How to: Read Windows Performance Counters (C++/CLI)

Some applications and Windows subsystems expose performance data through the Windows performance system. These counters can be accessed using the PerformanceCounterCategory and PerformanceCounter classes, which reside in the System.Diagnostics namespace.

The following code example uses these classes to retrieve and display a counter that is updated by Windows to indicate the percentage of time that the processor is busy.

Note

This example requires administrative privileges to run on Windows Vista.

Example

// processor_timer.cpp
// compile with: /clr
#using <system.dll>

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Threading;
using namespace System::Diagnostics;
using namespace System::Timers;

ref struct TimerObject
{
public:
   static String^ m_instanceName;
   static PerformanceCounter^ m_theCounter;

public:
   static void OnTimer(Object^ source, ElapsedEventArgs^ e)
   {
      try 
      {
         Console::WriteLine("CPU time used: {0,6} ",
          m_theCounter->NextValue( ).ToString("f"));
      } 
      catch(Exception^ e)
      {
         if (dynamic_cast<InvalidOperationException^>(e))
         {
            Console::WriteLine("Instance '{0}' does not exist",
                  m_instanceName);
            return;
         }
         else
         {
            Console::WriteLine("Unknown exception... ('q' to quit)");
            return;
         }
      }
   }
};

int main()
{
   String^ objectName = "Processor";
   String^ counterName = "% Processor Time";
   String^ instanceName = "_Total";

   try
   {
      if ( !PerformanceCounterCategory::Exists(objectName) )
      {
         Console::WriteLine("Object {0} does not exist", objectName);
         return -1;
      }
   }
   catch (UnauthorizedAccessException ^ex)
   {
      Console::WriteLine("You are not authorized to access this information.");
      Console::Write("If you are using Windows Vista, run the application with ");
      Console::WriteLine("administrative privileges.");
      Console::WriteLine(ex->Message);
      return -1;
   }

   if ( !PerformanceCounterCategory::CounterExists(
          counterName, objectName) )
   {
      Console::WriteLine("Counter {0} does not exist", counterName);
      return -1;
   }

   TimerObject::m_instanceName = instanceName;
   TimerObject::m_theCounter = gcnew PerformanceCounter(
          objectName, counterName, instanceName);

   System::Timers::Timer^ aTimer = gcnew System::Timers::Timer();
   aTimer->Elapsed += gcnew ElapsedEventHandler(&TimerObject::OnTimer);
   aTimer->Interval = 1000;
   aTimer->Enabled = true;
   aTimer->AutoReset = true;

   Console::WriteLine("reporting CPU usage for the next 10 seconds");
   Thread::Sleep(10000);
   return 0;
}

See Also

Concepts

Introduction to Monitoring Performance Thresholds

Other Resources

Windows Operations (C++/CLI)

.NET Programming Guide