getHardwareList

Introduction

getHardwareList is a synchronous function that queries the list of detected CPUs and GPUs on the system via the LibreHardwareMonitor helper EXE. It returns a HardwareListSnapshot containing categorized HardwareDevice arrays, which can be used to enumerate available hardware before performing per-device temperature or performance queries.

Signature

function getHardwareList(): HardwareListSnapshot

Usage

getHardwareList is the entry point for discovering which CPU and GPU devices are visible to the LibreHardwareMonitor backend. Call it once at startup (or when you need to refresh the device list) to obtain the identifiers and names of all detected hardware.

Tips

Store the returned snapshot and reuse the id fields from each HardwareDevice when you need to correlate temperature readings (TemperatureReading) back to specific hardware components.

Note

This function is fully synchronous and does not perform any I/O beyond invoking the helper EXE. It is safe to call at any point in your application lifecycle, but avoid calling it in a tight loop since it spawns a child process each time.

Return Value

Returns a HardwareListSnapshot object with the following structure:

Property	Type	Description
isAvailable	boolean	true if the LibreHardwareMonitor helper EXE responded successfully.
cpus	HardwareDevice[]	Array of detected CPU devices.
gpus	HardwareDevice[]	Array of detected GPU devices.

Warning

If the LibreHardwareMonitor helper EXE is not installed or fails to respond, isAvailable will be false and both cpus and gpus will be empty arrays. Always check isAvailable before accessing the device arrays.

Example

TypeScript

import { getHardwareList } from '@eisland/windows-performance-monitor';

// Query the list of detected CPUs and GPUs
const hw = getHardwareList();

// Check if the helper EXE is available before accessing device data
if (hw.isAvailable) {
  console.log('=== Detected Hardware ===');

  // Iterate over each detected CPU
  hw.cpus.forEach((cpu) => {
    // Print the CPU name and its hardware type identifier
    console.log(`  CPU: ${cpu.name} (${cpu.hardwareType})`);
  });

  // Iterate over each detected GPU
  hw.gpus.forEach((gpu) => {
    // Print the GPU name and its hardware type identifier
    console.log(`  GPU: ${gpu.name} (${gpu.hardwareType})`);
  });
} else {
  // The helper EXE was unavailable; no hardware data is accessible
  console.warn('LibreHardwareMonitor helper is not available.');
}

JavaScript

const { getHardwareList } = require('@eisland/windows-performance-monitor');

// Query the list of detected CPUs and GPUs
const hw = getHardwareList();

// Check if the helper EXE is available before accessing device data
if (hw.isAvailable) {
  console.log('=== Detected Hardware ===');

  // Iterate over each detected CPU
  hw.cpus.forEach((cpu) => {
    // Print the CPU name and its hardware type identifier
    console.log(`  CPU: ${cpu.name} (${cpu.hardwareType})`);
  });

  // Iterate over each detected GPU
  hw.gpus.forEach((gpu) => {
    // Print the GPU name and its hardware type identifier
    console.log(`  GPU: ${gpu.name} (${gpu.hardwareType})`);
  });
} else {
  // The helper EXE was unavailable; no hardware data is accessible
  console.warn('LibreHardwareMonitor helper is not available.');
}

Notes

Note

The source field on every HardwareDevice is always the literal string 'libre-hardware-monitor'. This indicates the data originated from the LibreHardwareMonitor backend and may change if additional backends are added in the future.

Note

The hardwareType field contains the raw hardware type string reported by LibreHardwareMonitor (e.g. 'Cpu', 'GpuNvidia', 'GpuAmd'). Use this value if you need to distinguish between GPU vendors or apply vendor-specific logic.

Tips

If you only need CPU information, filter hw.cpus; if you only need GPU information, filter hw.gpus. The snapshot separates them by category so you do not need to filter by category yourself.

Danger Avoidance

Caution

Do not call getHardwareList() inside a tight loop or on every animation frame. Each invocation spawns a child process to communicate with the LibreHardwareMonitor helper EXE, which is expensive. Cache the result and refresh it only when necessary (e.g. on user action or a periodic timer with a reasonable interval such as 30 seconds).

Caution

Never access cpus or gpus array elements without first checking isAvailable. When the helper EXE is unavailable, the arrays are empty, but relying on this implicit behavior is fragile. Always guard with if (hw.isAvailable) to avoid silent failures and confusing downstream errors.