Monitoring and Optimizing System Performance

Monitoring and Optimizing System Performance

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In order to maintain your computer, it is necessary to monitor its performance. Through performance monitoring tools, you can obtain performance data and up-to-date important information about how your computer is performing. This article is aimed at teaching you how to monitor and optimize your computer's performance.

A computer's performance gradually deteriorates overtime. However, this is not due to the hardware configuration of the computer. File data is written in contiguous blocks on a hard disk. Over time, however, it breaks into discontiguous fragments. Although the hard disk is still able to read the file, it takes longer to load. Hard disks perform at its best when files are written in contiguous blocks. Running the Disk Defragmenter utility on the hard disk improves a computer's performance.

Sometimes users complain that while running a financial application, the performance of other applications deteriorates. To resolve such issues, you should configure the financial application to run with BelowNormal priority. Since a financial application takes a lot of processor time to process data, the performance of other applications deteriorates. Therefore, reducing its priority (BelowNormal) will give other applications more processor time and enhance their performance.

The Windows 2000/2003 Performance tool consists of two parts: System Monitor, and Performance Logs and Alerts. The Performance tool allows you to monitor the performance objects on local as well as remote computers. Using this tool, you can create a performance chart for processor utilization, disk utilization, network activities, and Exchange processes to detect bottlenecks.

Performance Monitor is used to get statistical information about the hardware and software components of a server. Performance Monitor is used for the following tasks:

• Monitoring objects on multiple computers.
• Logging data pertaining to objects on multiple computers, over time.
• Analyzing the effects of changes made to a computer.
• Launching programs and sending notifications when thresholds are reached.
• Exporting data for analysis in spreadsheet or database applications.
• Saving counter and object settings for repeated use.
• Creating reports for use in performance analysis, over time.

You can configure the operating system settings by using the System program. Operating system environment settings can be changed, irrespective of which user is using a certain Control Panel program. To configure operating system settings, in Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, where you will find many system performance configuration options.

You can control the visual effects on your computer. You have four options available in Windows XP Professional for this particular purpose, namely Let Windows Choose What's Best For My Computer, Adjust For Best Appearance, Adjust For Best Performance, and Custom.

Configuring User Profiles: In Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, click System, and then click the Advanced tab. In this way, you can create a user profile. Windows XP Professional stores the Local profile on the computer you log on to for the first time. The second type of profile is a Roaming profile, which is meant for a Domain environment. It sets up the same desktop environment for the user no matter which computer the user logs on to in the domain.

Environment variables keep system and user environment information and information such as drive, path, and filenames. During installation, Windows XP Professional configures system variables that affect all computer users. Only an administrator can add, delete, or modify the system environment variables. But a user can configure a particular desktop from the System Properties dialog box and can add, remove, or modify the environment variables. If you are logged on as an administrator, you can use the Automatic Update feature and automatically download and install updates on your computer.

Note: You must restart the computer after installing updates. You also need to configure it before downloading anything, otherwise updates will not be downloaded.

Task Manager: Task Manager is the primary monitoring tool. It provides detailed information of the programs and processes running on your computer. It is used for an immediate overview of a computer's activity and performance. You can start Task Manager in any of the following three ways:

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
2. Right-click the Windows taskbar, and then click Task Manager.
3. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

You can select the program showing in the Task Manager dialog box to stop a program from running or switch to any other program running currently in the background, and to start a program (New task).

Task Manager is a utility that is used for managing applications, processes, and computer performance in general, and also for viewing the network and user statistics. The Task Manager utility is used to run or end programs or applications. Administrators use this tool to troubleshoot bottlenecks and quickly terminate rogue applications.

SCHTASKS: The SCHTASKS tool is used to schedule commands and programs to run periodically or at specific times. It adds and removes tasks from the schedule, starts and stops tasks on demand, and displays and changes scheduled tasks.

The Microsoft Task Scheduler is an amazing little FREE tool that (in most cases) already comes with your Windows installation and hides in the Control Panel folder, which is located in the My Computer folder on your desktop. Task Scheduler starts each time you start Windows, and runs in the background. By using Task Scheduler, you can schedule tasks, i.e., to automate Web testing and site monitoring or system tools such as Disk Defragmenter to run at a convenient time.

With Task Scheduler, you can schedule a task to run daily, weekly, monthly, or at certain times (such as system startup). You will find it in the My Computer folder.

Task Scheduler is a graphical tool used to run scripts or programs according to their schedule.

Following tasks can be performed with Task Scheduler:

• Schedule a task to run daily, weekly, monthly, or at specific times.
• Change the schedule for a task.
• Stop a scheduled task.
• Customize how a task runs at a scheduled time.

Windows XP Professional saves scheduled tasks in the Scheduled Task folder, which can be accessed through Control Panel under Performance and Maintenance. You can access the Schedule Task folder of another computer and move tasks from one computer to another.

System startup: The system log is used to store events logged by the Windows NT/2000 system components. For example, events such as driver failure during startup are recorded in the system log. The event types logged by system components are predetermined by the Windows NT/2000 operating system.

