Resource Monitor shows no data, Start Monitoring gives Access is denied.

Question

On two domain controllers Resource monitor is showing no information and using Start Monitoring says Access is denied. Logged in as the domain administrator. Other domain joined servers are fine.

Does anyone have any advice on what this could be?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

Thank you for providing the detailed error information.

Based on your description, since the issue occurs only on the Domain Controllers while Resource Monitor works normally on other domain-joined servers, this is more likely related to permissions, Group Policy, WMI, or performance counter configuration rather than a Resource Monitor application issue.

Here are some areas you can investigate further:

1. Verify User Rights Assignments

Compare the affected Domain Controllers with a working server and review the following User Rights Assignment settings in Local Security Policy or the applied GPOs:

• Create global objects
• Impersonate a client after authentication

There have been reports where removal of BUILTIN\Administrators or NT AUTHORITY\SERVICE from these rights caused Resource Monitor to display no data and return "Access is denied" when Start Monitoring is selected.

2. Review Domain Controller GPOs

Since the issue is limited to Domain Controllers, generate a Group Policy Results report:

gpresult /h gpresult.html

Compare the applied policies on an affected DC with those on a healthy server. Pay particular attention to:

• Security hardening policies
• User Rights Assignments
• Custom baseline or security compliance GPOs

Several similar cases have been linked to policy restrictions affecting access to performance monitoring components.

3. Verify Performance Counter Health

Open an elevated Command Prompt and run:

lodctr /r

winmgmt /resyncperf

Then restart the relevant services if allowed in your environment:

• Performance Logs & Alerts
• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

Corrupted or unregistered performance counters can cause Resource Monitor to display blank results.

4. Check Event Viewer

Review the following logs for errors occurring when Resource Monitor is opened or when Start Monitoring is selected:

• Application
• System
• Microsoft-Windows-Diagnosis-PLA/Operational
• Microsoft-Windows-WMI-Activity/Operational

Look for events related to Access Denied, WMI, or Performance Counters.

5. Test with Performance Monitor

Launch: perfmon

If Performance Monitor is also unable to collect performance data, the issue is likely related to performance counters, WMI, or security permissions rather than Resource Monitor itself.

Additionally, because the behavior is occurring on multiple Domain Controllers, I would focus first on GPO-applied User Rights Assignments and any recent security hardening changes. Misconfigured privileges assigned through policy are one of the few known scenarios that can produce the exact "Start Monitoring → Access is denied" behavior while the user is logged on with administrative credentials.

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