tauri 2 + Rust + React), with a live system-tray icon, mini mode, and overheat protection.
This is a from-scratch native app ported from a Claude/Design-Component mockup (
docs/claude-design-output/), which was a simulated Windows-desktop preview. All live data here is real; no readings are fabricated. SeeSENSORS.mdfor the full sensor discovery report.
- Real telemetry: one CPU temperature via ACPI thermal zones (with session Min/Max/Avg), genuinely per-core load, live CPU speed/identity
- 3 UI layouts — Classic, Cards, Dashboard
- Mini mode — the same window, stripped to the model name, the CPU temperature, and an averaged per-core load row
- Live system-tray icon showing the current CPU temperature, with a right-click menu
- Overheat protection — notify, sleep, or shut down at a configurable threshold
- Close-to-tray, start-with-Windows, °C/°F, dark/light theme
- A single NSIS installer that upgrades an existing install in place (see Updating)
Honest limitations (firmware, not by choice):
- Per-core temperatures aren't exposed by any userspace surface on Snapdragon X — the firmware exposes ~17 valid zone temperatures, not one per core. Rather than guess which zone maps to which core, ARMtemp reports one CPU temperature (the hottest valid zone) and shows genuinely per-core load instead. True per-core temps would need a signed kernel driver or private Surface/Qualcomm SMF IOCTLs.
- Voltage and package power aren't exposed; those fields show
—rather than a fabricated number.
Main window (Classic layout) |
 Cards layout |
 Dashboard layout |
 Mini mode |
 Overheat protection |
 Live tray icon |
 Settings — General |
 Settings — Display |
 Settings — Notification Area |
 Settings — Windows Taskbar |
 About — detected processor |
Reading temperatures on Snapdragon X under Windows is genuinely hard — the standard WMI classes (MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature, Win32_TemperatureProbe) return nothing on this firmware, and LibreHardwareMonitor has no native Oryon support.
ARMtemp's working data source is the Thermal Zone Information performance-counter object, which exposes ACPI thermal zones (\_SB.TZxx). Sentinels/inactive zones (≤ 0 °C) are filtered out; the rest are converted from Kelvin to °C. The hottest valid zone is reported as the single CPU temperature — there is no per-core thermal surface on this firmware, so ARMtemp doesn't attribute a temperature to any individual core; per-core rows show real per-core load instead.
Implementation note: ARMtemp reads these counters natively via the Windows PDH (Performance Data Helper) API (pdh.dll) — no subprocess, no COM/WMI. This also sidesteps the failure the Rust wmi crate's COM/IWbemServices path hit when called from inside a Tauri process (WBEM_E_NOT_FOUND; see SENSORS.md §7 for that history). A dedicated worker thread owns the PDH query handles and collects once per poll tick (~1.5–2s); the same counters also yield a genuinely live CPU frequency, unlike Win32_Processor.CurrentClockSpeed, which mirrors the static max on this firmware.
Prerequisites: Rust (aarch64-pc-windows-msvc target), Node.js 20+, on a Windows on ARM machine (or cross-compile target).
# Install frontend deps
npm install
# Dev mode (hot-reload frontend + native backend)
npm run tauri dev
# Production build -> native ARM64 .exe + NSIS installer
npm run tauri build
# Output: src-tauri/target/release/armtemp.exe
# src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis/Output is a native ARM64 (AA64) executable (~3.8 MB), no emulation.
Running the setup.exe over an existing install upgrades it in place — no need to uninstall first; a newer version installs straight through with no prompts. Running it again over the same version offers Repair or Uninstall instead of reinstalling blindly. This works because the bundle identifier and product name stay constant across releases.
As of 0.4.4, only the NSIS installer is shipped (the MSI has been dropped). Anyone still on an MSI-based install (0.4.3 or earlier) is migrated automatically and silently the next time they run the setup.exe — no separate uninstall step needed. There is no in-app auto-updater yet — updates are manual, by re-running the installer.
Launching a second copy of the same version while one is already running shows an "already running" message instead of opening a duplicate window; a different version (e.g. a dev build) is allowed to run alongside it.
armtemp/
├── docs/screenshots/ # README screenshots
├── docs/claude-design-output/ # The original Claude mockup (simulated, HTML/JS) — reference only
├── src/ # React + TypeScript frontend
│ ├── app/ # types, theme tokens, hooks (settings, sensors)
│ ├── components/ # MenuBar, ProcessorInfo, layouts/, SettingsDialog, MiniMode…
│ └── styles.css # Design tokens ported from the mockup
├── src-tauri/ # Rust + Tauri backend
│ └── src/
│ ├── lib.rs # App wiring, poll loop, tray, IPC commands, single-instance guard
│ └── sensors/ # Real telemetry: pdh.rs (primary), chips.rs, tray.rs, tray_render.rs, types.rs
├── tools/ # Sensor probe scripts (Phase 0 artifacts) + icon generator
└── SENSORS.md # Full sensor discovery report (what works, what doesn't, why)
Thanks to Core Temp — I've been a fan and used it on all of my personal computers for the last 20 years. ARMtemp is my own small tribute to Core Temp, and an excuse to dogfood real telemetry on my own Snapdragon X-based machines.
Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0.
ARMtemp is an independent monitoring utility and is not affiliated with any silicon vendor.