Technology Tips – Published November 2017 in the Guide and Digest
By Don Trauger – Kennett
The Reliability Monitor provides a graphical representation of how well your computer is performing. This tool, which has been around since the Windows Vista days, remains mostly hidden in Windows 10. The tool’s greatest strength is to inform you, on a scale of 1 to 10, the level of performance of your computer. One is the lowest and ten is the highest. The graph also reflects the nature of a performance problem against time. If your computer shows a problem that reduces the performance to a five rating, and then that problem is corrected, it may take several days to achieve a higher rating. That’s because time is needed to assure the problem is actually corrected. The Reliability Monitor does not correct any problems it detects. However it will offer a pathway to a possible solution to a problem.
To open the Reliability Monitor type the letters “rel” in the “Type here to search” box in the lower left corner of the screen and press the Enter key. The Reliability Monitor (View reliability history) should open. If you don’t see the “Type here to search” box, right click the Task Bar, move up to Cortana and click “Show search box.
The Reliability Monitor graph will show your performance rating as noted by a thin blue line at the top. On the right failures are shown with a red circle. Warnings are noted by yellow triangles and information by blue circles. On the left edge of the graph you can move back in time up to 1 month. The graph is segmented by days. Below the graph the details show the Source, Summary, Date and Action. Clicking a problem under Action may show either Check for a solution or View technical details.
To keep Reliability Monitor tool handy for investigating problems, right click the blank space just to the right of where it says Reliability Monitor at the top of the graph window. In the menu that appears, click “copy address”. Now go back to your Desktop screen and right click in a blank area and click “Paste shortcut”. You should see a new icon appear for the Reliability Monitor. Click it and the Reliability monitor should open.
Troubleshooting and fixing a problem can be done by typing the letters “co” in the “Type here to search box” to open the Control Panel and then clicking Troubleshooting”. Click “View all” on the upper left to see a list of possible solutions. If you don’t see Troubleshooting change the view in the upper right of the window to “Large icons”.
We will discuss this subject and answer any questions you may have at PC Club meetings held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7 PM upstairs in the Community Center.