Best windows 7 diagnostics

System Diagnostics also picked several other problems that I wasn't aware of. Unfortunately, it appears that Microsoft has dropped the ball with these links. Have you used System Diagnostic Report as a troubleshooting aid? If so, did you find it useful? Will you use it in the future?

As always, if you have comments or information to share about this topic, please take a moment to drop by the TechRepublic Community Forums and let us hear from you. Greg Shultz is a freelance Technical Writer. Previously, he has worked as Documentation Specialist in the software industry, a Technical Support Specialist in educational industry, and a Technical Journalist in the computer publishing industry.

For more information on these troubleshooting tools, see my articles: Better troubleshooting capabilities with Windows 7 Event Viewer Learn how to use the Windows 7 Resource Monitor for effective troubleshooting Track stability in Windows 7 with the Reliability Monitor One of the other tools that you can use is called the System Diagnostic Report , which is a part of Performance Monitor and can display the status of hardware resources, system response times, and processes on your computer along with system information and configuration data.

Editor's Picks. The best programming languages to learn in The easiest way to access Performance Information and Tools is by typing performance in the Start menu search box, as shown in Figure The basic function of Performance Information and Tools is to provide a front end to features such as the Windows Experience Index and options for adjusting the visual effects, power settings, and indexing options of your copy of Windows. These advanced tools are extremely useful in diagnosing performance problems with Windows 7 and your software and hardware drivers.

Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out. Windows Internals, Part 2, 6th Edition. Windows 7 Inside Out, Deluxe Edition. However, this service can be enhanced by adding on the Network Performance Monitoring module. The Network Performance Monitoring module of Datadog adds on analytical functions to the Infrastructure package and includes capacity planning and troubleshooting utilities. While the Infrastructure module looks at device statuses, the Network Performance Monitoring service examines traffic flows.

The Datadog system uses agent software on-site, but all processing and data storage is implemented on the Datadog server. Systems administrators access the Network Performance Monitoring console through any browser in order to see live statistics on current traffic flows on the network.

Given that the service is based in the cloud, it can easily monitor remote networks, just as long as that network has the agent module installed on it. It also stores that information for analysis. Administrators can trace the journey of a packet, view conversations between endpoints, segment traffic statistics per application or per origin or source, and identify the major bandwidth hogs on the network. The service can unify both onsite, cloud-based, and remote networks to give a complete picture of all network traffic generated by the business.

The tool includes live network maps with traffic flows shown on them and it is also possible to see overloaded links or bottlenecks. Datadog has a single plan level for its Network Performance Monitoring module. Charges are levied per host per month with a discount for paying annually in advance.

The service is available for a day free trial. N-able RMM is a cloud-based remote monitoring and management software package.

As this system monitors the network, it also stores metrics for analysis. Having access to all aspects of a system, including endpoints and servers, N-able has many channels of data for diagnostics and troubleshooting.

This is a data source for a wide range of diagnostic projects. The main value of these feeds lies in security. However, they also give insights into how to improve efficiency and avoid system management mistakes.

LOGICcards gathers data from 5,, endpoints on 4,, networks. Comparing the data extracted from these studies, the LOGICcard system analyzes a network and is able to point out factors and settings that are missing from that system, compared to the organization of the majority of other networks.

Another LOGICcard service is a feed of warnings to look out for, such as patches that cause problems and should be held off or new internet-based scams. A guidance aspect to this service also identifies errors to avoid in network configuration and tips on how to optimize bandwidth usage.

Furthermore, the topics covered by a LOGICcard feed adapt according to your responses to past advice. The dashboard for N-able RMM is resident on the cloud. N-able RMM is a subscription service. This is a great attraction for startups because there are no upfront costs for getting set up. There are no setup fees and there is no need to fork out for a software package Instead, the subscribing company pays a little each month. Interested potential customers can access a day free trial of N-able RMM.

It can help you with troubleshooting because it can diagnose network issues right down the protocol stack and identify the root of the problem. Port monitoring is one of the network diagnostics techniques that you can use with this tool. The PRTG system includes two port monitoring sensors. One homes in on a specified port on a particular device, the other will check a range of port numbers.

This tool only monitors TCP ports. The port range sensor has one extra feature that the single port sensor does not have. You can set it to check the port with TLS protection. Both sensors report on the response time of the port and whether it is open or closed. PRTG includes network traffic analysis tools to help you troubleshoot delivery speeds. The tool includes a range of traffic monitoring techniques including route tracing to a destination with Traceroute and a Ping sweep , which will give you the response times to each node on your network.

A packet-sniffing utility can tell you which applications and endpoints are producing excessive traffic and you can query the health of the network devices to see which are congested to the point of queuing. Paessler built a tool that covers servers and applications as well as network statuses, port response times, and services to monitor all conditions that can cause software performance issues. That monitoring is constant, so you will be able to trace back through events to spot the source of any performance issues.

Paessler delivers PRTG as a cloud service or you can install the diagnostic software on your premises. The tool installs on Windows Server environments. You can use the system for free for up to sensors. A successful ping confirms network connectivity between the two hosts and it also gives reports on packet loss. DNS is working on the local machine.

That Loss figure that you see in the last line of the ping output is the number of lost packets followed by the packet loss rate in brackets.

This makes it a helpful tool in determining where a network connectivity breakdown is occurring. Basically, tracert helps you understand if the router or network that is down between your computer and a remote host is one you control or not. Again using google. Determining the IP settings on your computer is an essential part of network troubleshooting.

The ipconfig command helps you do just that. Entering ipconfig at a command prompt will return IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, subnets, and default gateways for all network adapters on a PC. This can help determine if your computer has the right IP configuration.

Additionally, ipconfig can be used to change or update selected IP settings. Netstat allows you to display active connections on your local machine.

This can be helpful when determining why users are unable to connect to a given application on a server or to determine what connections are made to remote hosts from a computer.

Entering netstat at the command prompt will display all active TCP connections. Adding parameters to the netstat command will extend or alter the functionality. There are a variety of use cases for this flexible utility and it can be run in interactive mode or by entering commands directly at the command prompt.