Core Temp
Driver · installer · this website
Is Core Temp safe to run?
Core Temp is a freeware CPU temperature monitor by Arthur Liberman. It reads the processor's digital thermal sensor. It is not a tuning tool, and this website does not attach the Windows files until those links are configured on the download page.
Use it on machines you are allowed to administer
Run Core Temp on a computer you own or are permitted to maintain. The readings are there so you can see per-core temperature, load, and Tj. Max, and so you can hibernate or shut down if a limit is crossed. Do not use a screenshot to claim a temperature the program did not show. Do not use the program to hide a cooling problem from someone who is responsible for the machine.
What the program should not be asked to do
Core Temp does not change the CPU multiplier or VID. Asking it to "prove" an overclock, or editing a screenshot of the temperature table, misuses a measurement tool. If a core is hot, reseat the cooler or lower the load. The honest output is the row on screen, including a question mark when the sample was not valid.
Source and shared memory
Core Temp is not open source, and coretemp.cc does not host its source code. What is public is the shared memory layout plugins use: per-core temperature and load, Tj. Max, frequency, multiplier, VID, and, when the flags allow, TDP and power. Structure version 2 is the current layout. Some add-ons, such as community RGB plugins, publish their own source. That source is for the add-on, not for Core Temp itself.
There is no SHA-256 on this page. The 1.21 version note does not include a hash, and inventing one would be worse than leaving the line blank. When a hash is published beside the file you download, compare it before you run the installer.
Malware, the driver, and repacks
The author has said Core Temp contains no keylogger and no spyware. The program does embed a driver, because reading CPU registers from a normal application is blocked on modern Windows. That embedded driver is why some antivirus products flag the file. Older Bitdefender detections were reported by users and later treated as false positives. Version 1.21 mitigates a separate, documented issue in the legacy 64-bit driver, tracked as JVN#23328936.
A clean report from one scanner is not a promise about the next update, and a detection is not automatically proof of a trojan. Two cases get confused online. The first is a false positive on the driver. The second is a real extra program installed by a repack from a download site that is not the publisher. People have found unwanted software after running those bundles. This site will not send you to those bundles. Until the buttons on the download page point at files, there is nothing here to run.
The optional game shortcut
The installer edition has offered a desktop shortcut to Goodgame Empire. The offer is a checkbox during setup, and you can decline it. If you accepted it, uninstalling Core Temp does not always remove the shortcut. Delete the icon yourself. The portable zip does not show that installer page. People who object to the offer should wait for the portable button rather than grabbing a third-party installer that claims to be "cleaner."
What you are responsible for
You choose the overheat limit. A shutdown at the wrong temperature can interrupt work, and a limit set too high does not protect the chip. You choose whether to keep an antivirus warning or to restore a quarantined file. You choose not to run a repack. coretemp.cc documents the program and labels the Windows buttons. It is not Arthur Liberman's site, and it does not operate the computers you monitor.