Question about EnableThreadProfiling and ReadThreadProfilingData

Question

Hi,

When using ReadThreadProfilingData (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winbase/nf-winbase-readthreadprofilingdata), for the hardware counter data the documentation is not clear how the OS handle the thread being interrupted and/or moving between cores.

Is this just a way to read the current counter value on the core the hardware is running on? Or is this really a per-thread counter?

Answer 1

Hi @Issam Khalil ,

Is this just a way to read the current counter value on the core the hardware is running on? Or is this really a per-thread counter?

According to another function EnableThreadProfiling:

To profile hardware performance counters, you need a driver to configure the counters. The performance counters are configured globally for the system, so every thread has access to the same hardware counter data. The counters must be configured before you enable profiling. For information on configuring hardware performance counters, see the KeSetHardwareCounterConfiguration function in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).

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