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[SOLVED] Windows 10 100% disk usage in Task Manager
If your Windows 10 Task Manager shows 100% disk usage, something is causing your hard drive to over-work. The good news is, it’s usually not a hard problem to fix.
8 fixes for 100% disk usage on Windows 10
Here are a few fixes that have helped other users resolve their Windows 10 100% disk usage problem. You may not need to try them all; just work your way down the list until you find the one that works for you.
- Disable SuperFetch service
- Update your device drivers
- Check for corrupted system files
- Perform a disk check
- Reset Virtual Memory
- Disable Antivirus Software temporarily
- Fix your StorAHCI.sys driver
- Switch to ChromeOS
Fix 1: Disable SuperFetch
SuperFetch helps to decrease boot time and make must-load programs more efficiently. However, it has been identified as a potential cause of disk performance issues in Windows 8 and later versions of Windows, including Windows 10. Here’s how to stop this service:
1) On your keyboard, press Windows logo key , type command prompt , then select Run as administrator .
2) Click Yes at the User Account Control prompt.
3) The command prompt will once again display. Type in the following command:
4) Hit Enter on your keyboard.
5) If the command above isn’t valid, try the following one instead:
6) Wait for a few minutes to see if your computer starts performing better. Or check your computer’s disk usage: Type “task manager” in the Windows search bar and select Task Manager , then in the Processes tab, look at the % at the top of the Disk column. If it’s no longer 100%, you’ve fixed the problem!
If the 100% disk usage problem persists, try the next method, below.
Fix 2: Update your device drivers
If the steps above don’t resolve your 100% disk usage problem in Windows 10, it may be caused by a device driver.
You can automatically update all your device drivers to the latest correct version with Driver Easy .
Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing.
You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 clicks (and you get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee):
1) Download and install Driver Easy.
2) Run Driver Easy and click Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
3) Click the Update button next to any flagged device to automatically download and install the correct version of that driver (you can do this with the FREE version).
Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system (this requires the Pro version – you’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All).
4) Check your computer’s disk usage: Type “task manager” in the Windows search bar and select Task Manager , then in the Processes tab, look at the % at the top of the Disk column. If it’s no longer 100%, you’ve fixed the problem!
Fix 3: Check for corrupted system files
Corrupted or missing system files can also cause the 100% disk usage error. To see if this is the cause for you, run a system scan to detect broken system files with Reimage .
Reimage is a professional Windows repair tool that can scan your system’s overall status, diagnose your system configuration, identify faulty system files, and repair them automatically. It gives you entirely fresh system components with just one click, so you don’t have to reinstall Windows and all your programs, and you don’t lose any personal data or settings. (Read Reimage Trustpilot reviews .)
Here’s how to use Reimage to check for broken system components in just one click:
1) Download and install Reimage.
2) Open Reimage and run a free scan on your PC. (This may take a few minutes and you’ll get a detailed report of your PC status after this.)
3) You can review a summary of the issues detected after the scan. Click Start Repair to start the repair process. (This requires the full version – which comes with a 60-day Money-Back Guarantee.)
Restart your computer to see if you still get the 100% disk usage error. If you do, please try the next fix below.
Fix 4: Perform a disk check
1) On your keyboard, press Windows key and X at the same time, then choose Command Prompt (Admin) .
3) The command prompt will once again display. Type in the following command:
4) Hit Enter on your keyboard, then type Y to confirm that you’d like to perform the disk check the next time you restart your computer. Please make sure you have closed all of your applications first.
IMPORTANT: Disk check will start the next time you boot your PC and it might take some time to complete (could be a day for some). If, when you restart, you don’t have time to wait for the disk check to complete, you can skip it. You’ll need to reschedule it again, as described above, though.
5) Once you’ve completed the disk check, check your computer’s disk usage again: Type “task manager” in the Windows search bar and select Task Manager , then in the Processes tab, look at the % at the top of the Disk column. If it’s no longer 100%, you’ve fixed the problem!
Fix 5: Reset Virtual Memory
Virtual memory can be considered an extension of your computer’s physical memory. It’s a combination of RAM and a portion of your hard drive. When the RAM isn’t enough to perform a task, Windows will temporarily store files in virtual memory, then swap them back to RAM when required.
To reset virtual memory: 1) On your keyboard, press Windows key and Pause/ Break key at the same time. Then choose Advanced System Settings on the left panel.
2) Go to the Advanced tab, then click Settings .
3) Go to the Advanced tab again, and choose Change… in the Virtual memory section.
4) Ensure the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox is NOT ticked.
5) Select your windows drive (the hard drive or partition that has Windows installed on it – usually C: ) , and enter an Initial size and Maximum size for your virtual memory:
- Initial size – This value varies, depending on your computer. If you’re not sure what value to use, just enter whatever the number is in the Recommended category.
- Maximum size – Don’t set this value too high. It should be about 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM. e.g. A PC with 4 GB (4096 MB) of RAM should have no more than about 6,144 MB virtual memory (4096 MB x 1.5).
Once you’ve entered your virtual memory values, click Set , then click OK to continue.
6) Clear all your computer’s ‘temp’ files. On your keyboard, press Windows key and R at the same time, then in the Run form, type temp and hit Enter . This will invoke Windows Explorer with your Temp folder open, showing you all the temp files on your computer.
7) Select all the files in the Temp folder and delete them.
8) Check your computer’s disk usage: Type “task manager” in the Windows search bar and select Task Manager , then in the Processes tab, look at the % at the top of the Disk column. If it’s no longer 100%, you’ve fixed the problem!
Fix 6: Disable Antivirus Software temporarily
If you’ve installed antivirus or anti-malware programs such as Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, Avast Behavior Shield or Malwarebytes, you should temporarily turn them off or disable them to see if they’re causing your disk usage problem.
Please see your antivirus software’s documentation to learn how to disable it. You might also find these links useful:
- How to temporarily turn off Norton Antivirus program?
- How to stop AVG temporarily?
- How to disable Avast temporarily?
Note that Microsoft has its own default anti-malware, Windows Defender . It’s automatically enabled even if you also have other antivirus applications installed. Even if you disable your other antivirus programs, Windows Defender is always there for you during that certain time range. So, no need to worry too much about temporarily turning antivirus off.
Once you’ve disabled your antivirus , check your computer’s disk usage again: Type “task manager” in the Windows search bar and select Task Manager , then in the Processes tab, look at the % at the top of the Disk column. If it’s no longer 100%, you’ve found the problem, and you should contact the vendor of your antivirus software to see if they can provide some help.
Fix 7: Fix your StorAHCI.sys driver
Note : A million thanks to our warm-hearted reader Javier for the following solution.
The Windows 10 100% disk usage problem might also be caused by some Advanced Host Controller Interface PCI-Express (AHCI PCIe) models running with the inbox StorAHCI.sys driver due to a firmware bug.
Here’s how to determine if this is your problem and fix it:
1) Open Device Manager by pressing Windows logo key and X at the same time to choose Device Manager .
2) Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers category, and double-click the AHCI controller .
3) Go to the Driver tab and click Driver Details . If you can see storahci.sys stored in a path of system32 folder, then you are running the inbox AHCI driver.
4) Close the Driver Details window and go to Details tab. From the drop-down menu, select Device Instance Path . Make note of the path, starting from VEN_ .
5) Type regedit in the search box of Start panel, then hit Enter on your keyboard to run Registry Editor. Then go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Enum \ PCI \ < AHCI Controller > \ < Random Number > \ Device Parameters \ Interrupt Management \ MessageSignaledInterruptProperties
The < AHCI Controller > here refers to the name you see from step 2).
The < Random Number > differs on different machines.
6) Double click the MSISupported key and change the value to 0 .
7) Restart your computer after the change, then check your computer’s disk usage: Type “task manager” in the Windows search bar and select Task Manager , then in the Processes tab, look at the % at the top of the Disk column. If it’s no longer 100%, you’ve fixed the problem!
Fix 8: Switch to ChromeOS
Windows is a very old technology. Sure, Windows 10 is relatively new, but it’s still just the latest iteration of a decades-old operating system, designed for a bygone era (pre-internet).
Now that we have the internet, fast connection speeds, free cloud storage, and endless web apps (like Gmail, Google Docs, Slack, Facebook, Dropbox and Spotify), the entire Windows way of doing things – with locally installed programs and local file storage – is totally outdated.
Why is that a problem? Because when you’re constantly installing uncontrolled third-party programs, you’re constantly opening the door to viruses and other malware. (And Windows’ insecure permission system compounds this problem.)
Plus the way Windows manages installed software and hardware has always been a problem. If your computer shuts down unexpectedly, or a program installs, uninstalls or updates incorrectly, you can get ‘registry’ corruptions. That’s why Windows PCs always slow down and become unstable over time.
Also because everything’s installed and saved locally, it doesn’t take long before you run out of disk space, and your disk gets fragmented, which makes everything even slower and more unstable.
For most people, the simplest way to solve Windows problems is to ditch Windows altogether, and switch to a faster, more reliable, more secure, easier to use and cheaper operating system…
Google ChromeOS.
ChromeOS feels much like Windows, but instead of installing heaps of programs to email, chat, browse the internet, write documents, do school presentations, create spreadsheets, and whatever else you normally do on a computer, you use web apps. You don’t need to install anything at all.
That means you don’t have virus and malware problems, and your computer doesn’t slow down over time, or become unstable.
And that’s just the start of the benefits…
To learn more about the benefits of ChromeOS, and to see comparison videos and demos, visit GoChromeOS.com .
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I'm a technical writer for Driver Easy. Before finding my love for writing tech posts, I had passion for technology goes back much further. I love tinkering with computers, smartphones, and other tech toys. I write articles to help people solve their problems, whether it's a hardware issue or system error. I'm inspired when my articles are of help, and that's what I have been aiming for. All I do every day is to write articles that are easy to read, and I do hope you find instructions in my posts easy to follow.
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Solved: Windows 11/10 100% Disk Usage in Task Manager!
How to fix and solve 100 percent disk usage in windows 10 this post focus on the solutions to windows 11/10 100% disk usage..
David Darlington
Dec 23, 2022 • Filed to: Windows Computer Solutions • Proven solutions
Windows users may come across the error that says 100% Disk Usage , which makes it seem like the computer is handling heavy operations. However, you may only have a few programs open with the screen idly staying on desktop. This causes the system to slow down or even freeze.
Overview of 100% Disk in Task Manager
A glance at the disk usage column shows how much a program uses, and disabling such programs may help lessen the number. However, this is not the only cause of 100% disk usage. There are reports from users saying that the latest Windows version tends to overwork drives, slowing down the OS. This problem can affect both solid-state drivers (SSD) and hard disk drives (HDD).
This error can also occur if malware is present within the system. To its core, the 100% disk usage error can be fixed by finding the underlying cause whether it be a windows system, application, or malware so that it could be stopped.
How to Fix Windows 11/10 100% Disk Usage Problems
Solution 1. turn off windows search.
- Press Win + R and type msc and press Enter key.
- Find the Windows Search and double click to launch Windows Search Properties
- Select Disabled on the dropdown menu for Startup type .
- Click Stop to permanently disable the service. Click OK .
Note: You can also disable Windows Search until after the next reboot by opening the elevated command prompt and typing in net.exe stop "Windows search" command.
