Advanced Diagnostic Tools in Windows 7

  • 10/25/2010

Performance Monitor

Performance Monitor, shown in Figure 14-7, provides real-time information about a wide range of Windows and hardware components and events. You can also use it to check whether the Windows reporting tools are activated.

Figure 14-7

Figure 14-7 Performance Monitor in Windows 7

You can use the real-time monitoring tools in Performance Monitor to add information about specific things, for instance, the read/write data for your hard disk or the power distribution to individual components, seen in Figure 14-8. In Chapter 25, “Advanced Windows Diagnostic Tools in Depth,” I will talk about these tools in much greater depth.

For most users, the information provided by Performance Monitor is extremely complex and difficult to interpret. If you need specific information about how a certain component is working—say, for example, you suspect the ReadyBoost cache isn’t working properly—you can monitor this feature in real time via Performance Monitor.

Figure 14-8

Figure 14-8 Adding custom counters to Performance Monitor