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| Running . . . Resource Meter & System Monitor |
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System Tools February 2001 • Vol.7 Issue 2 Page(s) 104 in print issue |
Running . . . Resource Meter & System Monitor | ||
 As every computer user is painfully aware, your system bogs down from time to time. Everyone has experienced program or system crashes, but it's never easy to figure out why. Perhaps you have a program that's hogging processor resources or draining memory, but how do you determine this? Fortunately, Windows Me includes two utilities from previous versions of Windows to help you pinpoint computer problems and monitor the usage of system resources: the Resource Meter and System Monitor. To make sure you have these two tools on your system, click Start, Programs, Accessories, and System Tools. Look for the Resource Meter and System Monitor. If you see them, proceed to the next section. If not, click Start, Settings, and Control Panel. Then, double-click Add/Remove Programs, select the Windows Setup tab, and wait while WinMe searches for the installed components on your system. When it displays the components, locate System Tools in the list. Click it, and then click the Details button. Next, scroll to the bottom of the Components list and select System Resource Meter and System Monitor (as needed). Click OK and your system prompts you to insert your WinMe CD-ROM. Insert the disc, then click OK. Click OK to each of the prompts, and your system installs the components.  Resource Meter. Let's begin by looking at the Resource Meter. This tool lets you monitor the resources on your system before a crash occurs. To work with the Resource Meter, click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and Resource Meter. The system displays a warning message explaining that the Resource Meter itself uses up a small amount of resources. If you don't want to see the warning each time you start Resource Meter, click the Don't Display This Message Again checkbox. Next, click OK, and WinMe adds the Resource Meter to your System Tray on the far right side of the Taskbar. Double-click the Resource Meter icon in the System Tray to display the amount of resources available on your system. You can easily view how much of each resource WinMe is using in numerical percentages or according to its usage bars. The more programs you open, the more resources you use, and the lower the percentage number is of free resources. If resources drop below 20%, you are at risk of a system crash. In addition, you can simply watch the icon in the System Tray as you're working on other tasks because it acts just like a gas gauge. The fewer green bars you see, the lower your resources are. By keeping an eye on this gauge, you can determine if resources are too low and close some programs (or even reboot). But if you continue to have problems, you may want to look at the system usage more closely by launching the System Monitor. System Monitor. This utility is good to use if you are having system problems on a regular basis. Looking at the problem more carefully with the System Monitor lets you monitor processor usage and other system-level resources such as memory. By default, you'll only see the processor usage percentage. If you notice that a particular program is using a high level of processor resources that aren't ever returning to a normal level, then you may be able to pinpoint system problems to a particular program. To use the System Monitor, click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and System Monitor. By default, the System Monitor displays processor usage in the form of a bar chart. If you want to see the data in the form of a line chart or as a numerical value, click the appropriate toolbar button or click Line Charts or Numeric Charts from the View menu. If you want to monitor other items, click Add Item from the Edit menu. In the Add Item dialog box, click an item from the Category area, and then click the item you want to monitor. You can select multiple items by pressing SHIFT or CTRL on your keyboard as you click items. Finally, click OK to view the new charts. Then, if you later want to remove items from the selected list that you are currently monitoring, click Remove Item from the Edit menu. Under The Microscope. If you are experiencing system problems or frequent crashes and cannot identify the problem source (or sources), the Resource Meter and System Monitor will help you see which resources are being used—and at what times.  by Ron Miller
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