One of our common issues is troubleshooting application crashes (for example, the Print Spooler or a third-party application). These crashes usually result in the infamous Dr. Watson error. First, let's discuss terminology. A crash is when something experiences...

In our previous post on Preparing to Troubleshoot we referred to several different tools and basic troubleshooting questions. In our upcoming posts we will be discussing several troubleshooting techniques, so this seemed like an ideal time to discuss...

Windows XP introduced a new feature called Remote Assistance that enabled XP users to help each other over the Internet. Helpdesk personnel were able to view and even share control of their network users machines using Remote Assistance. However, with...

Here's an issue we've been seeing more and more of on the Performance team lately concerning SQL 2005 and Memory Management. The issue gets reported as: "Windows Memory Management is trimming the SQL Working Set." When you review the event logs, you'll...

This is a follow-up to our Processes consuming high amounts of virtual memory post from January. Pagefile issues are something we deal with frequently on the Performance Team. We have had several cases in the past few months of customers reporting pagefile...

Today we're going to discuss the IE User-Agent String - a term with which more administrators are becoming familiar since the launch of IE7. The User-Agent string identifies your browser to the server hosting the site that you are visiting. This allows...

From time to time, customers will call in to report "performance problems" that they are having when copying large files from one location to another.  By "performance problems", they mean that the file isn't copying as fast as...

Here on the Perf team, we deal with quite a few printing issues. An issue we've had a few calls on since the release of Windows Vista concerns the changes made to the Point & Print functionality. Point & Print is a Windows feature that enables...

One of the pillars of Windows Vista and Longhorn is to enable users to find information quickly. This includes documents, email, media and web pages a user might have browsed. Effective searching and browsing requires an infrastructure to index content...