How to get the CPU Usage in C#?

You can use the PerformanceCounter class from System.Diagnostics.

Initialize like this:

PerformanceCounter cpuCounter;
PerformanceCounter ramCounter;

cpuCounter = new PerformanceCounter("Processor", "% Processor Time", "_Total");
ramCounter = new PerformanceCounter("Memory", "Available MBytes");

Consume like this:

public string getCurrentCpuUsage(){
            return cpuCounter.NextValue()+"%";
}

public string getAvailableRAM(){
            return ramCounter.NextValue()+"MB";
} 

A little more than was requsted but I use the extra timer code to track and alert if CPU usage is 90% or higher for a sustained period of 1 minute or longer.

public class Form1
{

    int totalHits = 0;

    public object getCPUCounter()
    {

        PerformanceCounter cpuCounter = new PerformanceCounter();
        cpuCounter.CategoryName = "Processor";
        cpuCounter.CounterName = "% Processor Time";
        cpuCounter.InstanceName = "_Total";

                     // will always start at 0
        dynamic firstValue = cpuCounter.NextValue();
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
                    // now matches task manager reading
        dynamic secondValue = cpuCounter.NextValue();

        return secondValue;

    }


    private void Timer1_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        int cpuPercent = (int)getCPUCounter();
        if (cpuPercent >= 90)
        {
            totalHits = totalHits + 1;
            if (totalHits == 60)
            {
                Interaction.MsgBox("ALERT 90% usage for 1 minute");
                totalHits = 0;
            }                        
        }
        else
        {
            totalHits = 0;
        }
        Label1.Text = cpuPercent + " % CPU";
        //Label2.Text = getRAMCounter() + " RAM Free";
        Label3.Text = totalHits + " seconds over 20% usage";
    }
}