Using Windows 7 Tools to Discover System Information

Using Windows 7 Tools to Discover System Information

Windows 7 contains many other tools to discover system information about your computer. Some of the tools are as follows:

• System Information
• Task Manager
• Performance Information and Tools

System Information

You can use the System Information utility to show information about your hardware, software, and resources. Type msinfo32 in the Windows 7 search box to launch this utility.

Configure Performance settings

By analyzing data, you can determine whether any resources are placing an excessive load on your computer, resulting in a system slowdown. The following are some of the causes of poor system presentation:

• A resource is insufficient to handle the load that is being located upon it, and the component might need to be upgraded, or additional components might be required.
• If a resource has many instances, the resources might not be evenly balancing the workload, and the workload might need to be balanced over the multiple instances more efficiently.
• A resource might be malfunctioning. In this case, the resource should be repaired or replaced.
• A specific program might be allocating resources improperly or inefficiently, in which case the program needs to be rewritten or another application should be used.
• A resource might be configured improperly and causing excessive resource usage, and need to be reconfigured.

There are four main subsystems that you should check. You should systematize counters in your data collector set for each of these subsystems:

• The memory subsystem
• The processor subsystem
• The disk subsystem
• The network subsystem

Monitoring and Optimizing Memory

When the operating system wants a program or process, the first place it looks is in the physical memory. If the required program or process is not in the physical memory, the system looks in the logical memory (the page file). If the program or process is not in the logical memory, the system must then retrieve the program or process from the hard disk. It takes very long to access information from the hard disk than to get it from the physical RAM. If your computer is using excessive paging, that is an indication that your computer does not have enough physical memory. Insufficient memory is the most likely cause of system performance degradation. To determine how much memory is being used, you need to look at the next two areas:

Physical memory – The physical RAM you have installed on your computer.

Page File Logical memory– This memory exists on your hard drive. If you are using excessive paging (swapping between the page file and physical RAM) or hard page faults, it indicates that you need to add more memory.

The next three counters are most important for monitoring memory:

Memory, Available MBytes Memory, Available MBytes– This counter measures the amount of physical memory that is available to run processes on the computer. If this number is fewer than 20 percent of your installed memory, it indicates that you might have an overall shortage of physical memory for your computer, or you possibly have an application that is not releasing memory correctly. You should think adding more memory or evaluating application memory usage.

Memor, Pages/Sec Memory , Pages/Sec– This counter shows the number of times the requested  page was not in memory and had to be retrieved from the disk. This counter’s value is supposed to be under 20; for optimal performance, it should be 4 or 5. If the number is more than 20, you should add memory. Sometimes a high Pages/Sec counter is indicative of a program that is using a memory-mapped file.

Paging File, % Usage Paging File, % Usage– This counter shows the percentage of the allocated page file that is currently in use. If this percentage is consistently more than 70 percent, either you need to add more memory or increase the size of the page file.

Managing Processor Performance:Processor problems can increase when the threads of a process require more processingcycles than are at present obtainable. In this case, the process will wait in a processor queue, and system responsiveness will be slower than if process requests could be immediatelyserved. The most common causes of processor bottlenecks are processor-intensive applicationsand other subsystem components that generate excessive processor interrupts(for example, disk or network subsystems).However, you should  monitor this subsystem to make sure that processor utilization isat an efficient level.

Key Counters to Track for the Processor

You can track processor utilization through the Processor and System objects to determine whether a processor bottleneck exists. The next three counters are the most important for monitoring the system processor:

Processor, % Processor Time Processor, % Processor Time– This counter measures the time that the processor spends responding to system requests. If this value is consistently above an average of 85 percent, you might have a processor bottleneck.

The Processor, %User Time and Processor, % Privileged Time– These counter merge to show the total % Processor Time counter. You can also monitor these counters independently for more detail.

