Speaking of Windows 7, CoreTemp can cleverly use the Windows 7 taskbar to show the processor temperature, frequency or load. It does this by turning its icon into a progress bar, filling it with color from left to right. For example, if the icon is half-full, that means you're at 50% CPU utilization.

After replacing the heat sink and CPU cooler for my processor, I got it from around 70-80C down to 30-45C, and the computer started behaving normally again. CoreTemp helped me save my computer and avoid an unnecessary and costly upgrade to a whole new system.