Want to Keep a Close Eye on XP? Then Download the Microsoft XP Management Pack

Do you want to keep a close eye on Windows XP? Then download the Microsoft Windows Client 2000/XP Operating System Management Pack. According to the Redmond company, the pack designed to be deployed on Windows Server 2003 will offer users the possibility to enjoy an extensive collection of monitoring capabilities assessing processor performance, Logical and Physical Disk performance and free space, memory and network usage. The tools will also provide an insight on the health of key Windows Operating System Services and will produce availability and event reports.

"The Microsoft Windows Client 2000/XP Operating System Management Pack provides monitoring of the basic health indicators of a Windows Client system, such as processor, memory, disk health, availability, and key performance metrics. Optional alerting on threshold monitoring is available," Microsoft informed. The management pack is available for download here.

But it is a veritable management packs fiesta over at Microsoft. The Redmond company has made available for download an impressive list of tools, also covering Windows Server 2000/2003, Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 (2003), Windows Server 2000/2003 Terminal Services, Information Worker, SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Windows Server 2000/2003 Internet Information Services and Exchange Server 2003.

In terms of the Windows client the Information, Worker Management Pack will enable you to watch closely the health, reliability, and performance of various applications including Internet Explorer, Media Player, MSN and Windows Messenger, Windows Explorer, Communicator, LiveMeeting, as well as a wide variety of Office programs. Monitoring is available for early versions of the applications such as IE5 as well as for the latest variants including Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7.

Microsoft explained that the Information Worker Management Pack also offers: "generic monitoring capabilities that work for all listed applications, and specific monitoring capabilities for individual applications. Generic monitoring: Crash detection, Hand detection, CPU utilization, Memory utilization. Individual application monitoring: Outlook mail access, Web access and Data source."