Inside the Windows Vista Diagnostic Console

The Windows Vista Diagnostic Console controls all Windows Vista performance-tuning and diagnostic tools. The console is set up like a dashboard, with the Resource Overview pane presenting four dynamic graphs. These dynamic graphs present the real-time usage of performance-sensitive system resources, including CPU, hard disk, network, and memory resources on the local computer.

You can drill down into the scrolling graphs by clicking the drop-down arrow beside one of the four expandable sections that provide more detail about each resource's performance.

Accessing the Performance Monitor

While the Windows Performance Monitor is a valuable utility, you aren't going to have access to the system mysteries it divines unless you are a member of your PC's Administrators group .

Perform the following steps to access the Performance Monitor:

1. Log onto the computer using an account that is a member of the Administrators group.

2. Choose Start All Programs Accessories Command Prompt.

3. At the command prompt, type perfmon. Press ENTER. The Reliability and Performance Monitor appears.

Viewing the Graphs

The four graphs in the Resource Overview pane are powerful tools, even to the non-PC technicians out there. While you may be locked out of the Resource Overview pane on your employer's PC due to restrictions on administrator privileges, you should have access to the console on your personal PC (unless you are sharing the PC and don't have administrator privileges for some reason or another).

Even if you consider yourself a "non-techie," you can easily get an interesting picture of the inner workings of your PC by periodically viewing the graphs in the Resource Overview pane. The next few sections delve a bit deeper into the contents of the Resource Overview pane's graphs.

CPU Graph

If your PC's central processing unit (CPU) slows down, your overall computing experience is going to suffer. The Resource Overview pane's CPU graph encapsulates the total percentage of CPU capacity chugging along in your PC. CPU usage is broken down by the following graphical elements:

Element	Description
Image	Delineates the application using CPU resources
PID	Displays the process ID of the application instance
Threads	Shows the number of threads currently active from the application instance
CPU	Shows the number of CPU cycles currently active from the application instance
Average CPU	Displays the average CPU load resulting from the application instance expressed as a percentage of the total capacity of the CPU

Disk Graph

Poor hard disk performance is another drag on system performance. The Disk graph displays the total current disk I/O, broken down as follows :

Element	Description
Image	Shows the application using disk resources
PID	Displays the process ID of the application instance
File	Shows the file being read and/or written by the application instance
Read	Displays the current speed at which data (in bytes/min) is being read from the file by the application instance
Write	Shows the current speed at which data is being written to the file (in bytes/min) by the application instance
Total	Displays the current disk I/O (in bytes/min) in use by the application instance

Network Graph

The Network graph displays the current total network traffic (in Kbps). The Network graph includes the following information:

Element	Description
Image	The application using network resources
PID	The process ID of the application instance
Address	The network address with which the local computer is exchanging information; may be expressed as a computer name when referring to other computers on the same LAN, as an IP address, or as a fully qualified domain name
Send	The amount of data (in Kbps) the application instance is currently sending from the local computer to the address
Receive	The amount of data (in Kbps) the application instance is currently receiving from the address
Total	The total bandwidth (in Kbps) currently being sent and received by the application instance

Memory Graph

The Memory graph displays the current hard faults per second and the percentage of physical memory currently in use. The Memory graph includes the following information:

Element	Description
Image	The application using memory resources.
PID	The process ID of the application instance.
Hard Faults	The number of hard faults currently resulting from the application instance.
Working Set	The number of pages currently resident in memory for the application instance