Ever get calls about a computer acting up and everyone swears nothing has changed? Yeah, me too. Problems like this make me love the reliability monitor tool because I no longer have to trust the user (hint – they lie). When I am troubleshooting a computer and want a quick history of the machine, I launch the View reliability history tool from the start menu or run perfmon /rel .
At a glance, I can now see items like:
- application or OS crashes
- recently installed drivers or applications
- software updates
- unsuccessful installs/uninstalls
- reported problems (and uninstalled solutions)
The default view is a linear chart by day but you can also sort the monitor by weeks. The next time you get a call about a slow machine or a broken application, launch the reliability monitor to get a bird’s-eye view. And if you have a favorite troubleshooting tool, let me know what it is in the comments below.