Windows is packed with powerful system tools that are more capable than most users realize. With a few targeted customizations, these tools can surface the right data faster, automate routine maintenance, and reduce troubleshooting time. The following 12 tips focus on practical, intermediate-level adjustments used by professionals to keep systems responsive and predictable.<\/p>\n
1) How can Task Manager be customized to surface the real bottlenecks?
\nTask Manager is more than a process killer; configured well, it becomes a performance triage board.<\/p>\n
Steps
\n1. Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc). In Windows 11, select Settings in the left rail.
\n2. Set Default start page to Processes or Performance, depending on how you diagnose.
\n3. Turn on Always on top to keep it visible during reproductions.
\n4. In Processes, right-click a column header and enable: Power usage, Power usage trend, GPU engine, Disk I\/O, and Command line. These help spot background updaters, GPU-bound tabs, and services.
\n5. In Details, right-click a column header and add I\/O read bytes, I\/O write bytes, and CPU time. Then choose Select columns and check Elevated to see which apps run as admin.
\n6. In Startup, sort by Startup impact and Last BIOS time to spot slow boot contributors. Disable non-critical items with High impact.<\/p>\n
Real-world example
\nA laptop feels hot and the fan runs constantly while browsing. Add Power usage trend and GPU engine columns, sort by Power usage trend, and identify a browser tab\u2019s GPU subprocess pegging the GPU. Ending just that process cools the system without killing the whole browser.<\/p>\n
Glary Utilities tie-in
\nGlary Utilities complements Task Manager by offering a Startup Manager with delayed start and impact ratings, letting you reduce boot time without removing an app entirely.<\/p>\n
2) How do you create a high-signal Event Viewer Custom View?
\nEvent Viewer is noisy by default. Custom Views filter for what matters.<\/p>\n
Steps
\n1. Press Win+R, type eventvwr.msc, Enter.
\n2. Right-click Custom Views, select Create Custom View.
\n3. Set Logged to Last 7 days, Level to Critical, Error, Warning.
\n4. Check Windows Logs: System and Application.
\n5. In Event sources, select disk, diskio, Ntfs, Service Control Manager, Kernel-Power, DistributedCOM. Add application-specific sources you care about.
\n6. Click XML tab and check Edit query manually for fine-tuning later, then Save as \u201cCore System Issues\u201d.
\n7. Right-click your new view, choose Export Custom View to reuse it across machines.<\/p>\n
Pro tip
\nAdd a second view for \u201cBoot Degradation\u201d focusing on Event ID 100\u2013199 (Diagnostics-Performance) to analyze slow boots.<\/p>\n
3) How do you build reusable Performance Monitor views and Data Collector Sets?
\nPerformance Monitor (perfmon) gives structured time-series data that survives reboots and can be reviewed later.<\/p>\n
Steps: Create a live view
\n1. Press Win+R, type perfmon, Enter.
\n2. Click Performance Monitor, then the green plus button.
\n3. Add counters:
\n – Processor(_Total)\\% Processor Time
\n – Memory\\Available MBytes
\n – PhysicalDisk(_Total)\\Avg. Disk Queue Length
\n – LogicalDisk(_Total)\\% Free Space
\n – Network Interface(*)\\Bytes Total\/sec
\n4. Right-click the graph, choose Properties, set Sample every to 2 seconds and View to Report for exact numbers.
\n5. Right-click the graph, Save Data as a .htm or .csv report for snapshots.<\/p>\n
Steps: Create a Data Collector Set
\n1. In Data Collector Sets, right-click User Defined, New, Data Collector Set.
\n2. Name it \u201cBaseline \u2013 Weekly\u201d, Create manually, Next.
\n3. Choose Performance counter, Next, Add the counters above, set Sample interval to 15 seconds.
\n4. Choose a log location on a data drive (e.g., D:\\PerfLogs).
\n5. Set Run as to a dedicated \u201cPerfLog\u201d local admin account if available.
\n6. After creation, right-click the set, choose Properties, Stop Condition: Overall duration 2 hours.
\n7. Right-click, Start to run on-demand or schedule it via Task Scheduler.<\/p>\n
Real-world example
\nA workstation stutters when syncing cloud files. The log shows Disk Queue Length spikes correlating with Network Interface bursts, pointing to large sync batches saturating disk I\/O. Throttling the sync app during work hours resolves it.<\/p>\n
4) What Resource Monitor filters make disk and network troubleshooting faster?
\nResource Monitor (resmon) exposes per-file and per-connection insights that Task Manager can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Steps
\n1. Press Win+R, type resmon, Enter.
\n2. CPU tab: Right-click a process and choose Analyze Wait Chain to find blocking parent processes.
\n3. Disk tab: Check Disk Activity, click a suspected process to filter I\/O to just that app and see exactly which files are slow.
\n4. Network tab: Sort by Send (B\/sec) or Receive (B\/sec), then expand TCP Connections to find remote endpoints and latency.
\n5. Memory tab: Watch Hard faults\/sec while reproducing a slow scenario; frequent faults suggest memory pressure.<\/p>\n
Real-world example
\nStreaming stutters while a backup runs. Disk tab shows the backup holding open a large .vhdx file with high write I\/O. Scheduling the backup outside active hours fixes the stream.<\/p>\n
5) How do you control startup safely using Autoruns and Glary Utilities?
\nBoot slowness is often caused by overly eager updaters and shell extensions.<\/p>\n
Autoruns (Sysinternals) steps
\n1. Download Autoruns from Microsoft and run as admin.
\n2. Options menu: Check Hide Microsoft entries and Verify code signatures.
\n3. Ctrl+F for \u201cError\u201d or \u201cFile not found\u201d to spot broken entries; uncheck them to disable.
\n4. Review Logon, Scheduled Tasks, Services, Drivers, Explorer tabs. Uncheck non-essential items from trusted vendors to test impact.
\n5. Right-click an item, Jump to Entry to see its registry path or file location.<\/p>\n