PerformanceCounter.CounterHelp Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Diagnostics

Assembly:

System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter.dll

Gets the description for this performance counter.

public:
 property System::String ^ CounterHelp { System::String ^ get(); };

public string CounterHelp { get; }

member this.CounterHelp : string

Public ReadOnly Property CounterHelp As String

Property Value

String

A description of the item or quantity that this performance counter measures.

Exceptions

InvalidOperationException

The PerformanceCounter instance is not associated with a performance counter.

-or-

The InstanceLifetime property is set to Process when using global shared memory.

UnauthorizedAccessException

Code that is executing without administrative privileges attempted to read a performance counter.

Remarks

The Add Counters dialog box of the Performance Counter Manager MMC snap in displays the CounterHelp text when a user selects a counter from the counters list and clicks the Explain button.

When you create a new counter, use the CounterHelp text to describe what the counter monitors do so the user can determine whether to add the counter to the System Monitor's display.

Note

If the value for the InstanceLifetime property is Process and the performance counter category was created with .NET Framework version 1.0 or 1.1, an InvalidOperationException is thrown. Performance counter categories created with earlier versions use global shared memory, and the value for InstanceLifetime must be Global. If the category is not used by applications running on versions 1.0 or 1.1 of the .NET Framework, delete and recreate the category.

Note

To read performance counters in Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, or Windows Server 2003, you must either be a member of the Performance Monitor Users group or have administrative privileges.

To avoid having to elevate your privileges to access performance counters in Windows Vista, add yourself to the Performance Monitor Users group.

In Windows Vista, User Account Control (UAC) determines the privileges of a user. If you are a member of the Built-in Administrators group, you are assigned two run-time access tokens: a standard user access token and an administrator access token. By default, you are in the standard user role. To execute the code that accesses performance counters, you must first elevate your privileges from standard user to administrator. You can do this when you start an application by right-clicking the application icon and indicating that you want to run as an administrator.