What's New in the Latest Performance Monitor Update

Performance Monitor is a powerful visualization tool for viewing performance data, both in real-time and from log files as either a graph or report. It now has a new version that you can find as part of the Windows Admin Center (which will open in your browser). If you're using the older versions (prior to Windows 2022), check out this blog, "Windows Performance Monitor—Configuring the Display," to learn how to configure the three display types.

If you're interested in using the newest Performance Monitor version, you'll have to add it to your download from Microsoft since it's not part of the standard installation. The Windows Admin Center package has many functions, but this blog will focus on the new updates to Performance Monitor.

Four Types of Views to Display

In the latest version of Windows Performance Monitor, you can now configure four graph types: report, line, min-max, and heatmap.

To start a new performance monitor, you'll have to select  "Blank Workspace" and click on the blue button "Add Counter"

Configuring the Report View

The report option is useful as it shows all the numerical values for all the selected counters. This can be really helpful when you have a lot of counters that you understand at the same time. One nice thing with report view is that you don’t have to worry about adjusting scaling as you do on the line view.

In the example below, I entered the following criteria:

• Object = Memory
• Instance = Single Instance
• Counter = Available MBytes
• Graph Type = Report

Configuring the Line View

The line view is the typical view used with a performance monitor. It displays a line on the graph for each counter that you are monitoring. Each counter is auto-scaled when you add it to the monitor, and a color is selected. The line view is used to show trends over time.

It can also visually correlate the changes in several counter values. One challenge with the line view is that it can be hard to distinguish between the lines if there are many counters on the monitor.

In the example below, I entered the following criteria:

• Object = Memory
• Instance = Single Instance
• Counter = Available MBytes
• Graph Type = Line

Configuring the Min-Max View

The Min-max view gives you a summary of the data. Here, we’re looking at Available Memory. You can see there is plenty available, and it has been the entirety of the monitoring.

In the example below, I entered the following criteria:

• Object = Memory
• Instance = Single Instance
• Counter = Available MBytes
• Graph Type = Min-Max

Configuring the Heatmap View

The Heatmap view uses color coding to represent different levels of performance metrics. Reds and Oranges typically indicate higher values. In this case, we’re in the middle of the value range, so purple. Blues and greens usually represent lower values.

The Heatmap view helps quickly identify hotspots or areas of concern. Anyone can read this and quickly understand the implications of the data.

In the example below, I entered the following criteria:

• Object = Memory
• Instance = Single Instance
• Counter = Available MBytes
• Graph Type = Heatmap

You can easily switch between views in the drop-down Graph Type field. The Histogram view is no longer available in this latest version.