PC_Workman - 1.5.7

There's a moment in every project when you realize you've been building the wrong thing.

For me, that moment came four times.

The Setup

Nine months ago I moved from Poland to the Netherlands.
Not for a tech job - for a warehouse position. Order picker.
15-20km walking daily, scanning barcodes, loading pallets.

By day: warehouse worker.
By night: building software on a 2014 laptop hitting 94°C.

I wanted to build a PC monitoring tool.
Not another dashboard showing "CPU: 87%"
but something that tells you WHY. Which process. Which background app.
WHAT MAKES VOLTAGE JUMP?
The difference between monitoring and understanding.

Simple concept. What followed was mass less simple.

Rebuild #1: The "It Works" Trap

My first version looked like Windows 95 having a panic attack.
My first version looked like Windows 95 having a panic attack.
``
What I built:

• Emoji spam everywhere (thought it was "modern")

• Vertical stacks requiring endless scrolling

• No visual hierarchy whatsoever

• 15+ features nobody asked for ``

But it worked. Technically. Numbers updated. Data was accurate.
I was proud for about two weeks.

Then I used it daily and learned my first brutal lesson:
"Working" isnt "Good"
There's a massive gap between "code runs" and "I'd actually want this on my screen."

Lines written: ~15,000
Lines deleted: ~15,000
Time wasted: 2 months


Rebuild #2: The Architecture Astronaut Phase

Classic mistake. Went full "proper engineering":
``

What I thought mattered:

• Event-driven architecture ✓

• Modular plugin system ✓

• Clean separation of concerns ✓

• Proper design patterns ✓

What users saw:

• Bad mobile app running on desktop

• Confusing navigation

• Features nobody needed ``

Spent 2 weeks building automatic fan control. Beautiful code. Drag-and-drop curves. Real-time preview.

Then I tested it properly.

One wrong curve is potentially fried GPU.

Deleted everything.

Features built and killed: 29
Lesson: Just because you CAN build it doesn't mean you SHOULD


The 3 AM Moment

Picture this:

• Time: 3 AM

• Laptop temp: 94°C

• Fans: screaming

• Me: just finished 10-hour warehouse shift

• Git log: 400+ commits saying "fix" and "maybe this time"

And I asked myself: what am I actually building?

I was building a tool for users who want to understand their PC.
But I was coding like someone trying to prove they could write code.

Different goals. Different products.

That night I scrapped the UI. Again.

Rebuild #3: Asking The Right Question

Instead of "what features can I add?"
I asked "what does someone actually NEED to see?"

`
The answer was embarrassingly simple:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CPU [████████░░] 78% RAM [██████░░░░] 62% │ ← Side by side. No scrolling.
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ TOP PROCESSES: │
│ ▓▓▓ chrome.exe 43% │ - Darkest = top consumer
│ ▓▓ discord.exe 22% │
│ ▓ windows_update 12% │ - Instant visual hierarchy
│ ░ vscode.exe 8% │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
Click any process → instant details
`

Deleted 15,000 lines during refactoring.
39,000 to 24,000.

The product got BETTER as I removed code.

Then I Got Fired

December 22nd. Three days before Christmas.

Agency: "Trial didn't work out."
Me: In temporary housing. Dogs in Poland. Laptop dying. Project 70% done.

Logical response: panic, find job, abandon project.
What I did: started rebuild #4.

What 680 Hours Actually Looks Like

Let me be honest:

Hours coded: 680+ (after warehouse shifts)
Lines written: 39,000
Lines kept: 24,000
Complete UI rebuilds: 4
Features killed: 29
GPU monitoring attempts: 6 (5 failed)
Coffee consumed: 340+ cups
Max laptop temp: 94°C (survived somehow)


Tech Stack (for those curious)


Core: Python 3.11+
UI: Tkinter + CustomTkinter
System data: psutil, GPUtil, WMI
Architecture: Event-driven, modular
RAM footprint: ~30MB (optimized for potato hardware)

Why Tkinter? Because 30MB RAM footprint beats 300MB Electron bloat. And it runs fine on decade-old hardware.

What I Actually Learned

Motivation is useless. Disappeared week 2. Stubbornness stayed.
"Working code" is a trap. My first version worked perfectly. It was also garbage to use.
Delete more. Seriously. I removed 40% of my code and the product improved.
Constraints is resources. Dying hardware = zero bloat allowed. Every feature earned its place.
Show up when it's not fun. That's the only difference between shipped and abandoned.

Current Status

Shipping in weeks. Not because I'm fast - because I didn't quit.

Features that made the cut:

• Real-time monitoring with actual process breakdown

• Time travel debugging (see what was running 3 hours ago)

• Custom fan curves with safety validation

• AI-assisted diagnostics

• 30MB RAM footprint

If you're building something solo and it feels painfully slow — that's not failure.

That's just development.

One month trial through an agency. Didn't work out. It happens.

Spending Christmas in agency housing, away from my family, away from my dogs (missing them every single day).

But here's what 9 months in beautiful Netherlands 🇳🇱 and 5 months of intensive coding taught me:

💛 By day: Order picker in warehouses.
🖤 By night: Building PC_Workman and my HCK_Labs portfolio.

❕ I learned that nobody is coming to save you.
Took me way too long to understand this.
Your growth, your opportunities, your future - that's on you. Only you.

