HD Tune is a free app for benchmarking your disk performance. Whereas WEI gives you a single and rather vague number to summarize your disk performance, HD Tune can measure the exact read and write speeds, as well as the disk latency.

For more information about HD Tune and disk performance, read Choosing a new drive in Chapter 12.

WEI makes no mention of network performance, which I think is odd because that’s the most important performance factor for those of us who spend time on websites, use cloud services like SkyDrive, connect to other PCs with Remote Desktop, stream video, or transfer large files between PCs.

For detailed information about benchmarking your network’s performance, including your Internet connection, and improving that performance, refer to Chapter 21.

Previous versions of Windows struggled with long startup times after users had installed a few apps. In earlier versions of Windows, apps often created agents that started automatically and slowed down the startup process even if the user never accessed the app.

The style of app designed for Windows 8.1, described in Chapter 2, does a great job of reducing the impact apps have on startup time. Basically, very few (if any) Windows 8.1 apps will increase your startup time.

You might still have desktop apps that start automatically. To view those apps, launch Task Manager, click More Details, and then select the Startup tab. If you understand what an app does and you don’t want it to start automatically, select it and then click Disable. For more information, refer to Startup tab in the Task Manager section later in this chapter.

It doesn’t hurt to simply uninstall any apps you aren’t using. You can remove Windows 8.1 apps by selecting them on the Start screen and then clicking Uninstall. To remove a desktop app, search from the Start screen for programs and features, select that tool, and then use it to remove the desktop app.

Services are apps that run in the background without a user interface. Many services start automatically so they can do important things in the background while you use your computer. For example, the Windows Search service indexes new files that you save to your PC, and the Print Spooler service waits for you to print something. These services start automatically, and they need to use your processor, memory, and disk a bit when they start, which can slow down your PC a little as you try to launch your first app.

Therefore, if your startup speed is slow, you might check your services to see if there are any services you don’t need to start automatically. To view the services on your PC, open the Computer Management console by running compmgmt.msc from the Start screen or by using the WinX menu. In Computer Management, select Services And ApplicationsServices, as shown in Figure 26-8.

Figure 26-8. Use the Computer Management console to configure services.

The only services that will impact your startup time are those that have Startup Type set to Automatic. Services that have a startup type of Automatic (Trigger Start) or Manual start only when they’re needed, and services that have a startup type of Automatic (Delayed Start) start after you’ve had a chance to open your first app.

To prevent a service from starting automatically, double-click it and change Startup Type to Manual, as shown in Figure 26-9, or Automatic (Delayed Start). The next time you restart your computer, the service won’t start automatically.

Choose Manual if you don’t want the service to run automatically; you’ll be able to start it manually whenever you need it. Choose Automatic (Delayed Start) to allow the service to start shortly after startup so that it won’t impact your startup time but will still be available when you need it—as long as you don’t need it immediately after logging on to your PC.

Figure 26-9. Change the startup type of a service to prevent it from slowing down your PC’s startup time.

Please don’t change the startup type for services if you don’t understand what they do. Windows 8.1 already minimizes the number of services that start automatically. For your reference, Windows 8.1 comes preconfigured to start the following services automatically. If you change their startup type, something won’t work right:

Additionally, Windows will configure other built-in services to start automatically if you add or configure different features. For example, if you share a network connection as described in Chapter 22, Windows will set the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service to start automatically.

To summarize, services with Startup Type set to Automatic contribute to a longer startup time. However, most automatic services are important, and you shouldn’t change their startup type. Some desktop apps will install services that start automatically but aren’t necessarily required for how you use your PC, such as services that check for app updates. Therefore, by carefully choosing apps and services and changing their startup type, you can speed up your startup time without losing important functionality.

When Windows starts, it loads software drivers that allow it to communicate with every hardware component in your PC. If your PC has hardware components you never use, disabling them in Device Manager can improve your startup time, if only by a few milliseconds.

To disable a hardware device, launch Device Manager by running devmgmt.msc at the Start screen. Then, right-click your device and click Disable, as shown in Figure 26-10. To use it again, right-click it and then click Enable.

Figure 26-10. Disable unused hardware to decrease your startup time.

One last suggestion for speeding up PC startup times: upgrade to a new solid state drive (SSD). For more information, refer to Chapter 12.

All apps and many different components of Windows run in a process. A process is the container Windows uses for an app that’s running. Processes have a set of instructions to run (the app’s code), a block of memory, and privileges to other system components, such as storage, network, and hardware devices.

Some apps use multiple processes, but typically, each app has a single process. There are quite a few processes running in Windows that aren’t for apps you started, however. For example, every background service (such as the Print Spooler, which manages print jobs) runs within a process. You’ll see many different processes that you don’t recognize, but they’re probably OK, and you definitely shouldn’t start ending processes without understanding what they are.

