How To Use Windows Performance Recorder

In this article, I will show you how to use “Windows Performance Recorder” to record a Windows boot trace, to troubleshoot slow boot.

First of all, you need to download the Software Development Kit (DSK)

After running the sdksetup.exe you should select one of the following options:

SDK setup

The first option will install Windows performance toolkit on the computer running the setup. The second one will allow you to download the offline setup files that can be executed on another computer.

For our purpose, we will choose the first one.

Click next and accept the license agreement.

SDK setup 01

Click on “Windows Performance Toolkit” and then on the install button.

Reboot your computer to finish the setup.

To record a boot trace, type “wpr” from the windows start menu and then click on “Windows Performance Recorder“.

run_wpr
wpr01

On the “Performance scenario” menu choose “Boot“.

wpr02


Type “1” for the numbers of iterations and then click the start button.

wpr03

Select the path where the trace file, with “.etl” extension, will be saved and click on the “Save” button.

wpr04

After you click on the OK button your system will reboot and “Windows Performance Recorder” will record all the boot phase.

After you open your windows session WPR will end the trace and will save the file in the specified path.

Boot_trace_inprogress

Generally, the trace file will be a hundred Mb to Gigabytes.

So if you want to share your trace or send it by e-mail, don’t forget to compress the .ETL file and the .NGENPDB folder.

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8 thoughts on “How To Use Windows Performance Recorder”

  1. Hi Zine, thanks for the Reddit post and this. I have a strange W10 issue where if I boot from the EFI entry Windows 10 Boot Manager it boots fine and in seconds but if I boot from a bootloader like OpenCore or rEFInd it takes 10 mins or so. So something is probably up with my W10 but couldnt work out from the WPR log. Could you PLEASE help? Compressed log here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eflFwqJeiLVTLhhVWtP2bw1zo8kCyQ7C/view?usp=sharing Thanks

  2. Your instructions fail to say that after the computer is restarted, the user should open Windows Performance Analyser again to end the recording and generate the WPR log file.

    1. This happens when you run WPR from a standard user session.
      When you run WPR from an admin session, WPR will automatically finalize collecting the trace after the system reboot.

  3. Hello, Is there someone who can help me tell me what needs changed or fixed that is causing slow boot if i give you the WPR results file and how do i give you that file so you can look at it.Or where do i submit it to please give link.Thank you..
    Tim

      1. Hello,
        Thank you very much hope this link works for you.
        This Desktop Computer does not have a SSD.
        Boot time takes about 48 seconds to get to the desktop at other times more or even more and depends on if updates being applied.
        I have followed info from here for clean install and tweak for best boot time and performance.
        https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/clean-install-windows-10/1c426bdf-79b1-4d42-be93-17378d93e587

        Boot Trace file 50mb
        https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwOU-pDSSg0SNmltY0d6VE9DOGc/view?usp=sharing

        1. At first glance it seems that the delay is caused by your ATI Radeon driver (atikmpag.sys).
          The “Winlogon init” phase took more than 47s. And when looking at the origin of the delay in the CPU Usage (Precise) graph, I see the the LogonUI Thread 3732 wiating 32s on graphical operations to complete. And these functions are calling other functions inside atikmpag.sys module! https://jpst.it/13KPC

          When you look at the “Images Graph” you can get the driver version which is 8.01.01.1500. https://jpst.it/13KRk

          If you’ve upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 to 10 it can explain the issue.

          So, Update your graphic Driver and take another boot trace to see if there any improvement !

      2. Thank you,
        I formated the computer and installed win 10 on this desktop.
        Regarding the driver the ATI Radeon This computer does not have a separate graphics card.
        The ATI is part of the processor.
        Not sure where to find updated driver.
        This is a hp desktop computer.
        When i go to device manager and on display adapters it says AMD RADEON 6550D
        DRIVER DATE 8-21-2015
        DRIVER VERSION 15.201.1151.0

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