Solution 2. Disable Superfetch service
- Open Command Prompt and type exe stop superfetch .
- Check if the computer's performance improved.
Solution 3. Check disk performance with chkdisk
- Run the Command Prompt (Admin) by choosing from the Win + X
- Type the command exe /f /r and press Enter .
- Type Y to enable disk check on the next reboot and click Enter .
- Restart PC.
Solution 4. Check your anti-virus software
Solution 5. use a different web browser.
Some users complain that Google Chrome takes up too much disk usage. If this is the case for you, just use another browser like the Firefox or Microsoft Edge and notice if the disk usage is lesser.
If you still want to use Chrome, you can try disabling the pre-load feature. Just go to Chrome Settings> Show Advanced Settings> Privacy . Untick Prefetch resources to load pages more quickly .
Solution 6. Is Skype Eating Disk Resources
- In Task Manager, find whether Skype is running. If it is, right-click on it and select Quit .
- Press Win + R and type this in the dialogue box: C:\Program Files (x86) \Skype\Phone\ and click OK .
- Find exe and right-click, select Properties . Choose the Security tab and then select ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES .
- Tick Write in Allow and click Apply . Select OK
Solution 7. Disable Diagnostic Tracking in Windows 11/10
- In the search box, type cmd and click OK . Right-click on the result Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator .
- Type these commands to disable DiagTrack:
- Press Enter .
Solution 8. Fix your StorAHCI.sys driver
- Run Device Manager by typing in the search box.
- Look for IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers in the left side pane and expand.
- Right, click on Standard SATA AHCI Controller and head to Properties .
- Click on Driver Details . If C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\storahci.sys shows, the system might be buggy. Select OK .
- Head to Details tab and from the dropdown menu, choose Device instance path and copy the value indicated.
- Press Win + R and type regedit to open Windows Registry .
- Find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI and find the copied value on the left side panel, and expand correctly.
- Navigate to Device Parameters> Interrupt Management> MessageSignaledInterruptProperties .
- Double click to select MSISupported from the right-side pane and change value to 0 to turn off MSI.
- Click OK and proceed to restart.
Solution 9. Is Flash Causing the 100% Disk Usage Bug
Solution 10. reset your virtual memory.
- Open Advanced System Settings by typing on the search bar. Select the Advanced tab and click Settings found in Performance .
- In Performance Options , click the Advanced tab and then click the Change button under Virtual Memory.
- Untick Automatically manage paging file size for all drives and select Custom size .
- Key in the recommended file size for Initial and Maximum
- Select Set and then click OK .
Note: to clear temp memory allocation files, run temp, and Ctrl + A on the files listed in the temp directory.
Solution 11. Activate High-Performance Mode
- Search Power Options and choose Additional power settings .
- Tick High performance and click OK .
Solution 12. Windows Update Can Cause High Disk Usage
Solution 13. install the latest sata drivers.
- Press Win + X and select Device Manager from the power user menu.
- Expand on Storage controllers . Right-click on the controllers and select Update driver .
- Choose Browse my computer for driver software and then Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer . Choose the correct driver and reboot.
Solution 14. Is Steam Maxing Out Your HDD
Steam can cause this error due to an updated delivery.
- Press Win + R and run the command steam://flushconfig .
- Click OK on the prompt informing you that content will be deleted.
Note that saves and games downloaded will not be deleted.
The error 100% Disk Usage can be resolved by identifying what causes the strain on the disk drive. There is no need to panic as the solutions can ease the problem. However, if not one of these works, it may be time to inspect for hardware-related problems just to be sure that your computer is still running properly.
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Fixed: 100% Disk Usage on Windows 10 Task Manager (Update)
To fix 100% disk usage on Windows 10 Task Manager, you can refer to 9 effective and easy methods in this post and try one or more.
Disk Usage at 100% on Windows 10/11 Task Manager
Sometimes, you may meet a problem with lag and everything seems to start up slow and take forever to load, especially Windows PowerShell and starting commands in it. The disk usage will spike from 0-1% all the way from 50-100%+ on 0.1 mbs of use from various programs.
This will noticeably come up with Windows PowerShell and executing commands, starting up Windows in general, or just different programs and applications wont loads right away. Here is the case:
“When I load into my Windows 10/11 computer, I can move the mouse but nothing else responsive. I tried to open the Task Manager, but when I click the Start menu, it took about a minute. What shocked me is that the disk usage is at 100% utilization in Windows Task Manager. Meanwhile, the CPU is at 17%, and memory is at 60%.
So why would the disk usage at 100% in Windows 10/11? After few restarts sometimes it’s no more 100%, sometimes it’s again 100% usage. Anybody can help?”
About Disk Usage on Your Computer
Disk Usage (DU) refers to the portion or percentage of computer storage that is currently in use. It contrasts with disk space or capacity, which is the total amount of space that a given disk is capable of storing. Disk usage is often measured in kilobytes(KB), megabytes(MB), gigabytes(GB) or terabytes(TB). Well, what reasons could cause the “Disk Usage is at 100%” in the Task Manager?
Why Get 100 Disk Usage on Windows 10 Task Manager?
Windows 10/11 100% disk usage problem may be caused by many reasons, such as an antivirus software, a bug in Windows 10/11, a problem from SuperFetch Service, unreasonable virtual memory, the Flash, a common combination of Skype as well Google Chrome, hard drive error , etc.
But don’t worry too much! Sometimes, there is just nothing goes wrong on your computer, except for some settings.
How to F ix 100% D isk U sage on Windows 10/11 Accordingly ?
When Disk Usage is at 100% in the Task Manager, you can try the following methods until it works.
Method 1. Disable Antivirus Software temporarily
Method 2. change the settings in google chrome & skype, method 3. using control panel to uninstall all browsers, method 4. disable superfetch service, method 5. fix storahci.sys driver, method 6. disable windows search, method 7. upgrade device driver, method 8. reset virtual memory, method 9. perform a disk check.
When disk usage is at 100% on Windows Task Manager, you need to consider whether you’ve installed antivirus or anti-malware programs such as Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, Avast Behavior Shield or Malwarebytes, etc. If you installed such programs, you should temporarily disable them with their user manuals.
100 percent usage on Windows 10/11 may be caused by a common combination of Skype as well Google Chrome. Thus, you can change the settings of Google Chrome and Skype.
Google Chrome
In Google Chrome, go to Settings > Show Advanced Settings... > Privacy > Prefetch resources to load pages more quickly , untick it. Like the following screenshot:
Make sure you have exited Skype and it is not running in the Taskbar, if it is running in the Taskbar, quit it. Then, open Windows Explorer, and open the folder: “ C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\ ”(without quote). right click “ Skype.exe ” file, click “ Properties ”, open the “ Security ” tab, click “ Edit ”.
Then, Highlight “ALL APPLICATION PAKAGES” and place a tick in the “Write” box. Click Apply and then click OK .
After the proceed, run Skype and check the Disk Usage in Task Manager, it will not show you 100% disk usage on Windows 10 Task Manager.
Another effective way is to use Control Panel to uninstall all Browsers, except Edge and IE(Internet Explorer). Uninstall browsers is an effective way to isolate the issue with plugins. Otherwise, you need to remove the plugins one by one from each browser and test. The Adobe Flash and Shockwave Player are the usual culprits of Windows 10/11 high disk usage.
Fortunately, the browsers can be reinstalled in seconds. After uninstalling the browsers, please delete the files including ‘Temp’, ‘%Temp%’ and ‘Prefetch’. After that, restart the system and check whether the issue has been solved. If it does, wait for 10 - 15 minutes to verify that it doesn’t reoccur, and you can reinstall browsers.
Although SuperFentch can help to decrease the boot time and make must-load programs more efficiently, it is another potential cause of disk performance issues. Thus, when you meet the problem that Windows 10/11 disk usage at 100%, you can stop the service:
Press Windows + X simultaneously, choose Command Prompt (Admin) to open it. Type following command in the command prompt and hit Enter Key to run it:
net.exe stop superfetch
Wait for a few minutes to see if your computer starts performing better.
The Windows 10/11 100% disk utilization problem may also be caused by some Advanced Host Controller Interface PCI-Express(AHCI PCIe) models running with the inbox StorAHCI.sys driver due to a firmware bug. You need to make sure if it is the cause of Windows 10/11 100% disk utilization problem.
Press Windows + X simultaneously, choose Device Manager .
Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers category, double-click the AHCI Controller.
Click Driver tab-> Driver Details . If you see storahci.sys stored in a path of system32 folder, then you are running the inbox AHCI driver and you need to fix the problem as the following steps.
Back to the AHCI Controller Properties, click Details , select Device instance path under Property . Make note of the path, starting from VEN_ . Click OK .
Click Start , type regedit in the search box and hit Enter key. Then, go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\\\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties
refers to the name of AHCI Controller.
differs on different machines.
Double-click MSISupported , and set the value data to 0 . Click OK .
After that, restart your computer.
The Windows Search Indexer is one process which is known to cause 100 percent disk usage Windows 10/11. To determine if Windows Search is the cause of 100% disk usage problem, you can temporarily disable Windows Search (temporarily disable Windows Search means that the Windows Search will start again when you restart your computer).
1. Press Windows key and X simultaneously, select Command Prompt (Admin).
2. When you get into the command prompt, type net.exe stop “Windows search ” and hit Enter key.
Go to Task Manager to check if your disk usage deceased and the performance of you computer improved. If they do, you should permanently disable Windows Search as the following steps.
1. Press Windows key + R , type in services.msc .
2. Locate Windows Search option, double click it to enter its Properties window.
3. In the Properties window, select Disabled under Startup type. Then, click Apply and OK .
Upgrade Device Driver may help you get out of the 100% disk usage problem. To upgrade Device Driver, you can use Windows Update, download it from the manufacturer’s website or use a free Driver Update software.
Virtual memory is a portion of your hard drive and is regarded as an extension of your computer’s physical memory. It is another factor that may cause your disk utilization 100 percent problem. Reset with following steps.
1. Open Control Panel -> System and Security -> System . Select Advanced system settings .
2. In the in the pop out window, select Advanced -> Settings . Then,go to Advanced tab in the second pop up window, and select Change... in the Virtual memory section.
3. Here you need to make sure that the option of Automatically manage paging file size for all drives is not ticked. Then, select the drive installed Windows 10, enter an Initial size and Maximum size for the virtual memory. Then, click Set and OK .
Initial size – This value varies, depending on your computer. If you’re not sure what value to use, just enter whatever the number is in the Recommended category.
Maximum size – Don’t set this value too high. It should be about 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM. e.g. A PC with 4 GB (4096 MB) of RAM should have no more than about 6,144 MB virtual memory (4096 MB x 1.5).
4. After that, clear all your computer’s ‘temp’ files: Press Windows+ R , type ‘ temp ’ and hit Enter , it will show you the Windows Explorer with Temp folder, select all the files in the Temp folder and delete them.
100% disk usage on Windows 10 may also because of hard disk errors. Thus, it is necessary to perform a disk check. You can do this by using Windows CHKDSK, or by using the third party software AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard , which simplifies things within a few clicks. With this tool, you can check a single partition, or a check whole disk.
The software allows you to check based on partition and disk type according to your situations. No bundled ware and 100% clean. Free download and have a try.
