Using the Windows 7 Resource Monitor and Reliability Monitor

The Windows 7 Resource Monitor lets you peek into the inner workings of the beast, with graphs and statistics galore. If you're having trouble with a program taking over your computer, or if you're curious to see how much of its memory is being used, the Resource Monitor knows all, sees all, tells all.

To peruse the internal behavior of your system, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start → All Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Resource Monitor.
   The Windows 7 Resource Monitor appears, in its Overview state.
2. To keep a watch on which programs are hogging the CPU, click the Average CPU column heading.
   That column presents a 60-second running average of CPU utilization. The hogs float to the top.
   If a program has stopped responding, right-click it here and choose Analyze Process. You may be able to glean some worthwhile information that helps you whack the program upside the head.
3. If you're curious about how your computer's memory is being used, click the Memory tab.
   The Resource Monitor's memory tracker appears. The bar graph at the bottom may surprise you, particularly if you have 4GB installed on a 32-bit Windows 7 system: A sizable chunk of memory isn't accessible, and this graph tells you how much.
   In general, if Windows reports many page faults (the graph marked Hard Faults/sec), you may be able to increase your computer's performance significantly by increasing its amount of memory.
4. When you're done, click the X Close button to close the Resource Monitor.

By contrast, the Windows 7 Reliability Monitor gives you an eagle-eye view of the problems your PC has encountered, with some insight as to the causes.