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vitesse
Novice

2 Posts

Posted - 30 Aug 2016 :  16:08:23  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I've used PerfMon for a while now and it has become my favorite system resource usage visualizer. It does almost everything I need in a simple and easy to use way.

However, there is one main problem that keeps happening. I only use the graphs in the system tray and they won't remember their order.
At the moment I'm running Win 10 x64 (but it's the same in Win 7, 8 and 8.1).

I tried everything I could think of, but every time I turn on my computer or I change a setting in the program itself, I have to manually reorder the tray graphs. I like to have a certain order - CPU, RAM, HDD, Network, which to me is the most logical, but when it starts, everything is in a different position so I have to manually drag CPU to the first position and everything goes back to normal.

Another thing that would be nice to see fixed is that whenever I restart explorer.exe (for various reasons), I have to manually kill PerfMon from Task Manager and restart it for it to show up in the tray again.


As far as suggestions are concerned this is what I thought of in the time I've used it:

1. It would be nice to have the possibility of choosing which disk drive to show the graph for, not just disk 0 and to have the ability to add at least 1-2 more as separate graphs.
For example I used an HDD before buying an SSD, which now is disk 1. I didn't want to change the physical connectors on the motherboard, but I still only see the graph for my HDD (which even though is more useful, I would like to also see what's going on with the SSD).

2. The network graph, as far as I could tell, acts differently (at least in the tray) from the other graphs. Instead of the max being the one I set it to (in my case 100mbps), it's dynamic based on the highest speed currently being shown. Because my internet connection actually is 100mbps, I could never tell the total speed my computer was using at a time.

I appreciate the automatic conversion between kilobits and kilobytes so I don't have to do math every time to tell the "real" speed.

As a result, hovering the mouse over the graph was sort of helpful, but as another suggestion, beyond using kilobytes, it would be nice to also group the speeds in megabytes whenever needed just to have a simpler and easier way of reading it.

The ability to show separate graphs for download/upload is very useful in theory, but for me at least, because of the problem I mentioned at the beginning, I don't use this because I can't be sure which is which by position alone and I don't want to have to also mess with that whenever I turn on my computer.

I know this post sounds somewhat negative, but the truth is that I really like this program and I got so used to it that whenever I use another computer I instinctively look at the system tray to see how everything is, especially when doing something more resource intensive. These are just a few things that would make it that much better for me at least.

Thanks for all the hard work.

Edited by - vitesse on 30 Aug 2016 16:10:05

s.dav
Site Admin

Italy
3364 Posts

Posted - 01 Sep 2016 :  18:07:37  Show Profile  Visit s.dav's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Vitesse,

in the screen, each panel in PerfMon remembers its position;
in the tray area this doesn't work as it is not possible to choose a tray position so they are placed randomly from the system

when explorer crashes (why do you need to restart explorer???) it should recognize the new handle (after a while, 1 minute? can't remember) and restore the tray icon automatically; eventually let me know and I'll check the source



Regards, Davide
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vitesse
Novice

2 Posts

Posted - 01 Sep 2016 :  21:11:14  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I figured that the normal PerfMon panels remember their position. I also assumed there was a way to order the tray graphs because Windows remembers the position of tray icons in general.
I manually arranged every icon that's there (mostly in the expanded menu - when clicking the "show hidden icons" arrow) and every time I boot up Windows, they're all where I left them. Same goes for dragging stuff between the system tray and the hidden system tray. They stay in the same position.
When I installed PerfMon I enabled every graph with "show in tray area", one by one so they would line up like I wanted to. Even though when I boot up Windows, they're scrambled, if I drag CPU to the left, they go back to how I set them up.

I needed to manually restart Explorer because of network copying errors, Classic Shell (Windows 8+ start menu replacement) updated or something like that and Explorer crashed sometimes because of driver updates etc.
It happened quite rarely, but when it did I noticed it. I don't believe I waited that long though. Generally when Explorer got restarted for one reason or another, I manually ended PerfMon from task manager and restarted it.

As I was writing this, I manually restarted Explorer and waited for about 5 minutes to see if PerfMon would show again. It didn't. I assume it technically is still running and it just doesn't know that it's not visible. The same thing happens to a bunch of other stuff that are normally in the hidden system tray (like AiSuite from Asus, DFX audio enhancer etc.).

