Windows Inside & Out · Task Manager & Performance · Lesson 4 of 5

Reading Reliability Monitor

Use a timeline of crashes and changes to find when a problem started and why.

A timeline of your computer's problems

Reliability Monitor is a Windows tool that keeps a diary of your computer's problems and changes. It is the best place to answer one question: when did this start?

To open it, click Start and type reliability. Choose View reliability history. It is also in Control Panel, under Security and Maintenance, then Maintenance.

You see a chart with one column for each day. You can switch to weeks at the top. The blue line is the stability index, a score from 1 to 10. It drops when problems happen and slowly climbs back on good days. Don't worry about the exact number. Look for where it dropped.

Small icons in each column show what happened:

• A red circle with an X is a critical event. That can be an app crash or a Windows failure, when Windows itself had a serious problem.
• A yellow triangle is a warning, like an update that didn't install.
• A blue i is information, like an app, update or driver that installed fine. A driver is a small program that lets Windows work with a part, like the graphics card or Wi-Fi.

Click a day's column. The list below shows that day's events, with the name of the app, a short summary and the date. Double-click one to see more detail.

A brand new computer may show only a short history. It fills in over time.

Macs don't have a matching tool. The closest is the Console app, which is much more technical.

On the practice computer, open Reliability Monitor and click the day with red X marks. Read which app failed.

Connecting crashes to a change

Problems rarely come from nowhere. Something usually changed first. Reliability Monitor puts the changes and the crashes on the same timeline, so you can see how they line up.

Read it like a detective:

1. Find the first day with red X marks. Was everything fine before that?
2. Look at that day and the days just before it. Check the blue i events.
3. Look for something new: an app you installed, a Windows update or a new driver.

Say the crashes began the day after a new graphics driver installed, with none before. That driver is your top suspect. It is not proof, but it tells you where to start.

What to do next depends on the change:

• A new app: check for an update to it. Or uninstall it and see if the crashes stop.
• A new driver: you can roll back, which means going back to the driver you had before. You do that in Device Manager. Or get a newer, fixed version from the maker's official website.
• A Windows update: open Settings, then Windows Update, then Update history. It shows what installed and lets you uninstall some updates.

Also check if the same app keeps failing. One crash months ago doesn't matter much. The same app crashing every day does.

Some events have a Check for a solution link that may find a known fix. At the bottom, View all problem reports lists every recorded problem.

Write down the date and the name of what changed. If you ask someone for help, that note will save a lot of time.