Abstract
The purpose of this project is to develop a custom Windows OS tool to provide users with knowledgeable performance data and cost effective recommendations to improve existing PC system performance. This tool can monitor system performance and identify system bottlenecks on different usage models. Depending on the system usage and environment, the tool can identify the performance bottleneck and provide precise recommendations on hardware or software changes. For example, upgrading the CPU, adding more system memory, increasing memory speed, adding more hard drive space, closing some un-used applications, or increasing the virtual memory size. This tool uses Windows' built-in performance counters to collect appropriate CPU, memory, disk and network utilization data to determine the system bottleneck on the system. The Performance Counters AP/s (Performance Data Helper, PDH.dll) are provided by Window platform SDK that can work on all 32-bit Microsoft Windows OS (including WinXP and Vista). In order to simulate popular user scenarios, applications (ripping CD, compiling programs, copying files, zipping files and playing 3D games) can be executed automatically while the tool is collecting the performance data. By comparing each interface bandwidth and analyzing the data, the tool can isolate the bottleneck and provide useful recommendations.