Continuously monitors the CPU usage % of top X processes

I want to be able to to output to a log file the top CPU consumers every 5 seconds. That way I will be able to see who uses the most of the cpu during my tests.

I have found this answer very common:

$cpu = Get-Counter -ComputerName localhost "\Process(*)\% Processor Time" `
    | Select-Object -ExpandProperty countersamples `
    | where {$_.InstanceName -ne 'idle' } `
    | where {$_.InstanceName -ne '_total' }`
    | Select-Object -Property instancename, cookedvalue `
    | Sort-Object -Property cookedvalue -Descending `
    | Select-Object -First 5 `
    | ft @{L='Date';E={Get-Date}}, InstanceName, @{L='CPU';E={(($_.Cookedvalue/100)/$NumberOfLogicalProcessors).toString('P')}} -HideTableHeaders `
    | Format-Table -Auto | Out-String

I have 2 issues with it:

1. Sometimes I get:

   Get-Counter : The data in one of the performance counter samples is not valid. View the Status property for each PerformanceCounterSample object to make sure it contains valid data.

2. I would like to get the full process name, and not

   java      25%
   idea64    0.8%
   ...

I'll try to answer your two questions at once with following script:

Get-Counter "\Process(*)\% Processor Time" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue `
  | select -ExpandProperty CounterSamples `
  | where {$_.Status -eq 0 -and $_.instancename -notin "_total", "idle"} `
  | sort CookedValue -Descending `
  | select TimeStamp,
    @{N="Name";E={
        $friendlyName = $_.InstanceName
        try {
            $procId = [System.Diagnostics.Process]::GetProcessesByName($_.InstanceName)[0].Id
            $proc = Get-WmiObject -Query "SELECT ProcessId, ExecutablePath FROM Win32_Process WHERE ProcessId=$procId"
            $procPath = ($proc | where { $_.ExecutablePath } | select -First 1).ExecutablePath
            $friendlyName = [System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo($procPath).FileDescription
        } catch { }
        $friendlyName
    }},
    @{N="CPU";E={($_.CookedValue/100/$env:NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS).ToString("P")}} -First 5 `
 | ft -a -HideTableHeaders

This results in following table:

24.07.2016 21:00:53 Microsoft Edge Content Process    9,68%
24.07.2016 21:00:53 system                            0,77%
24.07.2016 21:00:53 Microsoft Edge                    0,39%
24.07.2016 21:00:53 runtimebroker                     0,39%
24.07.2016 21:00:53 Host Process for Windows Services 0,39%

1. As specified, you sometimes get:

Get-Counter : The data in one of the performance counter samples is not valid. View the Status property for each PerformanceCounterSample object to make sure it contains valid data.

This is related to process management in windows environment. While you execute query, some processes may appear, some of them may disappear (i.e. wmiprvse process responsible for executing wmi queries). Some processes may require more permissions you have. This all leads to error when obtaining process information. It can be safely skipped using -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue switch and filtered with Status -eq 0 expression.

2. You also want to see more friendly process name. I don't know if there is better way of getting that name than from executable itself using GetVersionInfo method. If such information is available FileDescription property stores that value. If it's not available then non-friendly process name is used.