Description
PC Workman is a free, open-source, real-time system monitor that explains WHY your PC is slow, not just that it is. It learns your machine's normal behavior over weeks: temperatures per workload, voltage patterns, the games you actually play, and warns you the moment something breaks that pattern.
Since July 1st, 2026 it is officially live on the Microsoft Store, certified through Microsoft Partner Center. Not a "download a random zip" project anymore, but an installable product that passed a real third-party review, with three updates shipped since launch.
The core of v1.8.0 is a memory that compounds. Every temperature reading is sorted into one of five workload buckets (idle / light / medium / heavy / gaming) and judged by a z-score against your learned normal, not a generic 85C line, so 82C reads normal while gaming but critical at idle. Under the hood it is a true Welford online accumulator (running count, mean, M2 per bucket) that keeps learning for the life of the install. Voltage rails are watched with industrial statistical process control: median and MAD, a modified z-score, and Nelson rules, early warning months before a rail actually fails.
On top sits a fully offline AI assistant, hck_GPT: 90 intents shaped directly by community feedback, running on a rule engine plus an optional local model, never a cloud API. Plus one-click TURBO mode (15 reversible optimizations behind a single switch), ghost-driver detection, App Hibernation (freeze idle apps after 15-30 min), voltage-anomaly monitoring, and process-authenticity checks that flag executables faking a Microsoft signature.
Distribution is three ways: a signed .exe on GitHub and SourceForge, and a signed MSIX package on the Microsoft Store that updates automatically. A year of solo development, fully open source (MIT). Privacy-first: all data stays local (SQLite on your disk); every outbound connection passes a single gate you control in Settings. Turn it off and the app makes zero network connections, verifiable with a firewall. No account, no ads, no premium wall.
Every change is documented publicly: a per-file CHANGELOG and README tracking every release, and a maintained security policy.
Sustainability: the free core stays free and MIT-licensed.
Current revenue is optional GitHub Sponsors (Coffee and Early-Access tiers), the Store and signed MSIX channel are the rails for a future optional Pro tier layered on top of the free core, never paywalling what exists today.
As a solo open-source project the running cost is near zero, so the model holds at any scale.
Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PGW6WS2N50V Security Policy: https://github.com/HuckleR2003/PC_Workman_HCK/blob/main/SECURITY.md Changelog: https://github.com/HuckleR2003/PC_Workman_HCK/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
Audience Reach
Reach is 11,500-57,000 views per week across platforms, consistently growing.
Best single post: 57,000 views, a post literally about PC Workman.
Current numbers (July 2026):
Distribution: LIVE on the Microsoft Store (certified via Partner Center, July 1 2026), plus GitHub and SourceForge.
Signed MSIX package auto-updates installed users.
Total downloads: ~1,700, crossed 1,000 last month, across GitHub, SourceForge and the Microsoft Store (newest and fastest-growing channel).
GitHub: 87 stars, 817+ commits, active Discussions, full public roadmap.
LinkedIn: 3,400 followers, ~150,000 views (90 days), ~130,000 people reached in 8 months, 1,000+ reactions.
Dev.to: 4,400 followers, 28 technical guides and articles.
Medium: 475 followers, ~300 email subscribers, 24+ articles.
HackerNoon: 9 published articles, 4.5 months of total reading time! <3, one hit #1 Top Trending plus the newsletter.
X: ~200 followers.
Two external publications covered the project independently.
Reach is not a side channel, it IS the development process.
PC Workman ships a 3x/week public series that has now run over four months without missing a single day from. Ongoing for 17 weeks:
Monday, Grind Blueprint: the week's plan, announced before any work starts.
Wednesday, Code Autopsy: the best real piece of code that week, root cause, dead ends, the fix.
Friday, Shipped & Scarred: what shipped, what was hard, the code and the life around it.
Retention, not just reach: dedicated testers come back release after release, community reports get a reply within a day, and the auto-updating MSIX channel keeps installed users on the latest build. Reach converts into people who stay.
Target Users
Anyone who cares about their PC's health but does not want to dig through Windows settings.
Gamers who want maximum performance without manually stopping 20 background services.