Check Partition
Step 1 . Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Right click the partition you want to check, and select Advanced -> Check Partition .
Step 2 . Choose a way the check partition and fix errors here, click OK to back to main interface and click Apply in the toolbar.
Step 1 . Right click the hard disk, select Surface Test .
Step 2 . It will show you the Disk Surface Test window, click Start to launch the progress.
AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a great tool that can help you manage hard drive partitions in all aspects even you are not professional. You can also upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to get more advanced features, like recoverying lost partition, converting MBR system disk into GPT without data loss , etc.
Besides those ways, there are may other ways may help you solve the “100% disk usage on WIndows 10/11” problem. For example, you can upgrade firmware for SSDs if you have an SSD installed on your computer. Because SSDs are fast, and if you are having the 100% disk usage on Windows 10/11, it is most likely a problem with firmware;
You can also try to disable Windows Notification, use high performance power plan, upgrade Memory (RAM), perform a clean boot, etc. If you have found any other effective way to solve the problem, leave a comment at the comment space, and we will conclude and upgrade this page.
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Windows 10 100% Disk Usage In Task Manager [Fixed]
![Windows 10 100% Disk Usage In Task Manager [Fixed]](https://wpcontent.techpout.com/techpout/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/16123021/Windows-10-100-disk-usage-in-Task-Manager-Fixed.jpg "Windows 10 100% Disk Usage In Task Manager [Fixed]")
If you are finding your Windows 10 system at 100% disk usage, then for sure something is stressing your hard drive and causing it to overwork. Your system will be unresponsive and it will lag and freeze when your system is using 100% disk .
In fact, the lagging and freezing makes us look at the Task Manager automatically to end tasks and processes. It is only then, that most users come across this underlying error of 100% disk utilization. Additionally, the event log may also represent several resets of the disk controller.
It sure is mind boggling to discover this anomalous behaviour of your system and we can’t help wondering which actions led to 100% disk usage error . But you will be relieved to know that it’s a genuine occurrence that happens on its own and can be fortunately fixed with some easy troubleshooting methods.
In this guide, we present to you 10 best ways in which you can fix 100% disk usage error .
All-in-One Solution to Fix 100% Disk Usage Error
Before trying the other high-level fixes, you should update the outdated drivers. Majorly, the system lags and freezes due to outdated or faulty drivers. And, updating drivers manually takes a long while, hence, you must use Bit Driver Updater to perform the same task automatically.
This ultimate utility not only lets you perform the driver update in one click but also elevates the performance bar of your system. If you have convinced yourself that this is the only tool you need, then you can click on the download button below to get this one-stop solution for free.
What Causes 100% Disk Usage In Windows 10
When a specific program demands more memory than expected it usually happens. Plus, this drives a lack of resources to other programs and thus results in slow down issues. If you are suffering from slow performance of your PC and don’t how to fix it. Then, this write-up will elucidate how to fix this issue quite quickly.
But, before moving forward, it would be better enough to know about the causes of it for future prevention. However, there are numerous causes of this problem but here are core ones. Have a look at them!
- Registry issues.
- Due to pending windows system updates.
- Corrupt, broken, old, or faulty system drivers.
- Faulty system files.
- Due to malware and viruses.
- Background running programs.
So, these are some of the significant causes of 100% Disk Usage and that makes your computer sluggish and vulnerable. But no worries, this write-up will explain to you some fruitful ways to fix this annoying issue. And, will surely bring back the actual effective performance of your system. So, without any further ado, let’s move ahead to know more about it!
Wholesome Guide To Resolve Windows 10 100% Disk Usage Error
Let us now get to the details of the troubleshooting techniques one by one in the below segment.
1. Disable Antivirus Software Temporarily
Your antivirus software sometimes might keep running in the background which might lead to 100% disk usage in Windows 10. What you can do in this scenario is to disable your antivirus tool momentarily to see if it is able to decrease the disk usage value from 100% to the minimum value.
Even when you are disabling the antivirus solution for a short while, you needn’t worry about your system becoming defenseless and vulnerable to cyber threats because, in Windows 10 system, the in-built Windows Defender stands guard against several manipulative cyber exploitation mechanisms.
To strengthen the security walls of your device we recommend you to use powerful antivirus software like ITL Antivirus along with Windows Defender. Give your device all-around protection from digital threats and harmful viruses with ITL Antivirus.
Read More: How to Fix Windows 10 Not Responding Error
2. Perform a Disk Check
To do this you need to run the Command Prompt as an admin. You can give permission by clicking “Yes” at the User Account Control prompt. The below-mentioned steps will let you complete the disk check:
- In the Command Prompt window, key-in the following command and press Enter following that: chkdsk.exe / f/ r
- Further, type Y to confirm that you would want to proceed with the desk check process the next time you restart your system.
Post this, you can open the Task Manager to verify if the 100% disk usage error has resolved or not. If it didn’t, then jump to the next solution.
3. Alter Energy Options From Balanced To High Performance
As suggested by many experts, altering the energy options to High Performance from Balanced works well with Windows 10 100% disk usage error . To do this, you need to follow the following steps:
- Navigate to the Power Options.
- Then, click on “Change plan settings.”
- Further, go to “Change advanced power settings.”
- Here, select the High-Performance option from the drop-down box and let all other plan settings be as per the default settings.
Finally, reboot the PC to see if the disk usage has changed.
Read More: Fix Steam Disk Write Error on Windows 10
4. Disable Windows Search
Windows Search searches files on your PC faster. If not needed then, it can be disabled temporarily as it will stop the indexing process of all files. Temporary disabling is recommended at first to see if this is the cause behind 100% disk usage error . You can do this as per the below steps:
- Open Command Prompt as an administrator by hitting Windows and X keys together. Further grant permission to the user account control and type the following command and press the Enter key: net.exe stop “Windows search “
Now check if your disk usage level has come down to a normal level. If this method seemed to work out, then disable the Windows Search permanently.
5. Disable SuperFetch
SuperFetch in Windows systems is responsible for reducing the boot time and making must-load programs more efficient. However, a lot of times it has been identified to be a potential cause behind system lags. To disable the service you can look at the below steps:
- Launch the Command Prompt as an admin, type the following command and hit Enter – net.exe stop superfetch OR net.exe stop sysmain
After waiting for a few minutes, check if your system has become fast and stable? If so, then you have successfully fixed the 100% disk usage issue in the Windows 10 system.
6. Uninstall Flash Player Update
If you are still seeing Windows 10 high disk usage in the Task manager, then uninstall any flash player update. Several users have reported this technique to be effective. To uninstall flash player update, use the following path:
- Windows Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced Options.
- Here, go to the “View your update history.”
- Then, go to “Uninstall updates” and uninstall the flash player update.
7. Update Device Drivers
If you are experiencing issues with your system’s performance, then the best step is to update the device drivers . Outdated, missing, faulty drivers often leads to system slowdowns and may even contribute to Windows 10 100% disk usage error.
What can you do in this scenario is update device drivers automatically with the help of a driver update software . You can install a top-notch driver updater tool on your Windows system and let it scan your PC to detect faulty and out-of-date drivers.
If you are confused which tool will suit you the best from the many available options then we recommend you to pick Bit Driver Updater for troubleshooting your driver-related issues. You can download this power-packed tool using the given link.
You can use the below guide to update your device drivers:
- Go to the website and install the Bit Driver Updater tool on your computer.
- Then, initiate driver analysis by performing a quick scan with this tool.
- Once it has detected the drivers that need fixing, you can automatically download the updated versions of the respective system driver software with its one-click update feature.
After installing the drivers, verify if the Task Manager is now showing a reduced disk usage value.
Read More: Best Disk Cloning Software For Windows
8. Reset Virtual Memory
Virtual memory is a combination of a portion of the hard drive and RAM. When the system is low on RAM, it starts storing files temporarily in the virtual memory. Whenever RAM is available, it swaps the files back from the virtual memory to the RAM.
Steps to Reset Virtual Memory:
- Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > System.
- Then, click on the Advanced system settings on the left-side pane.
- This will open the System Properties window.
- Under the Advanced tab, click the Settings button
- Go to the Advanced tab again and in the virtual memory section select the button labeled as Change…
Note – Ensure that the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” box is not checked.
- Now select the Windows drive (usually the C drive) and input the Initial and Maximum size for your virtual memory.
Note – The Initial size value can vary depending on your system and you may use the numbers from the Recommended category for this field.
The Maximum size value should not be set too high. Try to keep a value which is at the most 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM.
- Once you have set the values of virtual memory according to the above instructions, you can then click on “Set” and “OK” to continue further.
- Further, clear all the temp files from your computer and then check the disk usage percentage in the Task Manager.
This should successfully resolve the 100% disk usage problem in your Windows 10 PC.
Read More: How to Fix Discord Screen Share Audio Not Working [Solved]
9. Fix the StorAHCI.sys Driver
100% disk usage error may also be due to the Advanced Host Controller Interface PCI-Express (AHCI PCIe) models that run with the inbox StorAHCI.sys driver.
Due to a firmware bug, the SSD may not be able to complete input/output when Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) mode is enabled. SO the Windows storage stack tries to reset the device after waiting on unresponsive read/write for some time.
Disabling the MSI mode via the registry can resolve your disk usage issue.
The way to determine if this is the cause of your current issue and if so, then fixing it up is outlined in the below points:
Determining if you are running StorAHCI.sys:
- In the Device Manager, expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers section.
- Double-click the Standard SATA AHCI Controller.
- As the Standard SATA AHCI Controller Properties tab opens, go to the Driver Details located under the Driver tab.
- Here, if you can see storhci.sys stored in the path of the system32 folder, then you are running the inbox AHCI driver.
- Close the Driver Details window and then choose the Device Instance Path found under the Driver tab. You need to note down the path, beginning from VEN_.
Disabling MSI for the Controller via the Registry:
- Open the run dialog box and type “regedit” to open the registry editor.
- Then, navigate to the below path:
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\< AHCI Controller> Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties”
- Alter the value of the MSISupported key from “1” to “0.”
- Finally, reboot your system to see if this worked or otherwise try the next solutions.
10. Disable Windows Update Service
Our next solution to fix 100% disk usage in Windows 10 is by disabling the Windows Update Service. It can be done as per the outlined steps below:
- Run “services.msc” and click “OK” to open the Services window.
- Scroll down to “Windows Update” and double-click on it.
- As the Properties window pops open, in the start type select the “Disabled” option and then press “Stop.”
- Followed by this, press “Apply” and “OK” to bring the change into effect.
Read More: Fix The Disk Is Write-protected Error On Windows 10/8/7
So, friends this was our wholesome guide to fix Windows 10 100% disk usage in Task Manager error. With this I hope that you are able to boost your PC performance. Always ensure to run only a few programs at a time to keep your PC performance at an optimum level.
Do let us know in the comments section which method worked for you or if you have any other suggestions.
Very nice post, I actually love this web site, carry on it
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Windows Task Manager: The Complete Guide
Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He's written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times and Reader's Digest , been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami's NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times---and that's just here at How-To Geek. Read more...
The Windows Task Manager is a powerful tool packed with useful information, from your system’s overall resource usage to detailed statistics about each process. This guide explains every feature and technical term in the Task Manager.