You can view every process running on your PC by clicking the More Details link in Task Manager and then selecting the Processes tab. Windows 8.1 introduces the option to organize apps into groups such as Apps, Background Processes, and Windows Processes when processes are sorted by name. Switch between grouping or a simple list by clicking the View menu and then selecting Group By Type.

If a single application or service runs multiple processes and you have Group By Type selected, Task Manager groups those processes together, as shown in Figure 26-12. Task Manager also displays the status of an application if it is not responding. To end a process, select the process and then click End Task.

Figure 26-12. The Processes tab groups processes to make them easier to find.

There’s another option you should enable: click the View menu, select Status Values, and then select Show Suspended Status. This shows which Windows 8.1 apps you’ve opened but are suspended. Suspended apps won’t consume any processor time and consume very little memory. For more information about suspended apps, refer to Chapter 2.

The Processes tab is useful for identifying which process is slowing down a computer. To identify which processes are using the most resources, click each of the column headings to sort the list so that the processes consuming the most CPU, memory, disk, or network resources appear at the top of the list.

To view more information about each process, right-click the column heading and select one of the following columns:

The Processes tab is also useful for finding more information about a specific process. To find a process’s executable file, right-click it and then click Open File Location. Often, the name of the folder an app is located in gives you more detail about the app itself.

The Performance tab, as shown in Figure 26-13, gives you an overview of the amount of CPU, memory, disk, and network resources that Windows 8.1 and your applications are currently using. By checking this tab, you can determine which resources are limiting your computer’s performance and use that information to identify the best way to upgrade your computer. For example, if memory utilization is consistently above 75 percent when your computer seems slow, adding more memory might improve the performance.

Figure 26-13. The Performance tab gives you a snapshot of your computer’s resource utilization.

The Performance tab combines information from both the Performance and Networking tabs of the Windows 7 Task Manager. It also adds detailed information about disk utilization, including the average response time, read speed, and write speed. If you determine that one of the resources is near peak utilization, switch to the Processes tab and click a column heading to determine which processes are using the most of that resource. If you no longer need a process, you can then close the associated application or end the task to free up those resources.

Windows 8.1 adds the App History tab to Task Manager. The App History tab, as shown in Figure 26-14, shows you the CPU and network resources that applications have used, even if the application has been closed. This information is useful for troubleshooting problems users had earlier that can no longer be reproduced. For example, if someone complains that their computer often runs slow, but it is not currently running slow, check the App History tab to determine if an application used excessive processor time.

Figure 26-14. The App History tab shows applications users have run, even if they have been closed.

In addition to viewing the standard columns, you can right-click a column heading to add columns for non-metered network utilization, bytes downloaded, and bytes uploaded.

For privacy, click Delete Usage History to clear the history.

Desktop apps can start automatically when Windows starts, which makes them instantly available. However, each app that starts automatically also slows down the PC and increases the time it takes to manually start your own apps. Therefore, you want as few apps as possible to start automatically.

You can use the Startup tab (as shown in Figure 26-15) to control which applications start automatically. To remove a startup application, select it and then click Disable.

Figure 26-15. The Startup tab allows you to view and stop applications that start automatically.

If you’re not sure what an app does, you shouldn’t simply disable it, because you could cause an app or hardware accessory to not work properly the next time you start your computer. Spend a few moments to research what the startup app does. Task Manager makes this easy; simply right-click the app and then click Search Online.

To create a startup task, open Task Scheduler, create a basic task, and specify the trigger as When The Computer Starts. For more information about configuring startup apps, refer to Chapter 6. For information about starting desktop apps automatically, read Configuring HTPC software to start automatically in Chapter 17.

The Users tab, shown in Figure 26-16, displays running and suspended applications for each logged-in user. You can use this tab to sign off other users or close their applications, freeing any resources they might be using, which can potentially improve your computer’s performance. Most of the time, it’s easier to simply restart your PC, however.

Figure 26-16. The Users tab allows you to log off other users and close their applications.

To log off a user, select the user and then click Sign Out. To close a process, select the process on the Processes tab and then click End Task.

To create users, open the Users tool within PC Settings. To switch users, click the currently logged-in user in the upper-right corner of the Start screen, and then click the user you prefer to log in as. For more information about users, refer to Chapter 18.

The Details tab, shown in Figure 26-17, displays in-depth information about every process running on the computer, similar to the information provided by the Processes tab in the Windows 7 Task Manager. Click a column heading to sort the processes by that column. To view other information about each process, right-click the column heading and then click Select Columns.

Figure 26-17. The Details tab can display many different metrics about every running process.

In practice, the Processes tab displays the most commonly accessed information about each process. However, if you have a detailed understanding about operating system resources, you can use the Details tab to understand each process’s utilization.

Services are processes that run in the background without a user interface. In typical usage, you will never need to interact directly with a service. The Services tab, shown in Figure 26-18, displays all services installed in Windows, whether or not they are running. You can start and stop services by right-clicking them.

Figure 26-18. The Services tab displays all services.

