You can D/L Process Explorer from the link below.
Process Explorer
It is a Task Manager on steroids.
You can set it to replace the win 7 Task manager when Ctrl+Alt+Del keys are pressed.
No installation required in the usual sense. Just un-zip the D/L and move he three files to any place on your HDD.
Create a desktop shortcut to the executable.
When you open Process Explorer choose options from toolbar and select "replace taskmanager".
Ctrl+Alt+Del will now open Process Explorer.
If you place a shortcut in your startup folder after selecting "hide when minimized" from the option toolbar and set the shortcut to start minimumized you will get a cool icon in your system when you boot you system that will dynamically track CPU usage. You can change what is displayed there using options>Tray Icons.
This is what I do, it uses very few resources and I can tell at a glance what my CPU is doing at any given moment.
This plus system tray apps (Core Temp 0.99.4 and Notebook Hardware Control) to monitor my CPU & HDD temperatures dynamically and I'm always aware of my computers physical condition.
Process Explorer lets you kill processes like Task manager but with Process explorer if you right click a process you have the option of "searching online" for info about the process from within Process Explorer.
Process Explorer is loaded with info like memory usage etc.
Best of all it's free from MS.