Benchmark Windows applications with autoit?!

[Mike25de]

I know this might be a weird question... but here it goes:

I have around 80 windows pcs and laptops that are running windows 7.    The issue is that from time to time some pcs gets very slow (it takes 3 minutes for outlook to open, or an excel file from the share drive etc - you know what i mean ).   

What i am trying to do.. is to be a bit proactive (and not wait until the users complain)  and try to benchmark applications somehow.

Do you guys have any ideas how i might be able to do that with autoit?   for example can i monitor how long it takes outlook to open its main window?

Thank you in advance!

Mike

[Bert]

Have you thought of using ccleaner to do maintenance on the PCs on a schedule? It sounds to me that an automatic maintenance program would be better in this situation.

[Mike25de]

Have you thought of using ccleaner to do maintenance on the PCs on a schedule? It sounds to me that an automatic maintenance program would be better in this situation.

 

It's not about fixing... just reporting.  I do use Ccleaner, but i need to be able to provide management !?!?   reports on how responsive is a PC.

[JLogan3o13]

First, what is the cause of the slow down? You have to first determine your root cause on one of the machines before you can then look for it. As a first blush, you could use AutoIt and WMI to scan the machines checking for the normal performance monitor metrics (% CPU in use, Queue Times, % Memory in use, Page Faults, etc.). But to get more specific you would need to first identify the likely causes (HDD bottleneck, application performance, memory leak, dropped packets, etc.)

[Mike25de]

First, what is the cause of the slow down? You have to first determine your root cause on one of the machines before you can then look for it. As a first blush, you could use AutoIt and WMI to scan the machines checking for the normal performance monitor metrics (% CPU in use, Queue Times, % Memory in use, Page Faults, etc.). But to get more specific you would need to first identify the likely causes (HDD bottleneck, application performance, memory leak, dropped packets, etc.)

Thanks for your answer.  The usual issues... are that windows is getting old.. fragmentation of the hdd  ...registry is slow...    After a clean reinstall everything gets up to speed... for about 6 months or so.

I will take a look at WMI to see how can i monitor pcs.  thank you.

[JLogan3o13]

If you know the causes, I would concentrate on running a script that would set things like defrag to happen on a schedule, and then alert you if the operation fails. More of a push than you pulling the info from each.

[Bert]

Thanks for your answer.  The usual issues... are that windows is getting old.. fragmentation of the hdd  ...registry is slow...    After a clean reinstall everything gets up to speed... for about 6 months or so.

I will take a look at WMI to see how can i monitor pcs.  thank you.

This is a classic example of not performing a proper cleaning routine of the PC. You are leaving out one step that will GREATLY improve speed on the cleanup - wipe the clean space on the HDD. If your drive is not a SDD then wiping the free space will do wonders for a slow rig. ccleaner has that option in the checklist. If I remember right you have to have admin rights when launching ccleaner to get that functionality. Try that and see what happens. I do this for my clients and they swear by it.

edit; the reason this works is the old files that have been deleted on the HDD are really NOT deleted. Windows only removed the file headers. If you use data recovery tools on the drive in question, you will still see the data. Wiping the free space overwrites the "deleted" files and the HDD will no longer see that data when indexing sectors on the platters.

Edited October 8, 2014 by DarthCookieMonster

[Mike25de]

This is a classic example of not performing a proper cleaning routine of the PC. You are leaving out one step that will GREATLY improve speed on the cleanup - wipe the clean space on the HDD. If your drive is not a SDD then wiping the free space will do wonders for a slow rig. ccleaner has that option in the checklist. If I remember right you have to have admin rights when launching ccleaner to get that functionality. Try that and see what happens. I do this for my clients and they swear by it.

edit; the reason this works is the old files that have been deleted on the HDD are really NOT deleted. Windows only removed the file headers. If you use data recovery tools on the drive in question, you will still see the data. Wiping the free space overwrites the "deleted" files and the HDD will no longer see that data when indexing sectors on the platters.

 

Yes, you are right, thanks for the tip.