# How to start a performance recording in Tableau Desktop

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2022-11-13
- **Format:** Short · 1 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Productivity
- **Tools:** Tableau (performance)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-start-a-performance-recording-in-tableau-desktop
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otuF1yX4lJw

I show you how to start and stop a performance recording in Tableau Desktop via the Help menu. Once started it runs quietly in the background, and stopping it generates a workbook with the recorded performance data.

## Key takeaways

- Start a performance recording from Help > Settings and Performance > Start Performance Recording
- Nothing visibly happens when recording starts, but it runs in the background
- You can confirm it's running because the menu now shows the Stop Performance Recording option
- Stopping the recording opens a new workbook showing the performance results

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-start-a-performance-recording-in-tableau-desktop

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena