What it does
Windows Exporter is a Prometheus exporter for Windows machines. Its collectors expose operating-system and service measurements in a metrics format that Prometheus can scrape, and administrators can enable or configure collectors for the signals they need. The exporter runs on the Windows host; it does not store or query the resulting time series or replace a dashboard and alerting backend.
Add a Windows target
The official project provides a Windows exporter and documents an MSI installation path that can install it as a Windows service. After installation, configure Prometheus to scrape the exporter's /metrics endpoint; the default listener is port 9182. A team can then use its existing Prometheus queries and dashboards to compare operating-system and application-service signals across Windows hosts. The configuration example is illustrative and was not run for this listing.
Enable only useful collectors
Windows Exporter groups measurements into collectors, with a default set and flags for selecting collectors. The repository also links dashboards and alerting rules, which can help an operator start from known metric names rather than build every panel from scratch. Review collector-specific documentation and permissions before enabling additional data sources.
This is the Windows-specific counterpart to Prometheus Node Exporter, which targets Unix-like kernels. The project is MIT licensed. As with other exporters, a Prometheus-compatible scraper and separate storage, query, visualization, and notification components are still needed for a complete monitoring workflow.
Strengths
- Provides Prometheus-format metrics from Windows machines and services.
- Collectors can be selected and configured for the Windows signals an operator wants to scrape.
- The repository includes example dashboards and alerting rules for its metrics.
- The official repository is licensed under the MIT License.
Watch out for
- The exporter is specific to Windows hosts; Unix-like systems need a different exporter.
- It exposes measurements but does not provide durable storage, dashboards, or alert delivery by itself.
Best for
- Infrastructure teams collecting Windows server and service metrics in a Prometheus environment.
- Operators who need a Windows-specific collector rather than a generic endpoint probe.
Sources
- prometheus-community/windows_exporter (Oct 26, 2026)
- LICENSE (Oct 26, 2026)