Guide to Windows resource monitoring

This article applies to the following Microsoft® Windows Server® versions: 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2019.

You can use the Windows® Resource Monitor tool, which is similar to the Task Manager, to analyze server
performance, such as program, application, network connection, and memory usage. It provides
performance monitoring data combined with Windows event tracing data to allow for more in-depth
troubleshooting of issues than the Task Manager provides in real time.

Launching the Resource Monitor

Launch the Resource Monitor by using one of the following methods:

• On the Performance tab of the Task Manager, click the link at the bottom to switch to
  Open Resource Monitor.

• In the Control Panel, find the Resource Monitor under Administrative Tools.

• Run resmon.exe from the command line or PowerShell®.

• Select the Windows icon at the bottom-left of the desktop and type resmon.exe.

Initial view

The Resource Monitor opens with Overview (default), CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network tabs. To the right
of the tabs, you see graphs of each resource in action in real time. The tabs include the following information:

• Overview tab
  • CPU
  • Disk
  • Network
  • Memory
• CPU tab
  • Processes
  • Services
  • Associated handles
  • Associated modules
• Memory tab
  • Processes
  • Physical memory
• Disk tab
  • Processes with disk activity
  • Disk activity
  • Storage
• Network tab
  • Processes with network activity
  • Network Activity
  • TCP Connections
  • Listening Ports

Uses

Use the CPU and Memory tabs to determine which service or application is consuming resources.

The Disk tab shows the different disks on the server, disk input and output, and processes with disk
activity.

The Network tab shows processes that have network activity and active Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
connections. It also provides the listening ports on the server where you can view what service is listening
on which port.