Pinpointing "Slow" with PerfView and dotnet-trace — A Practical Introduction to .NET Performance Investigation (archived 2026-07-27)

When a business app is "slow," "pegs the CPU," or "occasionally freezes," which tool should you reach for, and what should you look at? This article walks through the division of labor between PerfView and dotnet-trace, how to read CPU sampling data (inclusive vs. exclusive), investigating blocked time with ThreadTime, and combining it all with custom EventSource events, covering the practical steps of .NET performance investigation. Archived version of https://comcomponent.com/en/blog/perfview-dotnet-trace-performance-analysis/, as published on 2026-07-27. The live article is maintained and may change after this date. First published 2026-07-04.