Reliability Monitor turns Windows crash and warning history into a day-by-day timeline. It is one of the quickest ways to see whether a problem began after an update, driver install, app crash, or other system change.
This guide applies to Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows logs Reliability Monitor data automatically in the background.
Does This Affect You?
Use Reliability Monitor when a PC has intermittent freezes, app crashes, blue screens, failed installs, or error pop-ups and you need to know when the pattern started. It is easier to read than raw logs and can point you toward the app, module, driver, or update involved.
Open Reliability Monitor and Read the Timeline
No setup is required because Windows has usually been collecting this history already.
- Click the taskbar search icon, or press Windows key + S.
- Type reliability and open View reliability history.
- Review the timeline. Each column represents a day, usually going back several weeks or months.
- A red circle with an X indicates a critical failure, a yellow warning triangle marks a warning such as a failed update, and a blue information icon marks routine events such as successful installs.
- Watch the stability graph across the top. A sharp drop often identifies the day the real trouble began.
- Click a day to see the events for that date in the lower panel.
Investigate One Event
The event details can turn “something crashed” into the exact app, file, or driver you should research.
- Click the day that contains the problem.
- Select a specific event, such as an app listed as Stopped working.
- Click View technical details.
- Look for fields such as the problem signature, fault module name, driver file, app version, or exception code.
- If Windows offers Check for a solution, try it. Sometimes it points to a known fix or update.
Use Reliability Monitor for Diagnosis
Compare Failures with Installs
Look for red X icons that begin right after blue information icons for driver, app, or Windows updates. If a crash pattern starts immediately after one install, that update is a strong lead.
View or Save All Problem Reports
Use View all problem reports or save the reliability history if you need a searchable list or want to send details to someone helping you troubleshoot.
Cross-Check Event Viewer
Reliability Monitor is excellent for spotting when a problem started. Event Viewer provides deeper log text. Once you identify a suspicious date and time, check the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for matching entries.
Sources
- Microsoft Support: Open Reliability Monitor in Windows
- Microsoft Learn: Reliability Monitor overview
- Microsoft Support: Troubleshoot crashes and freezes in Windows