In the previous installment of this article, you learned about two of the four built-in diagnostic tools include with Vista: Memory Diagnostics and Disk Diagnostics. In continuation of Part I, let’s look at the two additional tools: Windows Network Diagnostics and Resource Exhaustion Prevention.
Windows Network Diagnostics
Since individuals rely so much on network connectivity, the Windows Network Diagnostics tool in Vista is particularly useful in diagnosing connectivity problems. It helps you identify the potential problems that may be causing a loss of connectivity and it automatically takes appropriate steps toward correcting them.
For example, if your computer is connected to the Internet through a home network and you unexpectedly lose Internet connectivity, you can graphically see which connection is down. You can then use the Network Diagnostics tool to help identify the cause of the problem and find some possible solutions.
Resource Exhaustion Prevention
Even though computers these days are capable of running multiple applications at once, it is still possible to run out of system resources. This can lead to hangs, crashes and data loss.
Vista takes the proactive approach to monitoring resource usage with the Resource Exhaustion Prevention tool. Instead of waiting for your computer to run out of system resources, it warns you when critical resources are low so you can avoid that system hang or crash.
It also tells you which processes are using the largest amount of a given resource and helps you to reclaim that resource. Further to this, Vista will write an event to the event log when a resource exhaustion warning is issued containing information for future analysis.
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