Performance and Diagnostics

SizeBench: a new tool for analyzing Windows binary size

Austin Lamb September 27, 2021 Sep 27, 2021 09/27/21

A new tool called SizeBench has been released to the Microsoft Store, which helps with understanding binary size on Windows. This static analysis tool can break down a binary in many ways, and has heuristic analyses to look for likely sources of waste, and this blog post goes on a tour of what the tool can do.

WPA: Table & Graph Configurations (Part 2)

Tristan Gibeau June 28, 2021 Jun 28, 2021 06/28/21

In Part 1, we discussed the different types of columns options available in WPA's table views and how those views can be configured. This blog will continue the series by digging into how to configure columns for different graph styles that can show numeric aggregations, time, and hierarchical data: Graphing Overview ...

Setting up an autologger with WPR

Sowoon Pyo June 25, 2021 Jun 25, 2021 06/25/21

WPR supports configuring an autologger. Setting up the autologger and collecting the autologger trace is as easy as starting/stopping the trace. This article introduces how to start, stop, and cancel the autologger as well as export the autologger registry keys.

Reduce Process Interference with Task Manager Eco Mode

Raymond Li April 21, 2021 Apr 21, 2021 04/21/21

Task Manager Eco Mode is a new feature that gives you options to ensure certain running processes won’t stress the CPU out, leading to faster foreground responsiveness and better energy efficiency. It also helps you to identify apps that are already running in Eco Mode and are good citizens of the OS.

Introducing EcoQoS

Raymond Li April 21, 2021 Apr 21, 2021 04/21/21

EcoQoS is a new Quality of Service (QoS) level introduced to Windows that developers can now opt-in to run their work efficiently, leading to better energy efficiency/increased battery life, reduced fan noise and power/thermal throttling.

WPR fails to start, insufficient system resources?

Sowoon Pyo March 31, 2021 Mar 31, 2021 03/31/21

From time to time, I get questions about insufficient system resource error (0x800705aa) when starting the trace using WPR. The error can be frustrating, especially when there is enough memory and storage space left on the system. Some people try to solve the issue by increasing the system resources such as killing some apps and services. It ...

Controlling the event session name with the instance name

Sowoon Pyo January 27, 2021 Jan 27, 2021 01/27/21

In this post, I explained what the session name is in ETW and how to set the session name through WPR with the instancename option.

Windows Performance Analyzer – Table & Graph Configurations (Part 1)

Tristan Gibeau January 15, 2021 Jan 15, 2021 01/15/21

In the previous post, we discussed a brief intro into Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA) and its feature set.  WPA can display trace data in a wide array of formats, most of which are pre-configured as presets designed for drilling into specific data points. Here is one for example: WPA's CPU Usage (Sampled) table has a few different ...

Authoring Custom Profiles – Part 2

Sowoon Pyo December 10, 2020 Dec 10, 2020 12/10/20

In this post, we enhance the simple custom profile for WPR by adding the system tracing session. Because kernel events provide critical information about processes, threads, modules, and more, collecting the system events greatly extends your ability to analyze traces and diagnose issues.

Authoring custom profiles – Part 1

Sowoon Pyo November 10, 2020 Nov 10, 2020 11/10/20

This is the first post in a multi-part series about authoring custom profiles for Windows Performance Recorder (WPR.) In a previous post, we have looked at how to start a trace with built-in profiles. The built-in profiles offer wide variety of preset profiles that we can use for different scenarios. There are built-in profiles for CPU ...