Windows Vista’s Reliability and Performance Monitor Part 2

In part 1 we looked at a quick overview of what the Reliability and Performance Monitor does.
In Part 2 We’ll look more deeply in each section.

The Performance Monitor:

First open Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor, click Start, right-click Computer, and click Manage. Expand System Tools and click Reliability and Performance.

Next Expand the Reliability and Performance tab the Monitoring Tools tab.

Click the Performance Monitor.
You will most likely have a blank screen if you haven’t setup any counters to monitor.

Setting up Counters:
Right click in the graph area and choose Add counters. Here you can select anything you would like to graph and click adds then click ok. To delete a counter right click in the graph area choose remove counter. I haven’t used this section too much yet because I’m not having any problems.

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The Resource Overview:

First open Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor, click Start, right-click Computer, and click Manage. Expand System Tools and click Reliability and Performance.

This screen is the Resource Overview. It gives you a look at your CPU, Hard Disk, Network and System Memory activity. You can click each tab for more information.

CPU:
This tab if expanded shows what is using your CPU.

Disk:
Shows what’s reading and writing to you disks and the speed.

Network:
Shows what programs or processes are accessing your network and their speed.

Memory:
Shows your memory usage by programs or processes. This is a good screen to where all your memory is going.

The Reliability Monitor:

The Reliability Monitor gives you a Stability chart graphed by the day so you can see what going on inside your computer. It will add little icons for each day for Software installs/uninstalls. Application, Hardware, Windows and Miscellaneous failures. Just click on the day you want to view and it will show you any problems recorded.