I learned that the final wall to success is people.**
Sounds simple, right? But here's what I mean:
Every project I built before, I'd finish it, publish it, and... crickets. Zero views. Zero response.
And I'd quit. Right there at the final wall.

I was unfulfilled because I stopped one step before the breakthrough.
Now I know: You have to approach that wall from different angles. Keep trying. Keep iterating. Keep showing up.

I learned that practice isn't just important - it's everything.
Past me would've rolled my eyes at that. "Practice? Obviously."

But there's knowing it intellectually, and then there's living it.
-Coding every night on a 95°C laptop while working 10-hour shifts isn't inspiration - it's practice.
-Shipping despite zero initial traction isn't talent - it's practice.
-Learning to code while AI was eating my field as an IT technician? That's practice too.

I learned that constraints aren't obstacles - they're filters.
They separate those who want it from those who need it.
And I refuse to let one setback - or one month delay, or dying hardware, or crickets on launch day - derail that.

So here's what's next:
1. Heading back to Poland for New Year (dogs! family! real desk!)
2. My desktop setup waiting: dual monitors, proper dev environment
3. Deciding if I bring it back to NL/DE (the logistics...)
4. New laptop still coming - just delayed one month
5. PC_Workman alpha still shipping - constraints changed, mission didn't.

The only real consequence of losing this job?
Material delay of one month for the laptop.
That's it.

And I'll keep coding on the old one. As long as it doesn't cross 95°C too often. 😉

2025 taught me resilience.
2026 will test execution.
To everyone facing uncertainty this season: You're tougher than you think. The final wall is closer than it feels. Keep going.

And if you're looking for someone who ships despite dying hardware, job losses, and cricket launches - someone who learned that nobody's coming to save you, so you better save yourself...

What's built so far:
Your PC: Complete diagnostics and health monitoring
Your Components: 2D system map with compatibility checking
FAN DASHBOARD: Custom fan curves with AI-assisted tuning
Network Analytics: Bandwidth tracking with app-level breakdown
Gaming Analytics: Per-game performance bottleneck detection

What doesn't exist yet:
That starts when new hardware arrives early January.
That's when I can test features that legacy silicon can't handle. When privacy features unlock.

Until then: feature-proven itself on decade-old silicon.
Real talk: I grew up on MS Afterburner, loved Experience, and tried many GPU tools. Built my first rig at around 14 with Abit NF7-S and decent ATI Radeon.

❗ So here's what I want to ask the community:
What should a modern PC monitoring and optimization tool actually include? What frustrates you? What's missing? What would you pay for?

Current progress:
v1.0.1 - v1.6.5 Alpha builds live (as 0.6 PMG)

All core functions work seamlessly
Background service fully optimized. HCK_GPT integrated perfectly. Ready for daily use.
This isn't about selling some arbitrary deadline. It's about shipping something real.

PC Workman is happening. With your feedback, it happens better.
Drop your thoughts. Shape what ships.

A Few Hours. One Idea. Everything Changed.
I was working on an old laptop with a cracked screen yesterday.
Writing code. Normal day.
Then --- completely randomly, a thought hit me:
What if PC_Workman had two different faces?

One minimalist (for background work).
The other... epic. Full control. All the information on one screen.
No compromises "Expanded View Mode".
A few hours later, I'm looking at what came out, and I think: this isn't the same tool I was writing this morning.

What happened?
Expanded Main Mode.
A centralized dashboard with motherboard models.
Advanced Fan Control with temperature curves and RPM monitoring.
Component Health Check. Startup Manager. Real-time monitoring with charts that actually do the job.

But this isn't about features.
It's about something else entirely.
Over the last few months, we've been building PC_Workman publicly.
Every single day. With every idea, every iteration.
And something shifted-not in the code, but in me.

I learned that sometimes the best solutions don't come from planning.
They come from experimenting.
That design isn't about creating something perfect. It's about creating something you actually want to use every day.

That a tool which truly understands your system. That's something worth building, even on a decade-old laptop.
For me, this is another major milestone.
But for you? This is the moment where a PC monitoring tool becomes something more.
Thank you for watch this way!

Hey! Just dropped an update that finally adds something I've been missing while servicing systems myself.

hck_GPT - an assistant that doesn't just look good (yeah, the UI finally doesn't look like it's from 2005), but actually helps:
Service Mode is like setup wizards on steroids. Instead of clicking through registry and services blindly, hck_GPT asks for context ("Do you use Bluetooth? What about your printer?"), makes the changes, and gives you a real rollback option. Because we all know that moment when you disable something "definitely unnecessary" and suddenly your project won't compile...
ML/AI Mode (coming soon) takes it further.
\/
It analyzes real-time performance and tells you straight:
"Your CPU is throttling on this particular game, GPU sitting at 60%, maybe time for better cooling?"
Or playfully: "Hey, torturing that i5 with Battlefield again? 14 hours this week, CPU is begging for mercy 😄".
Context-aware, no generic "buy more RAM" bs.
/\
Easy Boost Options – classic gaming mode, but with transparency. You see what you're disabling, you can reverse it with one click. No magic, no "trust me bro". Services, background processes, possibly priorities – everything's visible.

All wrapped in refreshed UX, because technical tools don't have to look like exploits from 2010 forums.
1.3.3 is out now. Feedback welcome, especially from those who, like me, spent half their lives in Task Manager trying to optimize things manually.