This article focuses on Windows 10’s Task Manager, although much of this also applies to Windows 7. Microsoft has dramatically improved the Task Manager since the release of Windows 7.
How to Launch the Task Manager
Windows offers many ways to launch the Task Manager . Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager with a keyboard shortcut or right-click the Windows taskbar and select “Task Manager.”
You can also press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and then click “Task Manager” on the screen that appears or find the Task Manager shortcut in your Start menu.
The Simple View
The first time you launch the Task Manager, you’ll see a small, simple window. This window lists the visible applications running on your desktop, excluding background applications. You can select an application here and click “End Task” to close it. This is useful if an application isn’t responding—in other words, if it’s frozen—and you can’t close it the usual way.
You can also right-click an application in this window to access more options:
- Switch To : Switch to the application’s window, bringing it to the front of your desktop and putting it in focus. This is useful if you’re not sure which window is associated with which application.
- End Task : End the process. This works the same as the “End Task” button.
- Run New Task : Open the Create New Task window, where you can specify a program, folder, document, or website address and Windows will open it.
- Always On Top : Make the Task Manager window itself “always on top” of other windows on your desktop, letting you see it at all times.
- Open File Location : Open a File Explorer window showing the location of the program’s .exe file.
- Search Online : Perform a Bing search for the program’s application name and file name. This will help you see exactly what the program is and what it does.
- Properties : Open the Properties window for the program’s .exe file. Here you can tweak compatibility options and see the program’s version number, for example.
While the Task Manager is open, you’ll see a Task Manager icon in your notification area. This shows you how much CPU ( central processing unit ) resources are currently in use on your system, and you can mouse over it to see memory, disk, and network usage. It’s an easy way to keep tabs on your computer’s CPU usage.
To see the system tray icon without the Task Manager appearing on your taskbar, click Options > Hide When Minimized in the full Task Manager interface and minimize the Task Manager window.
The Task Manager’s Tabs Explained
To see the Task Manager’s more advanced tools, click “More Details” at the bottom of the simple view window. You’ll see the full, tabbed interface appear. The Task Manager will remember your preference and will open to the more advanced view in the future. If you want to get back to the simple view, click “Fewer Details.”
With More Details selected, the Task Manager includes the following tabs:
- Processes : A list of running applications and background processes on your system along with CPU, memory, disk, network, GPU, and other resource usage information.
- Performance : Real-time graphs showing total CPU, memory, disk, network, and GPU resource usage for your system. You’ll find many other details here, too, from your computer’s IP address to the model names of your computer’s CPU and GPU.
- App History : Information about how much CPU and network resources apps have used for your current user account. This only applies to new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps—in other words, Store apps —and not traditional Windows desktop apps (Win32 applications.)
- Startup : A list of your startup programs, which are the applications Windows automatically starts when you sign into your user account. You can disable startup programs from here, although you can also do that from Settings > Apps > Startup.
- Users : The user accounts currently signed into your PC, how much resources they’re using, and what applications they’re running.
- Details : More detailed information about the processes running on your system. This is basically the traditional “Processes” tab from the Task Manager on Windows 7.
- Services : Management of system services. This is the same information you’ll find in services.msc, the Services management console.
Managing Processes
The Processes tab shows you a comprehensive list of processes running on your system. If you sort it by name, the list is broken into three categories. The Apps group shows the same list of running applications you’d see in the “Fewer details” simplified view. The other two categories are background processes and Windows processes, and they show processes that don’t appear in the standard simplified Task Manager view.
For example, tools like Dropbox, your antivirus program, background update processes, and hardware utilities with notification area (system tray) icons appear in the background processes list. Windows processes include various processes that are part of the Windows operating system, although some of these appear under “Background processes” instead for some reason.
You can right-click a process to see actions you can perform. The options you’ll see in the context menu are:
- Expand : Some applications, like Google Chrome, have multiple processes are grouped here. Other applications have multiple windows that are part of a single process. You can select expand, double-click the process, or click the arrow to its left to see the entire group of processes individually. This option only appears when you right-click a group.
- Collapse : Collapse an expanded group.
- End task : End the process. You can also click the “End Task” button below the list.
- Restart : This option only appears when you right-click Windows Explorer. It lets you restart explorer.exe instead of simply ending the task. In older versions of Windows, you had to end the Explorer.exe task and then launch it manually to fix problems with the Windows desktop, taskbar, or Start menu. Now, you can just use this Restart option.
- Resource values : Lets you choose whether you want to see the percentage or precise values for memory, disk, and network. In other words, you can choose whether you want to see the precise amount of memory in MB or the percentage of your system’s memory applications are using.
- Create dump file : This is a debugging tool for programmers. It captures a snapshot of the program’s memory and saves it to disk.
- Go to details : Go to the process on the Details tab so you can see more detailed technical information.
- Open file location : Open File Explorer with the process’s .exe file selected.
- Search online : Search for the name of the process on Bing.
- Properties : View the Properties window of the .exe file associated with the process.
You should not end tasks unless you know what the task does. Many of these tasks are background processes important to Windows itself. They often have confusing names, and you may need to perform a web search to find out what they do. We have a whole series explaining what various processes do , from conhost.exe to wsappx .
This tab also shows you detailed information about each process and their combined resource usage. You can right-click the headings at the top of the list and choose the columns you want to see. The values in each column are color-coded, and a darker orange (or red) color indicates greater resource usage.
You can click a column to sort by it—for example, click the CPU column to see running processes sorted by CPU usage with the biggest CPU hogs at the top. The top of the column also shows the total resource usage of all the processes on your system. Drag and drop columns to reorder them. The available columns are:
- Type : The category of the process, which is App, Background process, or Windows process.
- Status : If a program appears to be frozen, “Not Responding” will appear here. Programs sometimes begin responding after a bit of time and sometimes stay frozen. If Windows has suspended a program to save power, a green leaf will appear in this column. Modern UWP apps can suspend to save power, and Windows can also suspend traditional desktop apps.
- Publisher : The name of the program’s publisher. For example, Chrome displays “Google Inc.” and Microsoft Word displays “Microsoft Corporation.”
- PID : The process identifier number Windows has associated with the process. The process ID may be used by certain functions or system utilities. Windows assigns a unique process ID each time it starts a program, and the process ID is a way of distinguishing between several running processes if multiple instances of the same program are running.
- Process Name : The file name of the process. For example, File Explorer is explorer.exe, Microsoft Word is WINWORD.EXE, and the Task Manager itself is Taskmgr.exe.
- Command Line : The full command line used to launch the process. This shows you the full path to the process’s .exe file (for example, “C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE”) as well as any command-line options used to launch the program.
- CPU : The CPU usage of the process, displayed as a percentage of your total available CPU resources.
- Memory : The amount of your system’s physical working memory the process is currently using, displayed in MB or GB.
- Disk : The disk activity a process is generating, displayed as MB/s. If a process isn’t reading from or writing to disk at the moment, it will display 0 MB/s.
- Network : The network usage of a process on the current primary network, displayed in Mbps.
- GPU : The GPU (graphics processing unit) resources used by a process, displayed as a percentage of the GPU’s available resources.
- GPU Engine : The GPU device and engine used by a process. If you have multiple GPUs in your system, this will show you which GPU a process is using. See the Performance tab to see which number (“GPU 0” or “GPU 1” is associated with which physical GPU.
- Power Usage : The estimated power usage of a process, taking into account its current CPU, disk, and GPU activity. For example, it might say “Very low” if a process isn’t using many resources or “Very high” if a process is using a lot of resources. If it’s high, that means it’s using more electricity and shortening your battery life if you have a laptop.
- Power Usage Trend : The estimated impact on power usage over time. The Power Usage column just shows the current power usage, but this column tracks power usage over time. For example, if a program occasionally uses a lot of power but isn’t using much right now, it may say “Very low” in the power usage column and “High” or “Moderate” in the Power Usage Trend column.
When you right-click the headings, you’ll also see a “Resource Values” menu. This is the same option that appears when you right-click an individual process. Whether or not you access this option through right-clicking an individual process, it will always change how all processes in the list appear.
Task Manager Menu Options
There are also a few useful options in the Task Manager’s menu bar:
- File > Run New Task : Launch a program, folder, document, or network resource by providing its address. You can also check “Create this task with administrative privileges” to launch the program as Administrator.
- Options > Always on Top : The Task Manager window will always be on top of other windows while this option is enabled.
- Options > Minimize on Use : The Task Manager will be minimized whenever you right-click a process and select “Switch To.” Despite the odd name, that’s all this option does.
- Options > Hide When Minimized : The Task Manager will stay running in the notification area (system tray) when you click the minimize button if you enable this option.
- View > Refresh Now : Immediately refresh the data displayed in the Task Manager.
- View > Update Speed : Choose how frequently the data displayed in the Task Manager is updated: High, Medium, Low, or Paused. With Paused selected, the data isn’t updated until you select a higher frequency or click “Refresh Now.”
- View > Group By Type : With this option enabled, processes on the Processes tab are grouped into three categories: Apps, Background Processes, and Windows Processes. With this option disabled, they’re shown mixed in the list.
- View > Expand All : Expand all the process groups in the list. For example, Google Chrome uses multiple processes, and they’re shown combined into a “Google Chrome” group. You can expand individual process groups by clicking the arrow to the left of their name, too.
- View > Collapse All : Collapse all the process groups in the list. For example, all Google Chrome processes will just be shown under the Google Chrome category.
Viewing Performance Information
The Performance tab shows real-time graphs displaying the usage of system resources like CPU, memory, disk, network, and GPU. If you have multiple disks, network devices, or GPUs, you can see them all separately.
You’ll see small graphs in the left pane, and you can click an option to see a larger graph in the right pane. The graph shows resource usage over the last 60 seconds.
In addition to resource information, the Performance page shows information about your system’s hardware. Here are just some things the different panes show in addition to resource usage:
- CPU : The name and model number of your CPU, its speed, the number of cores it has, and whether hardware virtualization features are enabled and available. It also shows your system’s “ uptime ,” which is how long your system has been running since it last booted up.
- Memory : How much RAM you have, its speed, and how many of the RAM slots on your motherboard are used. You can also see how much of your memory is currently filled with cached data. Windows calls this “standby.” This data will be ready and waiting if your system needs it, but Windows will automatically dump the cached data and free up space if it needs more memory for another task.
- Disk : The name and model number of your disk drive, its size, and its current read and write speeds.
- Wi-Fi or Ethernet : Windows shows a network adapter’s name and its IP addresses (both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses) here. For Wi-Fi connections, you can also see the Wi-Fi standard in use on the current connection—for example, 802.11ac .
- GPU : The GPU pane shows separate graphs for different types of activity—for example, 3D vs. video encoding or decoding. The GPU has its own built-in memory, so it also shows GPU memory usage. You can also see the name and model number of your GPU here and the graphics driver version it’s using. You can monitor GPU usage right from the Task Manager without any third-party software.
You can also turn this into a smaller window if you’d like to see it on screen at all times. Just double-click anywhere in the empty white space in the right pane, and you’ll get a floating, always-on-top window with that graph. You can also right-click the graph and select “Graph Summary View” to enable this mode.
The “Open Resource Monitor” button at the bottom of the window opens the Resource Monitor tool , which provides more detailed information about GPU, memory, disk, and network usage by individual running processes.
