Identify Resource Usage in Resource View

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista

Four scrolling graphs in the Resource Overview pane display the real-time usage of CPU, Disk, Network, and Memory on the local computer. Four expandable sections below the graphs contain process-level detail about each resource. Click the resource labels to see more information, or click a graph to expand its corresponding details.

Resource View navigation

Sort columns by value

Click the column header label to sort in ascending order. Click the column header label a second time to sort in descending order.

Highlight an application instance

Click anywhere in the application instance's row to keep highlighting when the application instance's position in the display changes.

Resource View details

The detail tables contain the following information.

Label Description

CPU

The CPU label displays the total percentage of CPU capacity currently in use in green, and the CPU Maximum Frequency in blue.

Note
Some laptop computers will reduce the Maximum Frequency of the CPU when the computer is not connected to an AC power supply to reduce battery usage.

  • Image

The application using CPU resources.
  • PID

The process ID of the application instance.
  • Description

The name of the application.
  • Threads

The number of threads currently active from the application instance.
  • CPU

The CPU cycles currently active from the application instance.
  • Average CPU

The average CPU load over the last 60 seconds resulting from the application instance, expressed as a percentage of the CPU's total capacity.
Label Description

Disk

The Disk label displays the total current I/O in green, and the highest active time percentage in blue.
  • Image

The application using Disk resources.
  • PID

The process ID of the application instance.
  • File

The file being read and/or written by the application instance.
  • Read

The current speed (in Bytes/min.) at which data is being read from the file by the application instance.
  • Write

The current speed (in Bytes/min.) at which data is being written to the file by the application.
  • IO Priority

The priority of the IO task for the application.
  • Response Time

The response time in milliseconds for the disk activity.
Label Description

Network

The Network label displays the current total network traffic (in Kbps) in green and the percentage of network capacity in use in blue.
  • 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. This may be expressed as a computer name, as an IP address, or as a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
  • Send

The amount of data (in Bytes/min.) the application instance is currently sending from the local computer to the address.
  • Receive

The amount of data (in Bytes/min.) the application instance is currently receiving from the address.
  • Total

The total bandwidth (in Bytes/min.) currently being sent and received by the application instance.
Label Description

Memory

The Memory label displays the current Hard Faults per second in green and the percentage of physical memory currently in use in blue.
  • Image

The application using Memory resources.
  • PID

The process ID of the application instance.
  • Hard Faults/min.

The number of hard faults per minute currently resulting from the application instance.

Note
A hard fault (also known as a page fault) occurs when the page of the referenced address is no longer in physical memory and has been swapped out or is available from a backing file on disk. It is not an error. However, a high number of hard faults may explain the slow response time of an application if it must continually read data back from disk rather than from physical memory.

  • Working set (KB)

The number of kilobytes currently resident in memory for the application instance.
  • Shareable (KB)

The number of kilobytes of the application instance's working set that may be available for other applications to use.
  • Private (KB)

The number of kilobytes of the application instance's working set that is dedicated to the process.

Additional considerations

  • Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is required to use Resource View.

  • To start Resource View, click Start, click in the Start Search box, type perfmon, and press ENTER.

  • If Resource View does not display real-time data when Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor starts, click the green Start button in the toolbar.

    • If you are prompted with the following message, select Take control of the session.

      The Windows Kernel Trace provider is already in use by another trace session. Taking control of it may cause the current owner to stop functioning properly.

      If access is denied, you are running Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor with insufficient credentials. Log on or run the program as a member of the Administrators group.

Additional references