Reliability Monitor in Windows Server 2008 (and Vista too)

Both Windows Server 2008 and Vista have a Reliability Monitor that displays the system stability history and provides details on day-to-day stability issues. There are more details, as well as screenshots and an example, over at the Ask the Performance Team blog.

Here is one scenario where the Reliability Monitor could come in handy:

Let’s say your computer has been crashing for the past 2 weeks, but you are not sure what you did to make it start crashing.  While looking at the Reliability Monitor, you discover that there were no crashes prior to 2 weeks ago. The day before the crashes started, the anti-virus drivers were updated.  It’s safe to say at this point that this anti-virus update is the most likely suspect and caused your computer crashes.