Consulting App History
The App History tab only applies to Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. It doesn’t show information about traditional Windows desktop apps, so most people won’t find it too useful.
At the top of the window, you’ll see the date Windows started collecting resource usage data. The list shows UWP applications and the amount of CPU time and network activity the application has generated since that date. You can right-click the headings here to enable a few more options for more insight about network activity:
- CPU Time : The amount of CPU time the program has used within this time frame.
- Network : The total amount of data transferred over the network by the program within this time frame.
- Metered Network : The amount of data transferred over metered networks. You can set a network as metered to save data on it. This option is intended for networks you have limited data on, like a mobile network to which you’re tethering.
- Tile Updates : The amount of data the program has downloaded to display updated live tiles on Windows 10’s Start menu.
- Non-metered Network : The amount of data transferred over non-metered networks.
- Downloads : The amount of data downloaded by the program on all networks.
- Uploads : The amount of data uploaded by the program on all networks.
Controlling Startup Applications
The Startup tab is Windows 10’s built-in startup programs manager. It lists all the applications that Windows automatically starts for your current user account. For example, programs in your Startup folder and programs set to start in the Windows registry both appear here.
To disable a startup program, right-click it and select “Disable” or select it and click the “Disable” button. To re-enable it, click the “Enable” option that appears here instead. You can also use the Settings > Apps > Startup interface to manage startup programs.
At the top right corner of the window, you will see a “ Last BIOS time ” on some systems. This shows how long your BIOS (or UEFI firmware) took to initialize your hardware when you last booted your PC. This will not appear on all systems. You won’t see it if your PC’s BIOS doesn’t report this time to Windows.
As usual, you can right-click the headings and enable additional columns. The columns are:
- Name : The name of the program.
- Publisher : The name of the program’s publisher.
- Status : “Enabled” appears here if the program automatically starts when you sign in. “Disabled” appears here if you’ve disabled the startup task.
- Startup Impact : An estimate of how much CPU and disk resources the program uses when it starts. Windows measures and tracks this in the background. A lightweight program will show “Low,” and a heavy program will show “High.” Disabled programs show “None.” You can speed up your boot process more by disabling programs with a “High” startup impact than by disabling ones with a “Low” impact.
- Startup Type : This shows whether the program is starting because of a registry entry (“Registry”) or because it’s in your startup folder (“Folder.”)
- Disk I/O at Startup : The disk activity the program performs at startup, in MB. Windows measures and records this each boot.
- CPU at Startup : The amount of CPU time a program uses at startup, in ms. Windows measures and records this at boot.
- Running Now : The word “Running” appears here if a startup program is currently running. If this column appears entry for a program, the program has shut itself down, or you’ve closed it yourself.
- Disabled Time : For startup programs you’ve disabled, the date and time you disabled a program appears here
- Command Line : This shows the full command line the startup program launches with, including any command line options.
Checking on Users
The Users tab displays a list of signed in users and their running processes. If you’re the only person signed into your Windows PC, you’ll see only your user account here. If other people have signed in and then locked their sessions without signing out, you’ll also see those—locked sessions appear as “Disconnected.” This also shows you the CPU, memory, disk, network, and other system resources used by processes running under each Windows user account.
You can disconnect a user account by right-clicking it and selecting “Disconnect” or force it to sign off by right-clicking it and selecting “Sign Off.” The Disconnect option terminates the desktop connection, but the programs continue to run, and the user can sign back in—like locking a desktop session. The Sign Off option terminates all processes—like signing out of Windows.
You can also manage another user account’s processes from here if you’d like to end a task that belongs to another running user account.
If you right-click the headings, the available columns are:
- ID : Each signed in user account has its own session ID number. Session “0” is reserved for system services, while other applications may create their own user accounts. You usually won’t need to know this number, so it’s hidden by default.
- Session : The type of session this is. For example, it will say “Console” if it’s being accessed on your local system. This is primarily useful for server systems running remote desktops.
- Client Name : The name of the remote client system accessing the session, if it’s being accessed remotely.
- Status : The status of the session—for example, if a user’s session is locked, the Status will say “Disconnected.”
- CPU : Total CPU used by the user’s processes.
- Memory : Total memory used by the user’s processes.
- Disk : Total disk activity associated with the user’s processes.
- Network : Total network activity from the user’s processes.
Managing Detailed Processes
This is the most detailed Task Manager pane. It’s like the Processes tab, but it provides more information and shows processes from all user accounts on your system. If you’ve used the Windows 7 Task Manager, this will look familiar to you; it’s the same information the Processes tab in Windows 7 displays.
You can right-click processes here to access additional options:
- End task : End the process. This is the same option found on the normal Processes tab.
- End process tree : End the process, and all the processes created by the process.
- Set priority : Set a priority for the process: Low, Below normal, Normal, Above normal, High, and Realtime. Processes start at normal priority. Lower priority is ideal for background processes, and higher priority is ideal for desktop processes. However, Microsoft recommends against messing with Realtime priority.
- Set affinity : Set the processor affinity of a process—in other words, on which processer a process runs. By default, processes run on all processors in your system. You can use this to limit a process to a particular processor. For example, this is sometimes helpful for old games and other programs that assume you only have a single CPU. Even if you have a single CPU in your computer, each core appears as a separate processor .
- Analyze wait chain : View what threads in the processes are waiting for. This shows you which processes and threads are waiting to use a resource used by another process, and is a useful debugging tool for programmers to diagnose hangs.
- UAC virtualization : Enable or disable User Account Control virtualization for a process. This feature fixes applications that require administrator access by virtualizing their access to system files, redirecting their file and registry access to other folders. It’s primarily used by older programs—for example, Windows XP-era programs—that weren’t written for modern versions of Windows. This is a debugging option for developers, and you shouldn’t need to change it.
- Create dump file : Capture a snapshot of the program’s memory and save it to disk . This is a useful debugging tool for programmers.
- Open file location : Open a File Explorer window showing the process’s executable file.
- Search online : Perform a Bing search for the name of the process.
- Properties : View the properties window of the process’s .exe file.
- Go to service(s) : Show the services associated with the process on the Services tab. This is particularly useful for svchost.exe processes. The services will be highlighted.
If you right-click the headings and select “Show Columns,” you’ll see a much longer list of information you can show here, including many options that aren’t available on the Processes tab.
Here’s what every possible column means:
- Package Name : For Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, this displays the name of the app package the process is from. For other apps, this column is empty. UWP apps are generally distributed via the Microsoft Store.
- PID : The unique process ID number associated with that process. This is associated with the process and not the program—for example, if you close and reopen a program, the new program process will have a new process ID number.
- Status : This shows whether the process is running or suspended to save power. Windows 10 always “suspends” UWP apps you aren’t using to save system resources. You can also control whether Windows 10 suspends traditional desktop processes.
- User name : The name of the user account running the process. You will often see system user account names here, like SYSTEM and LOCAL SERVICE.
- Session ID : The unique number associated with the user session running the process. This is the same number shown for a user on the Users tab.
- Job object ID : The “job object in which the process is running.” Job objects are a way to group processes so they can be managed as a group.
- CPU : The percentage of CPU resources the process is currently using across all CPUs. If nothing else is using CPU time, Windows will show the System Idle Process using it here. In other words, if the System Idle Process is using 90% of your CPU resources, that means other processes on your system are using a combined 10%, and it was idle 90% of the time.
- CPU time : The total processor time (in seconds) used by a process since it began running. If a process closes and restarts, this will be reset. It’s a good way to spot CPU-hungry processes that may be idling at the moment.
- Cycle : The percentage of the CPU cycles the process is currently using across all CPUs. It’s unclear exactly how this is different from the CPU column, as Microsoft’s documentation doesn’t explain this. However, the numbers in this column are generally pretty similar to the CPU column, so it’s likely a similar piece of information measured differently.
- Working set (memory) : The amount of physical memory the process is currently using.
- Peak working set (memory) : The maximum amount of physical memory the process has used.
- Working set delta (memory) : The change in working set memory from the last refresh of the data here.
- Memory (active private working set) : The amount of physical memory used by the process that can’t be used by other processes. Processes frequently cache some data to make better use of your RAM , but can quickly give up that memory space if another process needs it. This column excludes data from suspended UWP processes.
- Memory (private working set) : The amount of physical memory used by the process that can’t be used by other processes. This column does not exclude data from suspended UWP processes.
- Memory (shared working set) : The amount of physical memory used by the process that can be used by other processes when necessary.
- Commit size : The amount of virtual memory Windows is reserving for the process.
- Paged pool : The amount of pageable kernel memory the Windows kernel or drivers are allocating for this process. The operating system can move this data to the paging file when necessary.
- NP pool : The amount of non-pageable kernel memory the Windows kernel or drivers are allocating for this process. The operating system can’t move this data to the paging file.
- Page faults : The number of page faults generated by the process since it began running. These occur when a program tries to access memory it doesn’t currently have allocated to it, and are normal.
- PF Delta : The change in the number of page faults since the last refresh.
- Base priority : The priority of the process—for example, this might be Low, Normal, or High. Windows prioritizes scheduling processes with higher priorities. System background tasks that aren’t urgent may have low priority compared to desktop program processes, for example.
- Handles : The current number of handles in the process’s object table. Handles represent system resources like files, registry keys, and threads.
- Threads : The number of active threads in a process. Each process runs one or more threads, and Windows allocates processor time to them. Threads in a process share memory.
- User objects : The number of “window manager objects ” used by the process. This includes windows, menus, and cursors.
- GDI objects : The number of Graphics Device Interface objects used by the process. These are used for drawing the user interface.
- I/O reads : The number of read operations performed by the process since it started. I/O stands for Input/Output. This includes file, network, and device input/output.
- I/O writes : The number of write operations performed by the process since it started.
- I/O other : The number of non-read and non-write operations performed by the process since it started. For example, this includes control functions.
- I/O read bytes : The total number of bytes read by the process since it started.
- I/O write bytes : The total number of bytes written by the process since it started.
- I/O other bytes : The total number of bytes used in non-read and non-write I/O operations since the process started.
- Image path name : The full path to the process’s executable file.
- Command line : The exact command line the process was launched with, including the executable file and any command-line arguments.
- Operating system context : The minimum operating system the program is compatible with if any information is included in the application’s manifest file . For example, some applications might say “Windows Vista,” some “Windows 7,” and others “Windows 8.1”. Most won’t display anything in this column at all.
- Platform : Whether this is a 32-bit or 64-bit process.
- Elevated : Whether the process is running in elevated mode—in other words, with Administrator—permissions or not. You will see either “No” or “Yes” for each process.
- UAC virtualization : Whether User Account Control virtualization is enabled for the process. This virtualizes the program’s access to the registry and file system, letting programs designed for older versions of Windows run without Administrator access. Options include Enabled, Disabled, and Not Allowed—for processes that require system access.
- Description : A human-readable description of the process from its .exe file. For example, chrome.exe has the description “Google Chrome,” and explorer.exe has the description “Windows Explorer.” This is the same name displayed on the Name column in the normal Processes tab.
- Data execution prevention : Whether Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is enabled or not for the process. This is a security feature that helps protect applications from attacks .
- Enterprise context : On domains, this shows what enterprise context an app is running in. It could be in an enterprise domain context with access to enterprise resources, a “Personal” context without access to work resources, or “Exempt” for Windows system processes.
