Gnomie Jeffery M. Comrie writes:

Dear Chris,

I’ve been assigned as the Hill Air Force Base (AFB), Vista Standard Desktop Configuration Project Manager and I was wondering if you might be able to help me out or at the very least, point me in the right direction for a “third party” tool (preferably free and able to be installed as an application of individual devices) which will do the following:

  1. Monitor performance
  2. CPU usage
  3. RAM usage
  4. Benchmark Results
  5. Hardware utilization
  6. Record all of the above

This tool needs to be able to export this into a .txt or .xls, and / or an html file for justification for a “standard configuration” desktop / laptop / workstation. You see, as it stands right now, we have over 50+ devices that are currently testing Vista SDC 2.0.3, 2.0.4, and 2.1.2 SDC. Most of the devices have at least 2.0GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, and at least 15GB of hard drive space available. Our other devices have 2GB of RAM, and some have 3GB of RAM. I’m pretty confident the devices that have 2GB of RAM will run Vista relatively painlessly… but my main concern is with the 1GB of RAM. I know from my personal testing, without running any applications, my RAM usage is huge and my available RAM left over is sometimes less than 10MB.

Additionally, I’ve been a “fan” of yours for many years and a subscriber as well, so I was wondering if you might be able to help… You seem to me the type of individual who will help those in need when called upon… Thanks in advance… :o)

Anybody have any ideas to pass along to Mr. Comrie? Please leave comments!