WPR Helper

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WPR Helper is a portable Windows application for focused Windows Performance Recorder traces. It can start WPR immediately before a selected application or record system activity without launching one, then stop at the right moment and save a ready-to-analyze .etl file.

Instead of manually coordinating commands and the target application, WPR Helper keeps the whole capture lifecycle in one window:

wpr -start CPU -filemode
<launch the selected application>
wpr -stop Application.etl -skipPdbGen

Why use it

• start the trace before the target application so early activity is not missed;
• record system activity without launching a target application;
• combine several built-in profiles, such as CPU, DiskIO, FileIO, Registry, and Network;
• use custom .wprp profiles alongside built-in profiles;
• stop manually, after the target exits, after a delay, or at a maximum duration;
• save ETL files locally or to a UNC path, with an optional second copy;
• write the primary ETL directly to the selected save directory, avoiding a fragile post-capture copy from a temporary session path;
• see the exact wpr.exe command applied to the current capture;
• skip NGEN/PDB generation by default for faster finalization, with an option to keep detailed managed-code symbols;

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11 x64;
• wpr.exe from Windows or the Windows Performance Toolkit;
• administrator approval when the recording worker starts.

The release package is self-contained and does not require a separate .NET installation. WPR itself is not bundled.

Quick start

1. Run WprHelper.exe.
2. Select the target application and set its arguments, or clear Launch an application with the capture for a system-only trace.
3. Open WPR profile and select one or several profiles. CPU with -filemode is a practical default.
4. Choose where to save the ETL file.
5. Click Start capture and approve elevation.
6. Close the target application, wait for the configured duration, or click Stop.

WPR may spend some time merging its buffers. WPR Helper waits for wpr -stop to finish before showing the final ETL path and enabling Open ETL folder.

By default the stop command includes -skipPdbGen. This preserves the ETL event data and avoids the additional capture.etl.NGENPDB folder, while .NET stacks in WPA may be less detailed. Clear Skip NGEN/PDB symbol generation when managed-code symbols are required.

WPR profiles

Built-in profiles can be combined in one capture. For example, selecting CPU, DiskIO, and FileIO produces a start command equivalent to:

wpr -start CPU -start DiskIO -start FileIO -filemode

Custom profiles use the path!profile_name syntax supported by WPR. The interface shows a short description for known profiles and the full command line that will be executed.

License

Distributed under the MIT License.

Download

Download the latest portable build from GitHub Releases.