- Power throttling : Whether power throttling is enabled or disabled for a process. Windows automatically throttles certain applications when you’re not using them to save battery power. You can control which applications are throttled from the Settings app .
- GPU : The percentage of GPU resources used by the process—or, more specifically, the highest utilization across all GPU engines.
- GPU engine : The GPU engine the process is using—or, more specifically, the GPU engine the process is using the most. See the GPU information on the Performance tab for a list of GPUs and their engines. For example, even if you only have one GPU, it likely has different engines for 3D rendering, encoding video, and decoding video.
- Dedicated GPU memory : The total amount of GPU memory the process is using across all GPUs. GPUs have their own dedicated video memory that’s built-in on discrete GPUs and a reserved portion of normal system memory on onboard GPUs.
- Shared GPU memory : The total amount of system memory shared with the GPU the process is using. This refers to data stored in your system’s normal RAM that’s shared with the GPU, not data stored in your GPU’s dedicated, built-in memory.
Working With Services
The Services tab shows a list of the system services on your Windows system. These are background tasks that Windows runs, even when no user account is signed in. They’re controlled by the Windows operating system. Depending on the service, it may be automatically started at boot or only when necessary.
Many services are part of Windows 10 itself. For example, the Windows Update service downloads updates and the Windows Audio service is responsible for sound. Other services are installed by third-party programs. For example, NVIDIA installs several services as part of its graphics drivers.
You shouldn’t mess with these services unless you know what you’re doing. But, if you right-click them, you’ll see options to Start, Stop, or Restart the service. You can also select Search Online to perform a Bing search for information about the service online or “Go to Details” to show the process associated with a running service on the Details tab. Many services will have a “ svchost.exe ” process associated with them.
The Service pane’s columns are:
- Name : A short name associated with the service
- PID : The process identifier number of the process associated with the service.
- Description : A longer name that provides more information about what the service does.
- Status : Whether the service is “Stopped” or “Running.”
- Group : The group the service is in, if applicable. Windows loads one service group at a time at startup. A service group is a collection of similar services that are loaded as a group.
For more information about these services, click the “Open Services” link at the bottom of the window. This Task Manager pane is just a less powerful services administration tool, anyway.
Process Explorer: A More Powerful Task Manager
If the built-in Windows Task Manager isn’t powerful enough for you, we recommend Process Explorer . This is a free program from Microsoft; it’s part of the SysInternals suite of useful system tools.
Process Explorer is packed with features and information not included in the Task Manager. You can view which program has a particular file open and unlock the file , for example. The default view also makes it easy to see which processes have opened which other processes. Check out our in-depth, multi-part guide to using Process Explorer to learn more.
RELATED: Understanding Process Explorer
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Task Manager
The Task Manager is an operating system component found in all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. It lets you view each of the tasks (processes) and the overall performance of the computer. Using the Task Manager, you can view how much memory a program is using, stop a frozen program, and view available system resources.
If you are more familiar with Apple computers, you can think of the Task Manager as the Activity Monitor .
- How to open the Windows Task Manager.
- Visual examples of Task Manager.
- Explanation of the tabs in Task Manager.
What to do in the Task Manager?
Why are there duplicate processes listed in task manager, why am i unable to open the task manager.
- How to get even more control of the Windows processes.
- Related information.
How to open the Windows Task Manager
The Task Manager is opened by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc on the keyboard. You can also open the Task Manager by right-clicking the taskbar and selecting Task Manager .
Another way to open the Task Manager is by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del on the keyboard and selecting Task Manager or Start Task Manager .
Windows 8 and Windows 10 users can also access the Task Manager by right-clicking Start or pressing Windows Key + X to access the power user task manager . In this menu, you can access the Task Manager.
In Windows Vista and later versions, click Start, type taskmgr in the Search text box, and select the taskmgr.exe or Task Manager option in the search results.
In Windows XP and earlier versions, Task Manager can also be executed by running the taskmgr.exe file from the C:\Winnt\System32 directory or by clicking Start > Run, typing taskmgr , and pressing Enter .
Early versions of Microsoft Windows (Microsoft Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98) had a program called tasks to display the programs currently running. This program was executed by running the taskman.exe file from the C:\Windows directory.
Visual examples of Task Manager
Below are visual examples of the Task Manager in Windows 2000, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
Explanation of the tabs in Task Manager
Below is an explanation of each of the tabs found in all versions of the Windows Task Manager window and its ability.
Applications tab
Processes tab, services tab, performance tab, networking tab, app history tab, startup tab, details tab.
The Applications tab is included in all versions of Windows, except Windows 8 and Windows 10, and shows all open programs running on the computer. For most users of Windows 7 and earlier, the Applications tab is the most visited tab. It displays the programs running, including those that stop responding and require you to End Task it. Windows 8 and 10 users can find the End Task on the Processes tab.
The Processes tab is in all versions of Windows, including Windows 8 and Windows 10, and shows all Windows processes currently running on the computer. Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft combined the Applications and Processes tab, hence the reason the Applications tab does not appear in Windows 8 or 10.
The Services tab shows all the Windows Services currently running on the computer.
The Performance tab displays the computer's available system resources , including how much CPU , memory , disk drive , Wi-Fi , and network is used. Newer versions of Windows also show the chart of usage for each of these as they're used. At the bottom of this tab is also a quick link to the Resource Monitor .
The Networking tab in all versions of Windows, except Windows 8 and Windows 10, shows network traffic happening on the computer, including any LAN or Wireless networking traffic.
In the Windows 8 and Windows 10 Processes tab, Network usage may be viewed in the Task Manager, under More details .
The Users tab shows all the users logged in to the computer. In Windows 8, the Users tab also shows the processes that each user is running.
The App history tab was introduced in Windows 8. It shows the overall history of each of the Windows Apps (not traditional Windows programs) that have run on the computer.
The Startup tab was introduced with Windows 8 and shows each program that starts with Windows and its impact on the load time. From the Startup tab, you can also disable the startup programs from this section of Task Manager.
The Details tab was introduced with Windows 8 and has full details of each of the processes running on the computer.
One of the most common things done in Task Manager is using End Task to stop a program from running. If a program is no longer responding, you can choose to End Task from the Task Manager to close the program without having to restart the computer.
Some programs may break parts of the program out as a separate process. For example, the Google Chrome browser loads each of the open tabs into its own process to help make the program more secure and stable. There is nothing wrong with the computer if you see more than one of the same processes open at the same time.
If you're encountering issues opening the Task Manager, the computer could be infected with a virus or spyware. There is known malware designed to cause issues with opening the Task Manager and end tasking them. If you're not able to open Task Manager using any of the recommendations on this page, we suggest scanning your computer for viruses and spyware .
It could also be possible that the Task Manager file in Windows is corrupted, preventing it from running. To fix this problem, revert Windows to a previous restore point where the Task Manager was last working or run a Windows repair installation. For help with restoring Windows, see: How to restore Windows to an earlier copy.
How to get even more control of the Windows processes
The Windows Task Manager is an excellent tool for almost all Windows users. However, there are times where more experienced users may need additional details and information about the processes running on their computer. For these situations, we highly recommend the free Process Explorer utility from Microsoft that is part of the Sysinternals .
Related information
- How to find what is running on a Windows computer.
- Why is my Windows System Idle Process so high?
- My computer is running slow, what steps can I do to fix it?
- How to remove TSRs and startup programs.
CAM , End Process , End Task , Operating system terms , Resmon , Task , Task list
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How to Open Disk Management From Command Prompt
Execute diskmgmt.msc for quick access.
Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.
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What to Know
- Open Run from the Start menu or Apps screen. Type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter . Disk Management will open.
- Alternatively, press WIN + X and select Disk Management .
- Or, open Task Manager via Ctrl + Shift + Esc and go to File > Run new task . Enter diskmgmt.msc and select OK .
A quick way to open the Disk Management utility in Windows is from the Command Prompt. Disk Management is buried several layers deep, so having a faster way to access this super-tool for your hard drives and other storage devices can come in handy. Follow these easy steps to start Disk Management from the Command Prompt in Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP.
Not comfortable working with commands? You can also open disk management from the Computer Management tool in Windows. (This is easy and fast, though, we promise!)
How to Open Disk Management With a Command
Using the Disk Management command only takes a few seconds once you learn how it's done.
In Windows 11/10/8, open Run from the Start menu or Apps screen (or see the A Quicker Method... section at the bottom of the page for an even faster method for opening this tool).
In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, select Start .
In Windows XP and earlier, go to Start and then Run .
All you're doing in this step is accessing a part of Windows that will let you use the command for Disk Management to search for and open the tool, as you'll see in the next step. It might seem odd that there are multiple ways to do this, but every version of Windows works a bit differently.
Type the following Disk Management command in the text box:
Then, press the Enter key or press OK , depending on where you ran the command from.
Technically, opening Disk Management from the Command Prompt would require that you actually open the Command Prompt program (which you can do if you want; it works the same way). However, running an executable program like diskmgmt.msc from the search or Run box accomplishes the same thing.
Technically, diskmgmt.msc isn't the "Disk Management command" any more than any non command-line tool's executable is a "command." In the strictest sense, diskmgmt.msc is just the Run command for the program.
Wait while Disk Management opens. It should be immediate but it might take a few moments for the whole program to load.
Now that it's open, you can use it to change drive letters , partition a drive , format a drive , and more.
The method you use to open Disk Management doesn't change what you can do with it. In other words, all the same functions exist no matter which shortcut method you use, whether it be with Command Prompt, the Run dialog box, Computer Management, or even Windows Explorer.
A Quicker Method in Windows 11, 10 & 8
Are you using a keyboard or mouse with Windows 11, 10, or 8? If so, opening Disk Management via the Power User Menu is even faster than via its Run command.
Just press WIN + X to bring up the menu, then click Disk Management . In Windows 8.1 and newer, right-clicking the Start button works, too.
In Windows 10, you could also execute diskmgmt.msc directly from the Cortana interface, which is nice if you're used to using that to execute commands already.
Another way to use the Disk Management command is from Task Manager . This definitely isn't a quicker method than the procedure described above, but it might be your only option if you're having trouble displaying the desktop or opening menus.
To do this, open Task Manager via Ctrl + Shift + Esc , and go to Run new task (Windows 11) or File > Run new task . Enter diskmgmt.msc and select OK .
The Task Manager method is the exact same as using the Run dialog box. If you compare the two boxes, you'll notice that they look nearly the same because you're accessing the same function in Windows: the command line.
To open the Command Prompt from File Explorer, select the address bar , type cmd > Enter .
In the Command Prompt, type start ms-settings: and press Enter to immediately launch the Settings app.
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Article Number: 000125194
Windows 10 - Task Manager Reports 100% Disk Utilization with MSI Mode Enabled
Summary: this article addresses a windows 10 issue where windows task manager might show 100% disk utilization on devices with message signaled interrupt (msi) mode enabled., article content, article properties.
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Symptoms of this issue include the following:
- Task Manager reporting the hard disk to be operating at 100% utilization despite a light workload or no workload
- The computer may experience lag or become unresponsive.
- The computer event log contains numerous events with Event ID 129, which represent resets of the disk controller.
