Question

When I create performance counters in Windows Vista, I see that there is a “parent” column in the performance monitor listview that lists the counters.

What is parent? I haven’t seen a way to set it using managed code. Is it only available if I use the Winapi?

Answer 1

The syntax of a counter path is:

\\Computer\PerfObject(ParentInstance/ObjectInstance#InstanceIndex)\Counter

The Computer element specifies the
name or IP address of the computer
from which you want to query
performance data. The computer name is
optional if the counter is located on
the local computer.

The PerfObject element specifies the
performance object to query. A
performance object can be a physical
component, such as processors, disks,
and memory, or a system object, such
as processes and threads. Each system
object is related to a functional
element within the computer and has a
set of standard counters assigned to
it. Each computer may have a different
set of performance objects and
counters installed on it because
applications can install their own
performance objects and counters. For
a list of the performance objects and
counters installed on your computer,
see the Add Counters dialog box in the
Performance tool on your computer.
These objects are also listed in the
PDH browse dialog box (see Browsing
Counters). For a list of system
performance objects and counters, see
Counters by Object.

The ParentInstance,
ObjectInstance, and InstanceIndex are
included in the path if multiple
instances of the object can exist. For
example, processes and threads are
multiple instance objects because more
than one process or thread can run at
the same time. If an object can have
more than one instance, the counter
path must specify an object instance.

From here.