How to Enable or Disable Performance Counters

Issue:

When viewing the performance counters list in System Monitor one or more performance counters do not appear.

Cause:

The individual performance counter may be disabled and is no longer being loaded.

Solution:

You can enable or disable the loading of performance counters using the Exctrlst.exe application from the Windows 2003 Support Tools.

1)      Run Exctrlst.exe

a.       Enter \\servername to attach to remote server.

b.      Click Refresh.

2)      Select “Service” as the Sort Order.

3)      Locate the Service for which the performance object reports

In Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003, system counters are defined in the following libraries and drivers:

4)      Select the “Service” and verify the “Performance Counters Enabled” check box is checked appropriately

a.       Check = Enabled

b.      Unchecked = Disabled.

5)      Enable / Disable Performance counters as needed and click “Refresh” to verify the changes have taken place.

a.       Sample screen shot of Exctrlst.exe

More Information:

See Exctrlst Remarks from Microsoft’s Technet

Below is an excerpt from Excltrls Remarks on Microsoft Technet.

Exctrlst Data Source

Exctrlst displays data directly from the Performance subkeys in the registry (HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ServiceName\Performance). A Performance subkey is created when a service, application, or device registers a performance DLL.

Exctrlst provides a complete list of all performance counter DLLs registered on the system, including counter DLLs that do not load or operate properly, and disabled counter DLLs. Exctrlst is often used with tools that attempt to load and run the performance counters, such as Typeperf or System Monitor. By comparing the list of all counter DLLs in Exctrlst with the list of operating counter DLLs in System