Developers running heavy builds who need to know if their CPU is throttling.
Laptop users worried about battery drain and thermal wear over months.
Anyone who would rather type "make my PC faster" than learn what sc stop WSearch does.
Core idea: configure your optimization preferences ONCE (which services to stop, which power plan, which idle apps to freeze) and TURBO remembers everything.
One click activates it all and one click restores it.
And PC Workman combines things no other free system monitor does in one place:
verifies process authenticity (flags executables faking a Microsoft signature),
protects anti-cheat processes from any optimization (safe with Vanguard / EAC / BattlEye),
detects ghost drivers from hardware you removed years ago,
monitors voltage rails for anomalies with real SPC (median/MAD, Nelson rules). Monitoring, learning, optimization AND security reasoning, in one offline tool.
Technologies
Other, Python 3, SQLite (WAL mode), Tkinter, WMI, psutil. Sensors: LibreHardwareMonitor/OpenHardwareMonitor bridge, nvidia-smi, RTSS shared memory (in-game FPS). Build and distribution: PyInstaller, signed .exe, MSIX packaging via Microsoft Partner Center (Store), Sigstore-signed releases. CI and security: GitHub Actions, CodeQL on every commit, VirusTotal on every build. Infrastructure: Cloudflare (pcworkman.dev). Statistical core: Welford's online algorithm (per-bucket mean/variance), SPC for voltage (median/MAD, modified z-score, Nelson rules).
Traction Evidence
Since this report was last scored, two things changed picture:
PC Workman passed Microsoft Store certification (Partner Center) and total downloads crossed 1,700.
The project is no longer pre-distribution, it is an installable, third-party-reviewed product with three updates shipped since launch.
Real, measurable feedback loop (the public series is the engine):
Community-submitted questions became shipped features, usually within 7 days.
Over 100 issues logged on GitHub, 40-50 from dedicated testers; 54+ fixes and improvements shipped from those reports.
Testers spent 5-8 hours EACH stress-testing releases; their reports shaped two patch releases in a single week. Response time to reports stays within a day even in heavy weeks. They keep coming back release after release, retention you cannot fake.
Continued development since the 1.8.0 launch (not a frozen submission):
Upgrade Readiness: an offline CPU-to-motherboard compatibility engine (188 CPUs, 58 chipsets) that catches socket, chipset and BIOS traps before you buy.
OVERCLOCK Headroom Lab: read-only headroom analysis that never touches your clocks.
Optimization Receipts: before/after proof of what each optimization actually changed.
Process library grown from 373 to 485 recognized processes.
Third-party validation:
Microsoft Store certification, Microsoft's own review.
Two independent publications covered the project.
HackerNoon: #1 Top Trending and newsletter feature; included in an editor's "What I'm Reading."
Tester voices: [ADD 1-2 REAL tester quotes here, each with a GitHub handle or issue link. Pull from the 40-50 tester issues. Real, attributed quotes outscore any adjective.]
Verifiable rigor:
A year of public documentation, every release, file by file, in the CHANGELOG and README.
Maintained SECURITY.md: Sigstore-signed releases, VirusTotal 0/70 on builds, CodeQL on every commit, private vulnerability reporting (24h ack / 72h validation / 7-day fix), local-first data policy.
Identity and permanence: ORCID 0009-0005-4138-587X, project domain on Cloudflare (pcworkman.dev).
Technical roadmap and milestones:
v1.7.9: the previous 46-issue roadmap closed in full.
v1.8.0 (2026-06-22): Welford learning, SPC voltage, hck_GPT.
2026-07-01: Microsoft Store certification, the "on the Store" roadmap goal ACHIEVED.
Since: three Store updates through v1.8.5, signed MSIX auto-update channel, Upgrade Readiness, Headroom Lab, Optimization Receipts.
Next (roadmap to 2.1.0): giving hck_GPT direct control of features, so "turn on max power plan" just happens. A public GitHub Projects board tracks it.
CHANGELOG: https://github.com/HuckleR2003/PC_Workman_HCK/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md Release v1.8.0: https://github.com/HuckleR2003/PC_Workman_HCK/releases/tag/v_1.8.0