Perfmon seems to have two ways to capture / log its findings. One is to use a "data collector," and the other is to open a context menu and "Save Settings As" which produces an html file.
Could someone explain what scenario(s) inspire the two different means of capturing data? I mean, I've noticed that data collectors can be stored as CSV, binary, SQL, etc. That unto itself makes a data collector very useful. But then why have the html format?
I want to use the tool as expertly as possible, so I'm trying to understand the subtleties of its recording capabilities.
Best Answer
Just as you've said, data collector actually collects the data from perfmon and stores it. It runs as a separate process.
And as you said, save settings does exactly that.... It saves the monitors that you've setup in the active perfmon view for easy loading later, as, when you close perfmon, the settings return to default.
Data collector settings and information persists through closing and opening of perfmon, but the active view perfmon settings do not.
The clipboard icon easily allows you to load settings from your clipboard for the active view of perfmon. Just open the HTML file you saved, copy it, and click the clipboard button, and the settings will load into the active view.
It is a very clunky way to go about saving and loading settings, but this is how Microsoft has setup perfmon.