The BOOT.INI file describes the location of boot partitions specified using Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) naming conventions. BOOT.INI contains information that NTLDR reads for loading the operating system. If multiple operating systems exist on a computer, BOOT.INI provides the choice of selecting an operating system.

Hardware Profile

Hardware profiles are sets of instructions that tell Windows XP Professional which devices to enable when the computer is started. It allows a user to decide which device driver Windows XP Professional should load at the time of booting.

Hardware profiles are useful for laptops. As a laptop can be used at different locations with different hardware devices, hardware profiles allow users to change devices with the change of locations.

Every device installed on the computer at the time of installation of Windows XP Professional is enabled by default in the Profile 1 hardware profile.

Take the following steps to set hardware profiles:

• Double-click System in Control Panel.
• Click the Hardware tab.
• Click Hardware Profiles 0.

Note: The Log view of Performance Monitor is able to track events historically for later review. The Alert, View, and Chart views are real-time views that show the current data or alert messages.

In the event of a system failure, its recovery is difficult and tiresome for administrators. Recovery involves reinstallation of the operating system, mounting and cataloging the backup tape, and then performing the full restore. To make this process easier, Windows provides a feature called Automated System Recovery (ASR).

Automated System Recovery (ASR) is a feature of Windows Server 2003. It is used to restore the system state data and services in the event of a major system failure. An ASR restore includes the configuration information for devices. ASR backs up the system data and local system partition. It does not back up folders and files.

Creating an ASR Set

Take the following steps to create an Automated System Recovery (ASR) set by using the Backup or Restore Wizard:

1. Run Backup from the Start menu > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup.
   
   



2. In the Welcome screen of the Backup or Restore Wizard, click the Advanced Mode link.
   
   



3. On the Welcome page of the Advanced Mode of the Backup utility, choose the ASR Wizard option from the Tools menu.
   
   



4. In the Welcome screen of the ASR Wizard, click the Next button.
   
   



5. On the Backup Destination page, specify the location of the backup, and click the Next button.
   
   



6. Click the Finish button.
   
   

Managing Storage Devices

You can use default tools, Removable Storage, Disk Defragmenter, and Disk Management to manage the properties of storage devices. You can see the storage devices installed on the computer in the Computer Management console tree.

Disk Defragmenter is a system utility used to analyze local volumes and to locate and consolidate fragmented files and folders. The Disk Defragmenter utility has the native ability to provide specific 'exit code' information to the operating system.

A program instruction on a CPU can address up to 4GB of memory, using its full 32 bits. This is normally far more than the RAM of a computer. Windows XP Professional uses the Memory Usage settings to distribute memory resources between running programs. Those parts of the program and data that are currently active are loaded into Physical Random Access Memory (RAM). Demand paging is the process used to exchange data between Random Access Memory and paging files.

Note: Demand paging allows the user a greater degree of independence, as a large number of programs are designed to run well at reduced performance on smaller configurations.

Virtual memory is a temporary storage in the hard disk for storing additional data in the RAM. When the physical memory (RAM) is exhausted, an operating system (such as Windows 95/98, NT, and 2000) moves the data corresponding to older processes from the RAM to the virtual memory area on the hard disk. Hence, space is created in the RAM for newer processes. Virtual memory is the simulated RAM, created by using a portion of the hard disk as a swap file. Although this extends a computer's capabilities to execute the process even when its RAM is not sufficient, it slows down the processes and programs that use virtual memory and those that need to read and write to the hard disk.

Paging Files: The page file in XP is a hidden file called PAGEFILE.SYS. Virtual memory stores the memory pages that are not currently in use on the hard disk drive to free up memory for other applications. This process is known as paging.

The size of the paging file should be at least 12MB more than the RAM available on a computer. Its size can be altered, and a new paging file can be created through Control Panel > System > Performance and clicking the Change button. Spreading paging files across multiple disks improves computer performance, as multiple disks can process I/O requests concurrently. You can have up to sixteen separate paging files. This is how you can enhance your computer's performance. Moreover, since Windows NT system files are frequently accessed, paging files should be placed on all disks other than the disk containing Windows NT system files (the system and boot partition). This improves performance because the hard disk controller can read from and write to multiple hard disks simultaneously.

Page fault: A page fault is an interruption that occurs when a program or data, when requested, is not present in the computer's main memory. In the event of a page fault, the operating system searches data in the virtual memory of the computer. If the data cannot be mapped even to the virtual memory, an invalid page fault occurs. Invalid page faults are very difficult to diagnose. Due to invalid page faults, an operating system generates several types of errors. A few of them are as follows:

• IEXPLORER.EXE has generated errors and must be shut down.
• Page could not be displayed.
• An access violation occurred in MSHTML.DLL.
• Could not open the search page.

At the end of this article, you must now be able to use, monitor, and optimize your computer's performance for security purposes, for configuring operating system settings, and for environment variables. You must have also learnt how to distribute resources and schedule processes to remove bottlenecks and optimize disk performance.

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