Reader Jacob Leeds asks:
“How do I automatically track my resource usage stats on Windows 10?”
That’s easy, Jacob: Win10’s built-in Performance Monitor does exactly what you want! It lets you produce and save graphs, charts, and text-based output that tracks any of Windows’ thousands of performance metrics over time.
You can access the tool by typing (or saying) Performance Monitor or PerfMon in the Cortana/search box. The tool will then open. Select Performance/Monitoring Tools/Performance Monitor and you’ll see the default chart, which shows how hard your CPU is working, in real time. (See example, below.)
You didn’t specify what you’re trying to track, Jacob, but in addition to the major items such as CPU usage, memory in use, network traffic, and the other high-level metrics, Performance Monitor can track literally thousands of other detailed measurements.
(Thousands? Yup! Just for fun: For a full list of all the potential items Performance Monitor is capable of tracking on your system, open an Admin-level command window and type
TypePerf.exe -qx > c:\counters.txt
It’ll take a few seconds to run. When it’s done, open counters.txt in the C:\ folder, and you’ll see what’s available for your system. In my case — a mainstream, nothing-fancy laptop — Performance Monitor reports over 53,000 counters available! But don’t be daunted; just because they’re available doesn’t mean you have to use ’em!)
To add counters to the real-time graph, click on the green plus sign above the graph, and a new dialog will open. You can then select whatever counters you wish.
You can pause the graphs and charts; and save whatever data you wish. The data collection will go on in the background, even if you’re not actively watching the output.
High-level or low, big-picture or fine-grained info, once you know just what it is you’re trying to track, you can use Performance Monitor’s Reports function to generate output in various formats with just the data sets you want collected.
The following references will help you dig in:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-performance-monitor-windows-10
https://winaero.com/blog/system-performance-report-windows-10/
http://www.appadmintools.com/documents/windows-performance-counters-explained/
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-windows-performance-monitor-like-power-user/
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