Archive for September, 2009:
Using System Monitor (4)
Graph appearance is important. For example, you might want to add horizontal or vertical graph lines. Click Properties on the System Monitor toolbar when you want to change any of the settings. Figure 7.7 shows the General tab of the System Monitor Properties dialog box where you can choose many of the graph properties. System Monitor supports three views including graph, histogram, and report. You can also select a view using the appropriate button on the toolbar.
Below the views are three options for displaying the Toolbar, Value bar, and Legend. The toolbar contains all of the buttons we’ve discussed to this point. The Value bar contains a list of all the vital statistics for the counter highlighted in the Legend. For example, you can learn the minimum, maximum, and average values for a particular counter. The Legend lists the selected counters. Each counter entry includes the instance, parent, object, and computer information.
The report and histogram views support only instantaneous data values. Sometimes it’s beneficial to see something other than the default data. For example, you might want to see the average data value. The next section of the General tab allows you to change the histogram and report view values. The default setting displays the current (instantaneous) values.
“The Sample automatically every setting” permits you to update the display more or less often than the default setting of 1 second. Clearing this entry will freeze the display. The “Allow duplicate counter instances” option tells System Monitor that it’s OK to display more than one instance of the same data. This feature comes in handy in report view, but is actually detrimental in other views.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Transient Ischemic Attack: The Starting Point
A transient ischemic attack (TIA) involves partial blockage or spasm of a blood vessel in the brain without a complete cutoff in the blood supply. A TIA portends a stroke, just as chest pain due to angina warns of a heart attack. This is the stage where prevention and prophylactic treatment for a possible stroke are vital. If you have any of the risk factors for stroke, you need to learn a little about
TIAs.
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An ambulance screamed
An ambulance screamed outside our hospital, disrupting our conversation. Such sounds are par for the course in virtually every neighborhood in New York City. Joan lived in a quiet suburb in northern New Jersey, but she showed absolutely no reaction to the sound of the ambulance. She sat slumped in her chair, barely moving. On further inquiry, she said that life was now a chore, the fun had disappeared. She couldn’t concentrate on reading the newspaper, and was having trouble getting her act together to make it to work every morning. Her sleep was disturbed, but she still had a fair appetite and denied any
physical complaints.
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Using System Monitor (2)
Counter
A counter is a specific performance measure within the object. The counter is the portion of the performance monitor that acquires the data. The term counter is accurate in this case. The counters actually do count the number of occurrences of an event within a given time interval. For example, when determining the percentage of CPU cycles used to handle user requests, the counter counts both the total processor clock cycles and those used to handle user needs. It then
performs a mathematical computation to calculate the percentage.
Instance
In some cases, saying you want to count something such as the percentage of processor time used to handle user needs doesn’t define the problem. For example, if you have two processors and want to determine the percentage of user time, you have to indicate whether you want the user time for one or both processors. You also need to indicate which processor you want to work with if you choose only one.
As you can see, the potential number of performance monitoring combinations for a single system is immense. A typical system provides a minimum of 40 performance objects. Each of these objects have a number of counters (2 is a minimum and 30 is common). Many of these counters have at least two instances and a _Total instance (the combination of all instances of a counter). After you add the counters, click Close. You’ll return to the Performance console and see the ounters you selected displaying data.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
CHAPTER 12 Small Strokes, Big Strokes
BLOCKAGE OF THE ARTERIES SUPPLYING THE HEART is the most notorious action of fatty plaques, but these cholesterol-filled growths occur just as often in the brain. There are many narrow, crooked, tortuous blood vessels in the brain, and these curves and kinks become the danger points: fatty, cholesterol-filled plaques stick to the inside walls and grow in size until they slow down blood flow, then a blood clot gradually forms and eventually causes complete blockage. When their blood supply is cut off, the nerve cells die due to lack of glucose and oxygen: this is the most common form of stroke.
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Using System Monitor (1)
System Monitor is the medium-term performance monitoring tool. This tool provides better monitoring capabilities than Task Manager because you can view it for a longer time frame—the history is more complete and easier to manage. System Monitor provides all of the displays used for analysis of performance data. To view System Monitor, open the Performance console found in the Administrative Tools folder of the Control Panel. The Performance console actually contains two snap-ins
(applications): System Monitor and Performance Logs and Alerts (described in the “Using Performance Logs and Alerts” section of the chapter), as shown in Figure 7.5. The following sections describe some essential areas of System Monitor usage.
Using Counters
System Monitor lets you track a performance characteristic of your system over an extended time frame. For example, you might want to track how well the hard drive is performing by checking the number of disk accesses. Every characteristic you track is a counter. A monitoring session begins with the selection of performance counters. The easiest method to add counters is to click the Add button (the plus sign) on the toolbar. You’ll see an Add Counter dialog box like the one shown in igure
7.6.
The dialog box shows that you choose performance monitoring at four different levels. Each level refines the one before it. The following list describes each level in the order that you would select them.