Microsoft has provided the following steps to disable MSI mode for specific devices using the registry:
- Open a command prompt with administrator privileges. Then type devmgmt.msc in the command prompt window and press Enter.
- Under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers right-click the AHCI controller node and select Properties . This node is called "Standard SATA AHCI Controller."
- Click the Driver Details tab.
- If "StorAHCI.sys" is listed, the computer is running the default driver.
- In the same properties window opened in step 1.2, browse the Details tab and select Device instance path from the Property drop-down menu. Note this path.
- Open the Registry Editor by typing regedit in the previously opened command prompt.
- Browse: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\<AHCI Controller>\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties , (where <AHCI Controller> refers to the device instance path you noted in step 2.1).
- Change the value of the MSISupported key from " 1 " to " 0 ."
- If you do not know which controller your boot device is attached to, repeat steps 2.1 through 2.4 for all AHCI controllers that are found under 1.2.
- Reboot the computer.
- Browse to Control Panel.
- Select System and Security.
- Select System.
- Select Advanced System Setting.
- Under Performance, Select Setting .
- Select the Advanced Tab.
- Select Change.
- Set the minimum to the amount of System Ram installed.
- Set the Maximum to double the amount of System Ram installed.
- Select Apply.
- Restart the computer.
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Disk in Task Manager Explained: What it Means and How it Works
Is the Disk in Windows Task Manager the same as the actual disk usage on a computer? This guide on “disk in task manager” answers this question.
By Ikechukwu Ugwuanyi | Updated March 3, 2023 | 14 minutes read
In this guide, you’ll learn about a disk in task manager. Not only that, but this guide will also teach you about the numeric values you see in the Disk column of the Windows Task Manager tool.
So, section-wise, I will first overview the concept of “disk in task manager” and then discuss how it works. After that, we will look into the features of this Microsoft Windows OS technology.
Section four is all about the pros and cons of this Windows OS feature. Thereafter, I will answer questions that people frequently ask about disk in task manager.
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Every Windows Operating system has a task manager that you can access.
To access the Windows Task Manager, press the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys together and select “Task Manager.” You can also press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on the keyboard to open the Task Manager straight from the desktop.
One of the tabs on the Task Manager window is the “Processes” tab. The Processes tab has several information columns, including the ” Disk ” column.
Like other columns in the processes tab, the disk column has values in MB/s for every running application. Above the Disk header, another percentage value (1% in my screenshot above) shows the disk utilization by running processes.
Moreover, you can view a graphical presentation of the disk usage by switching to the “Performance” tab and clicking on “Disk.” The performance tab simulates the disk usage graphically.
In effect, disk in task manager indicates the disk’s capacity currently being used (disk utilization) by your computer to run programs. Therefore, it relates more to the performance of your hard disk rather than its storage capacity.
How Does Disk in Task Manager Work?
In the context of Disk in Task Manager, a disk’s capacity is different from how much storage space you have on a disk. Specifically, Disk in Task Manager indicates how much of a disk’s read/write capability all running programs utilize.
In a Windows operating system’s Task Manager, the value of disk usage can rise up very high at times. This happens when the capacity of the computer’s disk is fully used to run programs.
You may notice that disk usage rises up to 70% or 100% when your computer boots up. At that point, your computer is opening applications that run at the computer’s startup.
Some applications that may run at a computer’s startup include Skype, antivirus programs, and so on.
Nevertheless, during normal day-to-day operation, the value of disk space usage falls to about 5% or less. If the usage of the disk in task manager remains high always, then something may be wrong with the computer.
A constant high disk usage value slows your computer down or causes a “System not responding” error. Speaking of constant high space usage, it could be that too many apps are running in the background.
Simply put, your computer will perform better if the value of disk usage in the task manager is low.
Features of Disk in Task Manager
At this point in our discussion, you should be able to differentiate a disk in task manager from a physical disk. Moreover, you can tell how this Windows Operating Systems feature works.
In this section, we’ll focus properly on the features of Disk in Task Manager.
Disk in Task Manager Does Not Depend on Actual Storage Capacity
As I have hinted more than once, Disk in Task Manager means how much of a disk’s capacity is currently used to perform read/write operations. Meanwhile, storage capacity is the maximum amount of data an HDD or SSD storage can store.
Therefore, the total capacity, used space, or available space on a disk is not the same as its utilization in the Task Manager.
In short, disk utilization in Task Manager can read 0% even when you have 30GB of files on your hard drive.
It is Measured as a Percentage of the Total Disk Capacity
The total usage of a disk in task manager is measured in percentage. The percentage value changes every second, just like a digital clock.
Specifically, this percentage value is expressed in relation to the disk’s average read and write speed.
By read speed, I mean the rate at which the disk opens a file or program. Also, the write speed is how fast the disk can save files.
Thus, when many programs are open and running simultaneously, the disk utilization rises significantly. For PCs with a hard disk drive, you will notice the platters spinning faster at that point.
Individual Processes on Disk are Measured in Megabytes Per Second (MB/s)
All running applications (including background processes) in the Processes tab have distinct values.
Unlike the total value of Disk utilization measured in percentage, disk usage by individual applications is measured in MB/s.
This shows the average speed at which the disk is reading the application’s program and data.
Disk Utilization Contributes to Your PC’s Overall Performance
When the usage value of a disk rises very high, the computer’s performance drops significantly. In severe cases, the computer may freeze or show “Apps not responding” errors.
Normally, one may encounter this challenge when the disk usage is at or near 100%. This is quite different from the high value of disk usage you may experience after a computer startup.
Windows 11 operating system does suffer the disk usage problem at times. So, if you’re using Windows 11, one way to minimize disk usage is disallowing several apps from running in the background .
Pros and Cons of Disk in Task Manager
Now, let’s look into the pros and cons of the Disk in Task Manager.
In particular, I’ll discuss the pros and cons of Disk in Task Manager in terms of having high and low disk usage. Also, I’ll look at how some other computing activities can affect the disk, positively or negatively.
Pros of Low Disk Usage in Task Manager
- Low disk usage lets a computer perform faster. When the level of disk usage in the task manager is between 0% and 5%, you’ll notice your computer performing faster.
- It gives additional information about a disk. Apart from the read/write speed of a disk, the performance tab of the task manager gives additional information. The additional information you’ll find on the Performance tab includes the type of disk (HDD or SSD) [labeled (2) in the screenshot below]. Also, you will see some other useful information like the disk’s Active time, Average response , Read speed and write speed .
- Disk usage performance can be improved . If your disk usage is too high for a long time, here are a few easy steps to reduce it. i. Clean junk files, cached data, or temporary files. These tasks can also be performed with a tool like Ccleaner . ii. Scan your PC with powerful antivirus software; don’t just depend on Windows defender alone. iii. Uninstall apps that you don’t use often; you can install them when you need to use them. iv. Perform a clean boot. A clean boot will restart Windows OS but will load only some drivers and programs, not all of them. v. Update your Windows OS, making sure the update includes patches for fixing disk usage errors.
- The Task Manager provides information on background processes. A background process is software that runs behind the scenes and is not visible to the person using a computer. Moreover, such software does not need the user to start them before it can start running. Interestingly, the disk usage information is presented alongside that of other processes. Therefore, the task manager gives information about background processes that ordinarily are not visible to the user. For instance, Task Manager displays processes using the CPU, RAM, and network.
Cons of High Disk Usage in Task Manager
- High disk usage slows a computer down. I mentioned earlier how significant the effect of high disk usage could be on a computer. If the level of disk usage remains close or is at 100% long after booting, it slows the computer’s performance. Moreover, the programs you’re running may not respond sometimes.
- You do not have control over the information displayed by Disk in Task Manager . You can not customize the disk usage level by yourself. Rather, it depends on the apps’ activities in the foreground and background. Nevertheless, you can minimize disk usage by having updated driver software and operating systems on your computer.
- High usage value can affect users’ experience in gaming. Heavy graphics games load slower when disk usage is high. Furthermore, the frame rate at which the game plays might stutter. This would cause motions in games not to be smooth even when other components like the GPU are good.
- High disk usage may lead to further problems on a computer . Other factors beyond a user’s control can increase disk usage. Such factors as computer viruses and disk faults are notable causes of high disk utilization. If these problems are not solved on time, they may result in loss of data on the disk.
Frequently Asked Questions
100% disk usage in task manager shows that a hard drive’s read/write capacity is being used to the fullest. In other words, the hard drive is reading (opening) or saving too many programs at the same time. Every hard disk has a specific read/write speed. In general, the read/write speed for a 7200 RPM HDD is about 100 MB/s to 150 MB/s. As for SSD storage, the read/write speed ranges from 200 MB/s to 550 MB/s
A lot of factors can cause disk usage to be so high in the task manager. Some of the factors are as follows. i. It could result from disk errors due to corrupt sectors on a disk. ii. Sometimes, a computer virus or other malware may be the reason. iii. Adobe Flash Player is well known for causing high disk usage on a computer. So, you may want to uninstall it if you have the software. iv. Outdated driver software can also cause it. v. Virtual memory can as well take up huge capacity on a disk. Virtual memory is a memory management technique that allows swapping out excess data from RAM to disk during program execution.
To get rid of 100% disk usage, one of the most effective solutions is to restart your computer. If restarting the computer doe not solve the issue, you can try the following. i. Clean junk files, cached data, or temporary files. ii. Scan your PC with powerful antivirus software; don’t just depend on Windows defender alone. iii. Uninstall apps that you don’t use often; you can install them when you need to use them. iv. Perform a clean boot. A clean boot will restart Windows OS but will load only some drivers and programs, not all of them. v. Update your Windows OS, making sure the update includes patches for fixing disk usage errors.
Immediately after your computer boots, the disk usage will rise to a high value for some seconds. Thus, up to 70% or even 100% usage after booting is normal, as many programs will be starting up at that time. However, after loading the necessary drivers and software, the disk usage should go down for normal day-to-day computing activities. At that stage, the disk usage should be under 10% to be considered normal.
Not necessarily. Disk usage fluctuates regularly. At some points, it can jump to 100% and come down immediately. That may not have any noticeable effect on performance. However, when the usage of a disk remains at 100% always, it can make the computer lag. Moreover, such a situation can cause other apps to open slower or not respond to clicks.
Yes, disk usage affects gaming performance on PC. If disk usage is constantly high, other applications will load slower. This will affect how long it takes your computer to load games. If you’re playing a game that’s stored on a slow hard drive, you may experience an irregular Frames-Per Second rate. That is, the game graphics may not play smoothly since they take a longer time to load.
For normal day-to-day computing tasks, the disk usage should be under 10%. Most times, you will see the disk usage in the task manager ticking between 0% and 3%.
Your disk usage will be at 100% on startup because the amount of reading/write operations on disk is higher at that moment. The disk reads the operating system files and other startup programs during booting. Thus, the disk usage will heighten to 70% or 100%.
Disk in Task Manager means how much of a disk’s read/write capacity a computer is using to run tasks at a particular time. On the other hand, disk speed refers to a disk’s standard/average read/write speed. A disk’s usage is, therefore, a measure of the disk’s capacity in use with respect to the standard capacity of the disk. Thus, the Task Manager measures the total usage of a disk in percentage. Meanwhile, disk speed is measured in megabytes per second (MB/s).
