Improve documentation for ETW profiling (#50426)

Release Notes:

- N/A
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John Tur authored and GitHub committed 2026-02-28 23:03:49 -05:00
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## ETW Profiling on Windows
> **Changed in Preview (v0.225).** See [release notes](/releases#0.225).
Zed supports performance profiling with Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) to capture detailed performance data, including CPU, GPU, memory, disk, and file I/O activity. Data is saved to an `.etl` file, which can be opened in standard profiling tools for analysis.
Zed supports Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) to capture detailed performance data. You can record CPU, GPU, disk I/O, and file I/O activity, with optional heap allocation tracking.
ETW recordings may contain personally identifiable or security-sensitive information, such as paths to files and registry keys accessed, as well as process names. Please keep this in mind when sharing traces with others.
### Recording a trace
Open the command palette and run:
Open the command palette and run one of the following:
- **`etw_tracing: Record Etw Trace`** — Records CPU, GPU, and I/O activity
- **`etw_tracing: Record Etw Trace With Heap Tracing`** — Includes heap allocation data for the Zed process
- `zed: record etw trace`: records CPU, GPU, memory, and I/O activity
- `zed: record etw trace with heap tracing`: includes heap allocation data for the Zed process
Zed prompts you to choose a save location for the `.etl` trace file.
Zed will prompt you to choose a save location for the `.etl` file, then request administrator permission. Once granted, recording will begin.
### Saving or canceling
While recording:
While a trace is recording, open the command palette and run one of the following:
- **`etw_tracing: Save Etw Trace`** — Stops recording and saves the trace to disk
- **`etw_tracing: Cancel Etw Trace`** — Stops recording without saving
- `zed: save etw trace`: stops recording and saves the trace to disk
- `zed: cancel etw trace`: stops recording without saving
Zed buffers trace data in memory. Recordings automatically save after 60 seconds if you don't manually stop them.
### Analyzing traces
Open `.etl` files with [Windows Performance Analyzer](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/test/wpt/windows-performance-analyzer) to inspect CPU stacks, GPU usage, disk I/O patterns, and heap allocations.
**Note for existing keybindings**: The `etw_tracing::StopEtwTrace` action was renamed to `etw_tracing::SaveEtwTrace`. Update any custom keybindings.
Recordings automatically save after 60 seconds if not stopped manually.
## Contributor links