Simple clear advice in plain English

Solve PC problems with the Resource Monitor

If your Windows 7 PC slows down and you want to find out why, the Resource Monitor can help. We explain how

pc-performance-chart-illustration
The Resource Monitor can identify a so-called bottleneck in your PC

Understanding Windows 7's Resource Monitor can help you spot problems, fix them and even make the right decision when it comes to upgrading your computer. In this article we look at similar tools in Windows XP and Vista, and how to use the Resource Monitor tool in Windows 7.

Avoid the queues
The Resource Monitor is most helpful when you need to identify a so-called bottleneck in your computer. These are the parts of your computer that limit its performance.

If you think of the flow of information through your computer as cars driving down a road, a bottleneck is when the dual carriageway becomes a single carriageway. Two lanes of traffic cannot fit onto a single lane at the same speed and will cause a tailback, no matter how fast the cars might have been travelling up to that point.

The insides of a computer are rather more complicated, of course, but the principle is the same. For example, when Windows runs out of memory to store temporary information it has to use some space on the hard disk instead. As the hard disk is around 100 times slower than memory, this slows everything down.

The Resource Monitor can also reveal problems with specific programs. If you replace the program then performance problems may well disappear.

Monitor performance in Windows XP
There have been equivalents to the Resource Monitor in previous versions of Windows. The Windows XP Performance Monitor tool, for example, can be started by clicking on the Start button, clicking Run, typing perfmon.exe and pressing Enter.

This tool looks basic but contains some useful information. The green line shows how hard the processor is working, the blue line outlines the hard disk performance and the yellow line shows how the memory is being used.

Windows Vista users should click on the Start button, type Reliability and Performance Monitor and press Enter. Click on Continue when the User Account Control window appears. The main part of the window includes graphs showing the performance of the computer’s processor, hard disk, network and memory. More information can be found by clicking on the title rows beneath the graphs.

The Reliability monitor, available in Vista, presents a graph that shows how reliable the computer has been. Problems are marked with icons with more information beneath, making it easy to see if a problem is causing repeated crashes.

Reader Comments

   

Add your comment

All fields must be completed. Your email address will not be displayed or used to send marketing messages.

All messages will be checked by moderators before appearing on the site.

See our Privacy Policy for more information.

Related articles

performance-troubleshooting-illustration

Speed up a Windows 7 PC's performance

Find out if Windows 7’s Performance Troubleshooter can help speed up your computer

screenshot-showing-how-the-bars-display-system-utilisation-in-windows-7

Taskbar Meters

Get more information about computer health from the Windows 7 computer

firefox4

Browse the web safely and quickly with Firefox 9

The Firefox browser is a fast, secure and flexible alternative to Internet Explorer

Question & Answer

Q.Why are some of the keys on my keyboard doing strange...

> Read the answer

Q.Is my phone’s Bluetooth any use?

> Read the answer

Q.Can I switch boot drives so that I can work on older...

> Read the answer

Best deals on the web

img

Samsung RV520-A07

£359.98- Buy it now

img

Acer Aspire 5750G (LX.RXP02.019)

£399.99- Buy it now

img

Apple MacBook Pro (MD313B/A)

£904.37- Buy it now

Latest issue & subscription deals

Poll

Are you concerned about viruses that target mobile phones?

Jargon Buster

Computing terms explained in plain English

Bittorrent

A technology for downloading files. Allows even very large files to be downloaded quickly.

Great shopping deals from Computeractive