HardwareToad

Windows hardware monitor with a Python/Tkinter UI and a self-contained .NET bridge built on LibreHardwareMonitor. Shows real-time CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage data with live graphs, AVX2/FMA stress testing, and RAM stability testing. Requires Administrator rights for low-level sensor access.

Project Layout

• main.py — app entry point
• core/ — Python UI, sensor bridge client, formatting, and stress test orchestration
• LHMBridge/ — self-contained .NET sensor bridge, exposes local HTTP endpoints
• assets/ — app icon (logo.ico) used by PyInstaller
• vendor/ — checked-in LibreHardwareMonitor runtime files
• build_all.bat — full clean release build (bridge → PyInstaller → installer)
• dev.bat — fast local run for development (auto-elevates, rebuilds bridge if needed)
• obfuscar.xml — Obfuscar config for LHMBridge.dll symbol obfuscation
• requirements.txt — Python runtime dependencies
• requirements-build.txt — build-time dependencies

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/toadjo/HardwareToad
cd HardwareToad
pip install -r requirements.txt
dev.bat

Development Workflow

Fast local run — dev.bat

• Auto-elevates to Administrator
• Rebuilds dist\LHMBridge when the exe or required DLLs are missing
• Starts LHMBridge.exe and launches main.py

Full release build — build_all.bat

• Cleans all build artifacts
• Installs Python build dependencies
• Publishes LHMBridge (with Obfuscar obfuscation if installed)
• Packages the app with PyInstaller using hardware_toad.spec
• Reads APP_VERSION from core/constants.py and passes it to Inno Setup

Requirements

• Windows 10 or newer (64-bit)
• Python 3.11+
• .NET SDK (to build LHMBridge from source)
• Inno Setup 6 (optional, for installer output)
• Administrator rights at runtime

Security

HardwareToad includes several layers of protection for the local sensor bridge:

• Token auth — a random 256-bit token is generated at startup and required on every HTTP request to LHMBridge
• SHA256 integrity check — LHMBridge.exe is hashed on first run; any modification is detected and blocks startup
• Obfuscar — LHMBridge.dll symbols are renamed at build time. Install with:

  dotnet tool install --tool-path .tools\obfuscar Obfuscar.GlobalTool

Notes

• dist/ is generated output — do not treat as source
• vendor/LibreHardwareMonitor/ contains the runtime files used by LHMBridge.csproj
• The app icon is embedded via assets\logo.ico — referenced in hardware_toad.spec
• Version lives in one place: core/constants.py → APP_VERSION