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Change counters and counter properties

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To change counters and counter properties

  1. Open Performance.

  2. Right-click the System Monitor details pane and click Properties.

  3. On the Data tab, specify the options you want to use:

    • Add. Opens the Add Counters dialog box, where you can select other counters to add.

    • Remove. Removes the counter selected in the counter list.

    • Color. Changes the color of the selected counter.

    • Scale. Changes the displayed scale of a selected counter in the graph or histogram view. Counter values can be scaled linearly from .0000001 to 1000000.0. You can adjust the counter scale settings to enhance the visibility of counter data in the graph. Changing the scale does not affect the statistics displayed in the value bar.

    • Width. Changes the line width of a selected counter. Note that defining a line width can determine the line styles that are available.

    • Style. Changes the line style for a selected counter. You can select a style only when you are using the default line width.

  4. Click Apply and then click OK.

Notes

  • If you want to view counters in real-time mode, or set up a monitoring configuration, you must be a member of the Administrators group, the Performance Log Users group, or the Performance Monitor Users group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure. For more information, see Default local groups, Default groups, and Using Run as.

  • If you want to simply work with data from log files, you do not need administrative credentials on the local computer.

  • To open Performance, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Performance.

  • By default, System Monitor displays Pages/sec, Avg. Disk Queue Length, and % Processor Time counter data for the local computer.

Information about functional differences

  • Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.

See Also

Concepts

Add counters to System Monitor
Delete counters from System Monitor
Quick reference to System Monitor settings
Change background, chart, text, and font properties