To better manage services, click Open Services at the bottom of the Services tab.

To start Performance Monitor, type perfmon at the Start screen and then press Enter. In the Performance Monitor window, select PerformanceMonitoring ToolsPerformance Monitor. Figure 26-19 shows the Performance Monitor graph after adding counters.

Figure 26-19. Use Performance Monitor to graph data in real time.

By default, Performance Monitor simply charts the PC’s processor usage, which you can see more easily by using Task Manager. However, you can add hundreds of different counters to the Performance Monitor chart and even log the data to a file for later analysis.

To add counters to the chart, click the green Add button on the toolbar. You’ll see the Add Counters dialog box, as shown in Figure 26-20. Select the Show Description check box to view information about each counter. Then, select a counter, select an instance of the counter (if available), and click Add. Repeat the process until you have added all the counters you want to monitor.

Figure 26-20. Add counters to Performance Monitor to watch your PC’s performance in real time.

I can’t possibly describe every performance counter, but they’re well organized and they each have a useful description, so if you’re looking for something specific, you can probably find it. Some of the more useful counters include:

By default, Performance Monitor updates the counters every second and displays 100 seconds of data in the graph. Though each counter can have a different behavior, the value displayed for each one-second sample is usually the average value of that counter over that time.

Updating the graph every second can lead to very spikey charts, limiting the usefulness of the maximum and minimum values. If you want to see the graph updated less frequently (resulting in smoother charts), you can edit Performance Monitor properties to update the graph less frequently. Figure 26-21 shows Performance Monitor configured to update the graph every minute and display the last hour of data. To edit Performance Monitor properties, click the Action menu and then click Properties.

Figure 26-21. Edit Performance Monitor properties to change the time span of the chart.

When you add counters to Performance Monitor, you can view the data in real time. If you want to view the data over a long period of time, you can decrease the sample frequency so that all the data shows on the chart at once.

There’s a better way, though: logging the performance data to the disk and then analyzing it in Performance Monitor. This allows you to collect as much data as you’d like, over a long period of time, and then analyze it at your convenience. Logging performance data is the right choice for any scenario where you don’t plan to be staring at the graph the entire time the PC is on.

To log performance data, start Performance Monitor and then right-click PerformanceData Collector SetsUser Defined, click New, and then click Data Collector Set. On the first page of the Create New Data Collector Set wizard, select Create Manually, and then click Next.

On the What Type Of Data Do You Want To Include page, as shown in Figure 26-22, select the Performance Counter check box and then click Next (but don’t click Finish). Note the Performance Counter Alert option, which is useful if you want to be notified when a performance counter goes above or below a threshold.

Figure 26-22. Log performance counter data for later analysis.

On the Which Performance Counters Would You Like To Log page, click the Add button and add the counters you want to monitor, as shown in Figure 26-23. The counters are the same as those you use with Performance Monitor in real time. Also set the sample interval. Use the longest sample interval you’re comfortable with to reduce the amount of storage space required for logging. Click Next.

Figure 26-23. Specify the counters to log data for.

The rest of the wizard is self-explanatory. On the last page, you can leave Run As set to the default; this just specifies the user account the data collector set should use to gather the data. You can also choose to start the data collector set immediately or save it for later use.

If you don’t start your data collector set immediately, you can start it later by selecting it within PerformanceData Collector SetsUser Defined and then clicking the Start The Data Collector Set button.

When you’re done gathering data and want to analyze it, click the Stop The Data Collector Set button. Then, select PerformanceMonitoring ToolsPerformance Monitor and click View Log Data on the toolbar (or press Ctrl+L). Select Log Files, click Add, and then select your log data file. By default, it will be buried a few folders deep within the Admin folder.

As shown in Figure 26-24, click the Time Range button and set the time period you want to analyze if you want to see data from a specific period of time. That’s useful if you’re troubleshooting a performance problem that seems to appear randomly; create and start a data collector set, and once the problem occurs, analyze just the data from that time period to determine the source. You can also adjust the time range after you click OK by dragging the bar beneath the graph.

Figure 26-24. Configure a time range to analyze only a portion of your logged data.

Now, you can analyze the logged data within Performance Monitor. To examine data from a specific time range, simply drag your pointer across the chart to select that time period. Note the Average, Minimum, Maximum, and Duration fields below the graph, which provide detailed information about the counter selected at the bottom of the window.

If your PC seems slow and you want to track down the source of the problem, create a System Performance report. A System Performance report includes detailed information about your PC’s current state that you can analyze at a later time. The information includes:

To run the report from Performance Monitor, select PerformanceData Collector SetsSystemSystem Performance. Then, click the Start The Data Collector Set button on the toolbar.

The test takes one minute to run. After a minute, select PerformanceReportsSystemSystem Performance<computer name> to view the report. The report, as shown in Figure 26-25, contains a great deal of information about your PC.

Figure 26-25. The System Performance report summarizes your PC’s performance over a single minute.