Learn how to use the Windows 7 Resource Monitor for effective troubleshooting

After last week’s blog “Track Stability in Windows 7 with the Reliability Monitor” was posted, I received an e-mail message from a reader who described their Reliability Monitor chart as being full of Windows and Miscellaneous failures that seemed to be occurring on a regular basis. The reader suspected that a malfunctioning process was the cause and wanted more detail on using Microsoft Windows 7’s Resource Monitor to keep tabs on system resources being used by running processes and services. While I was able to help the reader out, a comment they made about feeling overwhelmed by the amount of detailed information and the number of features packed into Windows 7’s Resource Monitor stuck with me for a few days. Read more.

Track stability in Windows 7 with the Reliability Monitor

Having the ability to track system stability over time is something that all Microsoft Windows users have wanted at one time or another. Of course, Windows Performance Monitor has been around for a long time but requires manual configuration and a deep understanding of all the cryptically named counters. Fortunately, Windows 7’s Reliability Monitor is a preconfigured tool that will allow you to track hardware and software problems and other changes to your computer. Read more.

Convert Windows XP into a Windows 7 Virtual Machine with Disk2vhd

Would you like to be able to still run Microsoft Windows XP while you get familiar with Windows 7? Well, moving your existing Windows XP system to a virtual machine that you can run in Windows 7 is a relatively easy procedure with the Disk2vhd tool from Microsoft’s Windows Sysinternals team: Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell. Read more.

Answers to some common questions about symbolic links

In last week’s blog, “Be More Efficient and Better Organized with the MKLink Symbolic Link Tool,” I provided a brief introduction to the concept of symbolic links and then jumped right into how to use the MKLink command in Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7 to create them. After the blog post was published, many folks sent me e-mail or posted questions in the discussion thread asking for a deeper understanding of how symbolic links work within the Windows Vista and 7 operating systems. Read more.

Be more efficient and better organized with the MKLink symbolic link tool

If you are like most folks who have been using Microsoft Windows for quite some time, chances are good that you create and use shortcuts quite regularly. As you know, shortcuts can save you time and effort when it comes to quickly accessing applications or folders. While creating and using these types of standard shortcuts is quite simple, Windows 7 and Vista come with a tool called MKLink for creating a more advanced type of shortcut called a symbolic link. Read more.