Adding Counters In Windows XP


System Monitor’s details pane is initially blank, waiting for you to select one or more of its myriad available performance measures. (A red vertical bar appears at the left side of the chart. If you do not see this bar, click the View Current Activity button on System Monitor’s toolbar.) To make your selection, click the Add button on the toolbar or right-click the chart and choose Add Counters from the shortcut menu. The Add Counters dialog box, shown in Figure appears.

To monitor your own computer, choose Use Local Computer Counters. To monitor a remote computer, choose Select Counters From Computer and then select the name of the computer you want to watch.

To specify what you want to monitor, begin by selecting an object from the Performance Object list. The remaining two lists in the dialog box then show the counters and instances available for the selected object. You can select counters and instances singly, or you can make multiple selections. (Hold down the Shift key to select adjacent items or the Ctrl key to select items that are not adjacent.) You can also use the All Counters and All Instances option buttons to select all the items in a list.

If you’re not sure what a particular counter counts (more than a remote possibility, given the number of available counters), select it in the counters list and then click Explain. A paragraph of descriptive prose will descend from the bottom of the dialog box.

After you’ve selected a combination of object, counter, and instance, you can click Add to add the combination to your chart, histogram, or report. Once you’ve finished adding counters, click Close to return to the Performance console. You can add as many counters as you like to your chart, histogram, or report. Note, however, that a chart with many counters can be difficult to read. If you need to track a large number of performance measures at one time, consider using multiple instances of the Performance console and putting some of the counters on the second or subsequent instance.


Figure. To tell System Monitor what you want to monitor, select an object, a counter, and an instance from the lists in this dialog box.