Using “Windows Reliability Monitor” to Identify and Troubleshoot Software Problems

Windows Reliability Monitor is a Windows utility that helps you identify software problems in the Windows operating system that can affect system performance and reliability.

Most likely you haven’t taken advantage of most of the troubleshooting tools provided by Windows, as they are many and varied. Reliability Monitor is a tool that is often overlooked and not utilized to its full potential.

Windows Reliability Monitor is already present in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 10, and Windows 11 which allows you to view your computer’s stability history. This allows you to identify previous alerts, critical events, and previous information.

Reliability Monitor mainly focuses on monitoring and logging a specific set of errors and changes that occur on Windows PCs. This utility provides a quick overview of the level of stability of the system. Moreover, it also monitors events which help in determining the reasons behind the decline in reliability.

This tool proves to be very useful for administrators and advanced users who are trying to troubleshoot and resolve system crashes, malfunctions, glitches, and so on. In addition, the tool also logs malfunction incidents such as memory, application, disk, and operating system failures, and important events such as operating system updates and installation of new applications related to system configuration.

This logging will give you a chronology of changes that helps you assess system changes and their stability. Through Windows Reliability Monitor, you can easily determine the actions required to restore the optimal reliability of your system in situations where system performance is not up to expectations.

Launch Windows Reliability Monitor                          

There are many ways to open Reliability Monitor in Windows. One of the easiest ways is through the Windows search box, type “reliability” and select from the list of applications displayed “View reliability history”.

open reliability monitor

Another way to open the “Reliability Monitor” is through the “Control Panel”. Navigate to “Control Panel\System and Security\Security and Maintenance”. Then click “Maintenance” to expand and click the “View reliability history” link.

Reliability Monitor Features

Visual depictions are provided to present an outline of the development of system stability, emphasizing significant events and alerts. In addition, this feature gives you the ability to observe comprehensive details regarding each event.

reliability monitor

You can use the Issue Report feature to notify Microsoft developers of any issues or glitches you encounter so they can improve the product.

The System Stability Index assesses the long-term stability of your system as a whole. This scale ranges from 1 to 10, with 1 indicating a very unstable system and 10 indicating a very stable system. The Stability Index evaluates the occurrence and intensity of system failures, errors, and unavailability.

Using Reliability Monitor

The image below shows a horizontally scrolling screen view where each column indicates a unique day when the computer was used. In the event of an error, corruption, or informational event, the day in question will be marked with the symbol (i) or (x) to indicate the event.

When you click on a particular day, a complete record of all the information and events of the error that occurred will appear. In addition, each event will include a hyperlink that provides access to related technical details.

reliability monitor problem detail

This alternative will provide all pertinent details relating to the event, which may consist of varying technical data regarding the event and the specific application, resource, or service used, although it does not necessarily apply to every event.

The technical details presented will vary based on the specific issue that occurred. These details can consist of application or system file names and folder paths, or file names such as (. dmp) and xml that store information or additional information related to the issue. Including the version numbers of all relevant components can provide valuable information for identifying problems.

You may find the driver, system file, or application responsible for the issue that doesn’t match the stable and supported version you know about. Quick identification of the wrong version of a file can facilitate quick resolution of certain issues. By doing this, one can easily transfer technical information by copying and pasting it into emails, especially when providing remote assistance or requesting further support from colleagues or online resources.

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