Processor, Interrupts/Sec Processor, Interrupts/Sec– This counter shows the average number of hardware interrupts received by the processor each second. If this value is more than 3,000, you might have a problem with a program or hardware that is generating spurious interrupts.

System, Processor Queue Length System, Processor Queue Length is used to determine whether a processor bottleneck is due to high levels of demand for processor time. If a queue of two or more items exists for an extended period of time, a processor bottleneck might be indicated. If you suspect that a processor bottleneck is due to excessive hardware I/O requests, then you are supposed to also monitorthe System, File Control Bytes/Sec counter.

Tuning and Upgrading the Processor

If you think that you have a processor bottleneck, you can try these solutions:

• Use applications that are less processor-intensive.
• Upgrade your processor.
• If your computer supports multiple processors, add a processor.

The Memory and Processor subsystem objects are important counters to evaluate in determining your Windows 7 performance.

Managing the Disk Subsystem

Disk access can be defined as the amount of time your disk subsystem takes to retrieve data that is requested by the operating system. The two factors that determine how quickly your disk subsystem will respond to system requests are the average disk access time on your hard drive and the speed of your disk controller.

Key Counters to Track for the Disk Subsystem

You can monitor the Physical Disk object, which is the sum of all logical drives on a single physical drive, or you can monitor the Logical Disk object, which represents a specific logical disk. The important counters for monitoring the disk subsystem are as follows:

Physical Disk,% Disk Time and Logical Disk, % Disk Time Physical Disk, % Disk Time and Logical Disk , % Disk Time– These counters show the amount of time the disk is busy becauseit is servicing read or write requests. If your disk is busy more than 90 percent of the time,you can improve presentation by adding another disk channel and splitting the disk I/Orequests between the channels.

Physical Disk, Current Disk Queue Length and Logical Disk, Current Disk Queue Length Physical Disk, Current Disk Queue Length and Logical Disk, Current Disk Queue Length–These counters indicate the number of outstanding disk requests that are waiting to beprocessed. On average, this value should be less than 2.

Logical Disk, % Free Space Logical Disk,% Free Space – These counters specify how much free disk space is available. This counter should indicate at least 15 percent.

Tuning and Upgrading the Disk Subsystem

When a disk subsystem bottleneck occurs, then first check your memory subsystem. Insufficient physical memory can cause excessive paging, which in turn affects the disk subsystem. If you do not have a memory problem, then you can use the following solutions to improve disk presentation:

·         Use faster disks and controllers.

·         Confirm that you have the latest drivers for your disk adapters.

·         Use disk striping to take advantage of multiple I/O channels.

·         Balance heavily used files on multiple I/O channels.

·         Add another disk controller for load balancing.

·         Use Disk Defragmenter to consolidate files so that disk space and data access are optimized.

Optimizing the Network Subsystem

Windows 7 does not have a built-in mechanism to monitor the network. But only that traffic can be monitored and optimized which is generated on your Windows 7 computer. You can monitor the network interface and the network protocols that have been installed on your computer.

Network bottlenecks occur when network traffic exceeds the maximum capacity of the local area network (LAN).

Key Counters to Track for the Network Subsystem

Local network traffic can be monitored with the Performance Monitor utility.The following two counters are useful for monitoring the network subsystem:

A Network Interface, Bytes Total/Sec Network Interface, Bytes Total/Sec measure– This counter measures the total number of bytes sent or received from the network interface and includes all network protocols.

TCPv4 > Segments/Sec TCPv4 Segments/Sec– This counter measures the number of bytes sent or received from the network interface and includes only the TCPv4 protocol.

Tuning and Upgrading the Network Subsystem

You can use these measures to optimize and `enhance network performance on your system:

• Install and assemble only those protocols are required.
• Use faster network cards, like 100 Mbps Ethernet or 1 Gbps. 

Posted in: Managing the Disk Subsystem,Monitoring and Optimizing Memory in Windows 7,Optimizing the Network Subsystem,Performance setting,Processor,Windows 7