Chapter 11. Performance and Troubleshooting

Windows Vista offers an array of tools for tracking, improving, and tweaking your system's performance, as well as for troubleshooting problems. These tools are greatly improved over previous versions of Windows, and they include automated fixes so that Windows Vista watches behind the scenes for problems and then recommends fixes for them, such as automatically downloading any necessary patches.

This chapter outlines all of Windows Vista's troubleshooting tools. It's divided into two sections: "Performance, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting" and "Startup." As with the rest of the book, the tools and features are alphabetized within each section to make them easier to find.

Note that other chapters include some troubleshooting tools as well. For example, to get help for network problems, turn to Chapter 7.

Here is an alphabetical reference of entries in this chapter:

Administrative Tools

DiskPart

Query Process

Advanced Boot Options

Dr. Watson

ReadyBoost

Backup and Restore Center

Event Viewer

Reliability and Performance Monitor

Boot Configuration Data Store Editor

FAT to NTFS Conversion Utility

Remote Assistance

Chkdsk

Format

Scheduled Tasks Console

Chkntfs

Help and Support

Services

Component Services

Memory Diagnostics Tool

Startup and Recovery

Computer

Performance Information and Tools

Startup Repair

Computer Management

Performance Log Manager

System Configuration Editor

DirectX Management Tool

Performance Options

System Configuration Utility

Disk Cleanup

Prefetch

System Control Panel

Disk Defragmenter

Problem Reports and Solutions

System Information

System Properties

Taskkill

Windows Easy Transfer

System Protection and System Restore

Tasklist

Windows File Checker

Task Manager

Welcome Center

Windows Script Host

Task Scheduler

  





Part II: Nutshell Reference