Good morning AskPerf!  How many times have we looked at Windows Task Manager and wondered what the values on the Performance tab meant?  Why do they not add up?  What is the difference between Free and Available Memory, etc., etc., etc...

Hello, world! We're often challenged with a process that exits unexpectedly, but this doesn't always equate to an application "crash".  Occasionally this behavior is caused by cross-process termination, where one process terminates another...

Hello folks.  This is a quick post to inform you that the “Microsoft Fixit for Printing” is now live with .msi packages for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.  We know a lot of you have been asking for this for months, and we apologize for...

Good morning AskPerf!  My name is Sandeep Bhatia and I work with Networking team here in Microsoft Support.  In today’s post, we will discuss Print issues when using a CNAME on Windows 2008 R2 Server, with a non-Microsoft DNS Servers. When you...

Good morning AskPerf!  Ramesh here from the Microsoft Platforms Support Team.  I am blogging today about an issue I recently worked.  This particular issue was with the creation of an Unmanaged Virtual machine-based desktop pool collection...

Hey Folks, one of our peeps on AskPFEplat posted a great blog on Troubleshooting Performance issues using the Windows Performance Recorder app.  This tool allows you to easily capture XPERF traces on your *machines.  Go check it out! Troubleshooting...

Hello everyone! Aamer here from the Windows Performance team at Microsoft. Recently, I’ve noticed an increase in customer calls regarding the amount of RAM that Windows reports. This blog will discuss the reasons why Windows may report the incorrect...

This is just a quick post to advertise our PFE folks and their new RaaS Service. Yong Rhee and Julio Danoviz from the MSPFE blog go thru a new service called RAP as a Service (RaaS) . A RaaS is a service that provides an in-depth analysis of your environment...

Happy New Year AskPerf Blog Readers!  Can you believe that 2012 is now over?  Seems like it just flew by to me.  Anyway, we had some HUGE  product launches in 2012.  Some of which come to mind: Windows 8 Microsoft Surface Windows...

Hello AskPerf! Ranajoy here from the Windows Performance Team. One of our highest call generators here in support surrounds low Available Memory shown in Windows Task Manager. Today we are going to take a brief look at this value and where this “Missing...

Over the past 2 weeks, we’ve touched on a number of different features of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. We hope you have enjoyed reading our Launch Series as blogs much as we have enjoyed writing them for you. Don’t fret – we’ll have plenty more...

Well, we are about finished.  Only one post left after this one.  Today marks the 15th post in our Launch Series and I know you’ll enjoy reading this one.  With that said, let’s dive right in! If you have installed Windows Server 2012,...

Day 14 is upon us!  In today’s post, we are going to take a look at the new feature in Windows Server 2012 called PowerShell Web Access. What is PowerShell Web Access?  Glad you asked! Windows PowerShell Web Access is a new feature in Windows...

It’s day 13 of our Launch Series and we are nearing the finish line. Today we are going to look at ways to print from your Modern UI Apps. So you have loaded Windows 8, and need to print from one of the new Modern Apps that have installed, but...

Hello AskPerf!  Welcome to day 12 of our Launch Series.  Today we are going to take a look at what’s new in Printing with Windows 8! With Windows 8, we have redesigned the printer driver model; it has remained relatively unchanged since the...

It’s day 11 of our Launch Series, and day 4 of our RDS series.  The past few posts, have covered the numerous User Interface changes and enhancements that have been made within Windows Server 2012 with regards to Remote Desktop Services (RDS). ...

Welcome to day 11 of our Launch Series, and part 3 of our RDS series. The past few posts have covered the numerous User Interface changes and enhancements that have been made within Windows Server 2012 with regards to Remote Desktop Services (RDS). Today...

Welcome back! It’s Day 10, and part 2 of our posts on RDS. Today we are going to discuss Virtual Machine-based desktop deployment, focusing on creating a pooled collection. There are two primary types of RDS deployments in Windows Server 2012: ...

Welcome to Day 9 of our launch series, and the first of 4 covering RDS. In todays post, we are going to cover the “Remote Desktop Management Server” (RDMS) interface for creating and managing a Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop environment...

It’s day 8 of our Launch Series!  Today we are going to talk about creating a Windows To Go device.  Windows To Go workspaces (a new feature in Windows 8 Enterprise client) enables bootable USB thumb drives that essentially act as an additional...

Hello AskPerf! Welcome to day 7 of our Launch Series.  Today we are going to talk about the new Swapfile introduced in Windows 8.  You may ask, “Why do we need another virtual page file?”  Well, with the introduction of the Modern App,...

It’s day 6 of our Launch Series.  Today we are going to talk about Task Manager and the new benefits it provides.  For our Developers, there were 3 main goals that they focused on for the new Task Manager.  These included the following...

Welcome to day 5 of our Launch Series.  Today we are going to talk about the new File Explorer.  For our Developers, they set out to accomplish 3 main goals for the new File Explorer.  These included the following: Optimize Explorer for...

Welcome to day 4 of our Launch Series. Today we are going to talk about the speed at which Windows boots up. Windows 8’s fast startup mode is the default option on a Windows 8 client computer. Windows 8 systems that are built using Unified Extensible...

Welcome to day 3 of our Launch Series.  This is part two of the new Start Screen and User Interface in Windows 8.  In part one, we covered tiles and groups.  Today, we will look into switching between applications, the Snap feature, and...