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I need a comprehensive and complex set of performance counters in windows performance monitor. At this point every time that I use performance monitor, I have to add the counters, one by one. Is there any way to save the counter set and load it at the later use? Thank you,

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    RichardM's solution works, should be marked as answer Nov 12, 2014 at 11:57

2 Answers 2

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A colleague figured out how to achieve this. Instead of launching Performance Monitor directly:

  1. Launch the Microsoft Management Console (mmc.exe)
  2. File -> Add/Remove Snap-ins
  3. Select Performance Monitor, select Add >, select OK.
  4. Add your desired Counters as usual
  5. File -> Save As...

The resulting .msc file will allow you to restore the Performance Monitor with your saved Counters!

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  • Yes, it works. Thank you very much. As simple as it looks, this is such a tricky and helpful solution. Thank you @RichardM
    – Allan Xu
    Nov 12, 2014 at 23:13
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    Also, if you forget about this method until after you've opened perfmon (like me): don't worry -- you can quickly migrate from an existing window. Select all counters, select 'copy properties' and then in the new window (launched from MMC) select 'paste counter list'. Dec 30, 2016 at 16:10
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    Don't ever change, Microsoft, you crazy bastards.
    – Warren P
    Feb 7, 2018 at 7:25
  • Paste counter list is not working for me though.
    – Warren P
    Feb 7, 2018 at 7:25
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    This is the best answer, esp for Windows 10. I was unable to copy/paste the counters in Win10 (it did work in Win7). While you can open the saved HTM file with IE, that method no longer works in Win10 (counters were all zero, didn't collect data). I ended up following the instructions above and recreating my counters.
    – ripvlan
    Sep 17, 2018 at 18:53
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If you are using Performance Monitor, it does let you save and later load a set of counters. Right-click on the graph for "Save Settings As", which will prompt you to enter an HTML file name. Yep, HTML.

To later load this file you will have to drag 'n drop the file onto the graph. I could not find a menu option for loading the file.

Edit: this has only been tested under Windows 7.

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    I have tried to drag-and-drop the saved configuration (*.html) onto the Performance Monitor graph in Windows 10 (64bit), and nothing happens. Dragging the configuration onto the Performance Monitor graph hosted by the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) doesn't work either.
    – Pressacco
    May 26, 2017 at 13:58
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    Agree - fails for me. Feb 16, 2018 at 21:28
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    I was unable to open the HTML file using the suggested method under Win10. You can right-click and Open With Internet Explorer, but the counters all show as Zeros and won't collect data. I also tried copy/paste counters between the IE window and another Perfmon window without success.. The Accepted Answer appears to be the only solution under Windows 10. For what it's worth - I used to open the HTM file on Win7 with success, so this appears to be a breaking change in Windows 10.
    – ripvlan
    Sep 17, 2018 at 18:57
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    This still works - you just need to copy the HTML source code, not the file nor from the browser; i.e. open-in-notepad; copy everything; paste in perfmon. It's crazy, but it works. The MMC solution is however probably better, I suppose... May 17, 2023 at 11:42

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