Share this post:Performance Monitor, or PerfMon (perfmon.exe), is a part of Windows since over 25 years. It is a valuable tool for server administrators, providing in-depth insight into our servers’ performance. PerfMon and performance counters were the best tools to troubleshoot problems when they were slow or not working.
I was at Microsoft Ignite 2019 when they announced the new Performance Monitor. It got a nice facelift, along with some new features. It is a great tool that many people use often. However, the user interface has not changed much in a long period of time. It was difficult to use and took a lot of time to learn for admins. It always gives me a nostalgic grin every time I open it. You can launch perfmon.exe and go back in time.
Ahh, sweet nostalgia.
The New Windows Performance Monitor
The Performance Monitor tool is now available in Preview. Windows Admin Center version 1910 can be downloaded here. Windows Admin Center is incredible. Keep checking back for new features as they become available.
New Look
The new interface is amazing. It is a complete redesign and has a modern look and feel. It’s sharp and vibrant and available in both a light and dark theme.
Functionality
You can add performance counters to the Performance Monitor for the objects that you want to monitor, just like the original Performance Monitor. There are many counters. To narrow down the list of objects, use keyword search to find the right instance or counter.
What objects should you be watching? To help you make a decision, details about each counter will appear as a tooltip when hovering over an object.
Performance Monitor will suggest counters that may be relevant to you based on your selections. Performance Monitor suggests other counters based on what I have selected. For example, I chose “Bytes Sent/Sec” and Performance Monitor suggested “Bytes Received/Sec”.
Types of graphs
There are many ways to visualize the performance data that you collect. The first is the familiar line graph. This has some cool new features such as:
To see the values at that moment in time, hover over a point along the line.
To highlight a single line, hover over the legend.
The Report View
There are some new cool features in the report view. It supports copy and paste. You can even copy the entire table to Excel or another Office program. The formula below uses the pasted data.
Performance Monitor has added Min-max graph type. This graph type shows minimum and maximum values as well as current or average values. You can also hover over the boxes to see a box-and whisker view, which shows minimum, maximum, median, and the 25th, 75th percentile.
Workspaces
With all these options, it would be a shame to have to recreate it every single time. You don’t have to! You don’t need to! You can save the counters or graphs you have chosen as a Performance Monitor workspace.
But wait! There’s more! You can also download a workspace to backup your data or share it with others. Workspaces can be saved as a.json file. This will include the layout data, selected view types and counters, but not the data point.
Here’s a quick overview of some of the cool new features in the Performance Monitor. What are you waiting for, Windows Admin Center version 1910? Get Windows Admin Center version 1910 to see the Performance Monitor.
Do you need Microsoft technical skills or IT certification training IT professionals love ITProTV for its entertaining edutainers, and binge-worthy video content. Get a free 7-day trial of Microsoft online IT training
