A performance monitoring technique provides task-switch immune operation without requiring storage and retrieval of the performance monitor state when a task switch occurs and provides accurate performance monitoring information. When a hypervisor signals that a task is being resumed and the application privilege level has been entered, it provides an indication, which starts a delay timer. The delay timer is resettable in case a predetermined time period has not elapsed when the next task switch occurs. After the delay timer expires, analysis of the performance monitor measurements is resumed, which prevents an initial state, a state due to execution of the operating system or hypervisor, or a state remaining from a previous task from corrupting the performance monitoring results. The performance monitor may be or include an execution trace unit that collects branch information in a current program execution trace.