Machine
The machine you choose to monitor depends on the circumstances. For example, one performance monitoring scenario is to compare two machines with the same characteristics and application load. If one machine performs substantially slower than the other, the statistics might indicate the presence of a problem on the slower machine. Normally, you’ll choose your machine to perform local monitoring.
Performance Object
System Monitor uses special bits of code called performance objects to
monitor each area on your machine. In addition, vendors can add other performance objects to System Monitor so you can monitor larger applications such as SQL Server. There’s a performance object for each major category of device or application on your machine. For example, Figure 7.6 shows the Process object. You’ll also find objects for the physical and logical disk drive, memory, and network. Applications appear in objects such as browser, job, and thread.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Vitamin B12 Deficiency
Folic acid deficiency by itself does not cause severe memory loss. However, folic acid deficiency can aggravate the effects of vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) deficiency.
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Running Applications Automatically (2)
This leaves the one contribution that the registry makes to the overall filth of your system. Anyone can store automatic execution settings in the registry in one of two main areas: one for personal settings ( HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
) and another for system settings (
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
). Both of these keys contain three subkeys that automatically execute applications of all types:
Run This is the most common place to find applications you don’t want running on your system. Applications listed as values in this key run every time someone logs into the system. When you look through the list of applications stored as values in this key, you should only see applications that you installed or recognize as part of device driver installation. When spyware or adware wants to hide on your machine, it commonly uses this registry key to ensure it gets started.
RunOnce The only values you find in this key are those for applications that run one time and then don’t run again. When a value appears within this key, Windows looks for the application,
runs it, and then removes the entry from the registry. A good example of an application that could appear here is a registration or activation application. A few nefarious applications also use this key to help avoid detection. When you log in, Windows runs the application and removes the entry as normal. However, before the application ends, it adds the entry back in. Consequently, the key ends up acting like the Run key, even though it theoretically only allows the application to run one time.
RunOnceEx This key only appears in the system area ( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion ). Some applications require extended settings to work properly and this key allows applications with those extended settings. Generally, you’ll never see a value in this key.
Not all entries in the Run key are from undesirable sources. Sometimes an uninstall application leaves a key behind. For example, Figure 6.10 shows the results of an upgrade performed on a machine. Notice the two copies of MBM.EXE in this list: the first is version 4 and the second is version 5. The uninstall program left the MBM 4 entry behind after an upgrade, so now, every time the system
starts, it looks for that entry. Windows ends up searching the entire system for that entry every time a user logs in, creating a performance problem. You should look for and remove this type of entry to improve system startup time.
Figure 6.10
Uninstall programs often leave automatic program execution crumbs
behind.
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization
Cushing’s Disease
Cushing’s disease is caused by excessive production of corticosteroids from the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys, and can cause memory loss similar to that caused by steroid treatment. Corticosteroids are important regulators of fat, protein, and carbohydrate metabolism, and Cushing’s patients develop a “moon face” with considerable weight gain around the shoulders and trunk. Emotional volatility, anxiety, and depression are also seen in this condition.
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Using the TaskList Utility (1)
The TaskList utility provides a lot more information than Task Manager, but it’s also harder to use. You can use TaskList to find specific information about services and applications running on your
system. For example, you can determine which services are running or perhaps locked up (not responding). To get a display similar to the one shown in Task Manager, type TaskList at the command prompt and press Enter. Figure 7.3 shows typical output.
Figure 7.3
Use the TaskList utility to determine basic memory usage and process details.
Notice that TaskList doesn’t provide any information on CPU usage, but it does provide a mysterious Process Identifier (PID) column. Windows assigns a PID to every application that executes and uses this number to identify the application. When multiple copies of an application run, each copy has a unique PID. Other utilities rely on the PID as well for identification purposes, so knowing the PID when you want to perform detailed research is important.
Using TaskList without any arguments does net you some useful information, but it’s the command line switches that make TaskList most useful. Here’s a list of the switches with explanations of how to use them.
/S System You can use TaskList to monitor the tasks on any system to which you have access and the proper rights. An administrator could use this feature to check which machines on the network are currently running Solitaire, if desired. In many cases, you’ll need to combine this switch with the /U and /P switches to log into the system using an account with the correct privileges.
/U [ Domain Name/ ] User Name Use this switch to specify a user name and optionally, a domain name, for running TaskList. You need to include the /P command line switch when using this switch to provide a password. When you call TaskList without the /P switch, it will prompt you for the password. The only time you need to supply a domain is when you’re working on a network with a domain controller.
/P Password This command line switch lets you provide a password to go along with the username supplied with the /U switch. Don’t use the /P switch alone.
/M [ Module ] Most applications require use of one or more modules (usually DLLs) for support. When you use this switch alone, TaskList displays a list of every module used by every loaded application. It’s quite a list, so you’ll probably want to redirect the output to a file using the > or >> redirection symbols and adding a filename. The switch also lets you optionally specify a specific module name. You can use this option to determine which applications require a specific
module to execute. Often, this process can help you understand why a particular application glitches when another application is loaded (sometimes they rely on a shared module, but each application requires a different version of that module).
Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization