windows performance recorder record specific process

Question

Using the Windows Performance Recorder, is it possible to generate an ETL file based on the tracing of a single process? The ETL files generated for all of the processes in the system result in ETL files measured in GBs for intervals as small as a couple of minutes.

Answer 1

ETW (kernel event) tracing is system wide and captures all processes.

Answer 2

I don't think it is possible to record ETW traces that record just one process (at least not with xperf or wpr). If your traces are too big then the best tactic is to make sure that the rest of the system is as quiet as possible so that it doesn't contribute too much data.

If the rest of the system is already quiet then the traces are probably big because ETW traces tend to be big. You can use trace compression to make them smaller on disk - see UIforETW for how this works - https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/etw-central/.

If the rest of the system is not already quiet then yes, it probably is contributing to bloat in the traces. Note that it may also be affecting performance, so that data is not irrelevant.

And, if you really do need single-process profiling consider using a different profiler. The Visual Studio profiler does per-process profiling.