Apart from that, is there any way more disk drives could be added to be shown in graphs (not only drive 0)? Since resource monitor shows them individually, I assume there is a way of pulling the data.
Also, if the internet speeds could be grouped in MB too that would be very helpful. If the data is being pulled from resource manager, where the graph itself is dynamic, I'm going to guess that apart from making a standalone network monitor, there's no way of making it display static maximum speeds.

Thanks for the reply.
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s.dav
Site Admin

Italy
3364 Posts

Posted - 05 Sep 2016 :  12:21:14  Show Profile  Visit s.dav's Homepage  Reply with Quote
You are right, I checked the code quite fast but tray icons are not restored if the Explorer shell crashes; I was quite sure because I did this feature in other software.
I can do it quite fast, the only problem is my will ;-)

Regards, Davide
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LorenAmelang
Novice

USA
4 Posts

Posted - 26 Oct 2016 :  07:26:19  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
s.dav,

I've used PerfMon on every system since WinNT - Thank You!

I share the same two frustrations as vitesse. On every restart, I have to drag one of the tray icons to get them arranged "properly". It seems like, when loading, one of the CPU icons appears, then the disk and net, and then the other three CPU icons. I drag one of the later CPU icons away from the clock corner past the disk icon, and they jump into logical order with all the CPU icons together. Could the order you draw them in affect their position? Mine always appear in exactly the same pattern.

And, they all disappear when Explorer restarts. It seems lots of programs (like SugarSync!) trigger that whenever they update themselves. PerfMon is still running, I can't just start it again. Must go kill it with a task manager, and then go restart it.

Oh, while I'm whining... The net indicator seems to like showing "Max: 894.00KB/s" even when the download indication is higher. It is set to "7Mb" maximum. My internet is hard limited at 5Mb, which if you calculate exactly 8 bits/Byte is 625KB/s. So I seriously doubt it is reaching 894KB/s. But maybe 894 is your calculation for 7Mb?

The up and down values seem to be in Kb/s, reaching realistic values of 4000 to 5000, despite being labeled "KB/s". So maybe the label is intended to convey bits, not bytes? And maybe the max value just sticks at 894 arbitrarily?

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LorenAmelang
Novice

USA
4 Posts

Posted - 26 Oct 2016 :  07:43:30  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Just bumped my config setting up to 12Mb max, and the mouse-over message went immediately to "Max: 1536.00KB/s", even though I was not using the net at all. Maybe it isn't showing my usage, just the configured max? Yes, 1536/894 is 12/7.

And changing that config value redrew the tray icons - in the typical startup order.
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s.dav
Site Admin

Italy
3364 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2016 :  11:44:05  Show Profile  Visit s.dav's Homepage  Reply with Quote
@LorenAmelang,
thanks you using PerfMon, I'm using it too ;-)

The icon order has never been a problem for me as I don't use tray icons at all :-)
The tray icon order cannot be set now, icons should appear in the same order I set it to the tray bar, so the order should always be CPU, Memory, Disk, Net but as you said it isn't, strange

I implemented the feature that automatically can restore the tray icon if Explorer crashes and I was sure this software already had but after a check there isn't.
I need only to find the time to report it here.

The Net data is a bit complex, Bytes/Bits scale should be right, the problem is that when reading net data the Windows API I'm using reports it in"octets" (sent or received), so data plus checks info, I think this could cause higher values in some cases.



Regards, Davide
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Ellie21
Novice

USA
1 Posts

Posted - 26 Jan 2017 :  12:03:40  Show Profile  Visit Ellie21's Homepage  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by s.dav

@LorenAmelang,
thanks you using PerfMon, I'm using it too ;-)

The icon order has never been a problem for me as I don't use tray icons at all :-)
The tray icon order cannot be set now, icons should appear in the same order I set it to the tray bar, so the order should always be CPU, Memory, Disk, Net but as you said it isn't, strange

I implemented the feature that automatically can restore the tray icon if Explorer crashes and I was searching for legal steroids and found https://legalsteroids.best/ sure this software already had but after a check there isn't.
I need only to find the time to report it here.

The Net data is a bit complex, Bytes/Bits scale should be right, the problem is that when reading net data the Windows API I'm using reports it in"octets" (sent or received), so data plus checks info, I think this could cause higher values in some cases.






i agree with you, it is a bit complex i tried changing the values and play a bit around all it does is crash. anyways i dont think the icon tray thingy is so important.

Edited by - Ellie21 on 04 Jul 2017 17:48:51
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