Are you working with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET? We have put together some code samples to answer some common "How to" questions.
 

How Do I...Read from a performance counter?

Windows performance counters enable your applications and components to publish, capture (read), and analyze the performance data that applications, services, and drivers provide. You can use this information to determine system bottlenecks and fine-tune system and application performance. For example, you can use a performance counter to track the number of orders processed per second or a system's processor utilization. Using the common language runtime's PerformanceCounter component, you can easily read performance data relevant to your application, such as those mentioned above.

This sample illustrates how to read simple performance information from a performance counter. 

In its simplest form, reading a performance counter involves:

Creating a new instance of a PerformanceCounter component and pointing it to an appropriate performance counter:

The syntax for creating the counter object looks like this:

counter = New PerformanceCounter(objectName, counterName, instanceName)

This code assumes that you have a windows form with a timer and a label in it. The time should be enabled and set the interval to 1000 to read the counter every second. The example uses the Processor object, the % Processor Time counter and the _Total instance:
 

'Place this code at the class level

Dim counter As PerformanceCounter
counter = New PerformanceCounter("Processor" , "% Processor Time", "_Total" )