Advanced Diagnostic Tools in Windows 7

Resource Monitor

Whereas Performance Monitor helps you diagnose problems with Windows services and components, Resource Monitor gives you extensive real-time information about your processor, memory, hard disks, and networking. Figure 14-9 shows the information you find on the Memory tab of Resource Monitor. If one of your applications is consuming vast amounts of memory, you would find information about it here. Each tab lets you know exactly what’s going on at a given moment in a different part of your system, from the status of processes and services running (or not running) on your CPU to the current activity on your network.

Figure 14-9 Resource Monitor in Windows 7

Resource Monitor provides information similar to what Windows Task Manager gives you but supplies many more details, which can be useful when you’re diagnosing advanced problems in Windows or in your applications.