Yes, low RAM can lead to high disk usage. Some operating system creates a swap space on the hard drive where excess data on RAM are kept temporarily. So, whenever the RAM is running out of space, it pushes the extra data to the disk from where it fetches them later. This memory management technique is called paging. While paging helps to reduce the load on RAM, it gives more load to the disk.
My Final Thoughts
Disk in Task Manager is one area that many computer users pay less attention to. As you have seen in this guide, it can affect how fast or slow a PC performs.
Therefore, you shouldn’t wait until your PC quits before checking the disk usage. Once you notice an unusual lag with your PC, one troubleshooting step is to check the disk usage.
So, always clean junk files and avoid setting too many apps to run at startup. Also, uninstall unnecessary and old apps.
You can install them later when you need them.
Paying attention to your PC’s disk usage level may save you the troubles of an unresponsive PC.
I hope I was able to explain Disk in Task Manager and how it works. I also hope that you found the article easy to understand.
If you found the article helpful and easy to understand, kindly spare 2 minutes to share your experience with our community at Itechguides Community Forum .
However, if you have any questions regarding Disk in Task Manager or if you’re having any problem with high disk utilization, please post your question at Itechguides Community Forum . Our team and other community members will come back to you with a fix as soon as possible.
Finally, you may find other helpful articles on our Storage & Disk Technology Explained page.
References and Further Reading
- Fix 100% Disk Usage in Windows 10 Task Manager
- What is Disk Usage in Task Manager?
- Itechguides Community Forum
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- MiniTool Wiki Library
- Introduction to Task Manager
Introduction to Task Manager [MiniTool Wiki]
Definition of task manager.
Task Manager (formerly known as Windows Task Manager) is a task manager, system monitor, and startup manager included with all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000.
Windows Task Manager provides information about computer performance and shows detailed information about the programs and processes running on the computer, including name of running processes, CPU load, commit charge, I/O details, logged-in users, and Windows services; if connected to the network, you can also view the network status and quickly understand how the network works.
Microsoft improves the task manager between each version of Windows, sometimes quite dramatically. Specifically, the task managers in Windows 10 and Windows 8 are very different from those in Windows 7 and Windows Vista , and the task managers in Windows 7 and Vista are very different from those in Windows XP . A similar program called Tasks exists in Windows 98 and Windows 95.
How to Open the Task Manager
Starting Task Manager is always a concern for many of you. Now we will list some easy and quick ways for you to open it. Some of them might come in handy if you don’t know how to open a Task Manager or you can’t open Task Manager the way you’re used to.
You are probably familiar with the way that pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete on your keyboard. Before Windows Vista was released, this way can bring you directly to Task Manager.
Starting with Windows Vista, pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete now brings you to the Windows Security interface, which provides options for locking your PC, switching users, signing out, changing a password, and running Task Manager.
The quickest way to start Task Manager - assuming your keyboard works normally - is to press Ctrl + Shift + Esc .
If you prefer using a mouse over a keyboard, one of the quickest ways to launch Task Manager is to right-click on any blank area on the taskbar and select Task Manager. Just need two clicks.
You can also run Task Management by hitting Windows+R to open the Run box, typing taskmgr and then hitting Enter or clicking OK.
In fact, you can also open the Task Manager by Star menu, Windows Explorer , or creating a shortcut... While we have listed these four convenient ways which are totally enough for you.
Explanation of the Tabs in Task Manager
Now we are going to discuss all the useful tabs you can find in the Task Manager nowadays, mostly in Windows 8 and Windows 10.
The Processes tab contains a list of all running programs and applications on your computer (listed under Apps), as well as any background processes and Windows processes that are running.
In this tab, you can close running programs, see how each program uses your computer resources, and more.
The Processes tab is available in all versions of Windows. Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft has combined the Applications and Processes tab into the Processes tab, so Windows 8/10 displays all running programs in addition to processes and services.
Performance
The Performance tab is available in all versions of Windows that is a summary of what's going on, overall, with your major hardware components, including CPU, memory, disk drive , Wi-Fi, and network usage. It displays how much the computer's available system resources are being used, so you can check the valuable information.
For example, this tab makes it easy to see your CPU model and maximum speed, RAM slots in use, disk transfer rate , your IP address...Newer versions of Windows also display usage charts. What’s more? There is a quick link to the Resource Monitor at the bottom of this tab.
App History
The App History tab displays the CPU usage and network utilization that each Windows app has used from the date listed on the screen until the time you enter Task Manager. App History is only available in Task Manager in Windows 10 and Windows 8.
The Startup tab shows every program that is launched automatically each time you start your computer, along with several important details about each program, including the Publisher, Status, and Startup impact which is the most valuable information - shows the impact rating of high, medium or low.
This tab is great for identifying and then disabling programs that you don't need them to run automatically. Disabling Windows auto-start programs is a very simple way to speed up your computer. Startup tab is only available in Task Manager in Windows 10 and Windows 8.
The Users tab shows users currently signed in to the computer and the processes are running within each. The Users tab is available in all Windows versions of Task Manager but only shows processes that each user is running in Windows 10 and Windows 8.
The Details tab contains full details of each process running on your computer. The information provided in this tab is useful during advanced troubleshooting. Details tab is available in Task Manager in Windows 10 and Windows 8, and the features of the Processes tab are similar to Details in earlier versions of Windows.
The Services tab is available in Task Manager in Windows 10, 8, 7, and Vista that shows all of the Windows Services currently running on the computer with the Description and Status. The status is Running or Stopped, and you can change it.
What to Do in the Task Manager?
Task manager always gives you some limited control over those running tasks, like set process priorities, processor affinity, start and stop services, and forcibly terminate processes.
Well, one of the most common things done in Task Manager is to use End Task to prevent programs from running. If a program no longer responds, you can select End Task from the Task Manager to close the program without restarting the computer.
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Hide removable disks in Task Managers Performance tab
Task Manager shows all removable disks in the "Performance" tab. How can I hide them? None of them is actually plugged in. Only disk 0 and 1 are actually there.
- task-manager
- Do you always safely eject before physically unplugging? – harrymc Mar 13, 2020 at 20:19
- @harrymc I usually do, but it is possible that I forget – Heldenkrieger01 Mar 13, 2020 at 20:20
- Try to reconnect one disk and safely eject it, to see if it's still listed. – harrymc Mar 13, 2020 at 20:21
- @harrymc I did that with 2 disks, did not work – Heldenkrieger01 Mar 13, 2020 at 20:35
- 1 I updated to Win 10, 2004 a few days ago and I'm seeing this behavior as well. I do not remember seeing this behavior with 1909. Task manager now shows all of the empty card reader drives that come with my USB-C hub and it's really annoying because there is no (and never has been) a card in those slots. It clutters up the view with information that is useless.. – Unknown Zombie Sep 14, 2020 at 17:46
Unfortunately, "Hide empty drives" option in File Explorer doesn't hide those from Task Manager. For me those drives were coming from an USB memory card reader which created separate drives for each type of physical card slot on it. What I did was disable the whole USB device in Windows Device Manager by right-clicking the corresponding USB Mass Storage Device revealed by menu "View->Devices by connection" for the related drives and selecting "Disable device". Note that I tried to disable the disk drives individually but even that didn't remove those from Task Manager.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged windows-10 task-manager or ask your own question .
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COMMENTS
The Disk% in Task Manager represents I/O load, not throughput. If a process is sending many small read/write requests to the disk, it fills the I/O buffer even though it is transferring a very small amount of data. That svchost process in your screenshot is definitely worth looking into.
Press Windows key + R Type: services.msc Hit Enter Scroll down to Windows Update Select it then right click it Click Properties Under the General tab, choose Startup type to Disabled Click Stop Click Apply then OK Also, check whats starting up with Windows. Press Windows key + X Click Task Manager Click Startup tab
In task manager disk utility is 98-100% always In task manager disk utility is always between 98-100% due to this, applications not working properly and i will get to update my windows also can any one help me what to do? if i connect to internet it will be between 99-100% some times it will be stuck at 100
Fix 4: Perform a disk check 1) On your keyboard, press Windows key and X at the same time, then choose Command Prompt (Admin) . 2) Click Yes at the User Account Control prompt. 3) The command prompt will once again display. Type in the following command: chkdsk.exe /f /r
Open up Resource Monitor and identify the programs in the Disk section that are using most of the disk usage. To open up Resource Monitor, open Start then Run and type in resmon. You can open up Run by using Windows Key + R or by clicking Run on the Start Menu. You can also search for Resource Monitor in the Start Menu.
Solution 1. Turn Off Windows Search Press Win + R and type msc and press Enter key. Find the Windows Search and double click to launch Windows Search Properties Select Disabled on the dropdown menu for Startup type. Click Stop to permanently disable the service. Click OK.
Open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Escape on your keyboard. If you're using Windows 10 and the Task Manager opens in its compact view, click or tap More details. Then, click or tap File > Run new task. In the Create new task dialog box, type this command and click or tap OK: diskmgmt.msc.
When Disk Usage is at 100% in the Task Manager, you can try the following methods until it works. Method 1. Disable Antivirus Software temporarily Method 2. Change the settings in Google Chrome & Skype Method 3. Using Control Panel to uninstall all Browsers Method 4. Disable SuperFetch Service Method 5. Fix StorAHCI.sys driver Method 6.
Wholesome Guide To Resolve Windows 10 100% Disk Usage Error 1. Disable Antivirus Software Temporarily 2. Perform a Disk Check 3. Alter Energy Options From Balanced To High Performance 4. Disable Windows Search 5. Disable SuperFetch 6. Uninstall Flash Player Update 7. Update Device Drivers 8. Reset Virtual Memory 9. Fix the StorAHCI.sys Driver 10.
Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager with a keyboard shortcut or right-click the Windows taskbar and select "Task Manager." You can also press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and then click "Task Manager" on the screen that appears or find the Task Manager shortcut in your Start menu. The Simple View
Go to Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management (under Storage ). Alternatively, open Command Prompt and execute diskmgmt.msc. Make a shortcut: Right-click desktop, New > Shortcut. Type diskmgmt.msc, select Next. Change name, then Finish.
The Task Manager is an operating system component found in all versions of Microsoft Windows ... Windows 98) had a program called tasks to display the programs currently running. This program was executed by running the taskman.exe file from the C:\Windows directory. ... including how much CPU, memory, disk drive, Wi-Fi, and network is used ...
Alternatively, press WIN + X and select Disk Management. Or, open Task Manager via Ctrl + Shift + Esc and go to File > Run new task. Enter diskmgmt.msc and select OK. A quick way to open the Disk Management utility in Windows is from the Command Prompt. Disk Management is buried several layers deep, so having a faster way to access this super ...
Task Manager reporting the hard disk to be operating at 100% utilization despite a light workload or no workload The computer may experience lag or become unresponsive. The computer event log contains numerous events with Event ID 129, which represent resets of the disk controller.
OFFLINE. Gender: Male. Location: In the middle of Kansas. Local time: 05:05 AM. Posted 20 April 2011 - 12:25 PM. Click start - run & type in taskman.exe. See if it works then. In the beginning ...
To access the Windows Task Manager, press the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys together and select "Task Manager." You can also press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on the keyboard to open the Task Manager straight from the desktop. One of the tabs on the Task Manager window is the "Processes" tab.
Definition of Task Manager. Task Manager (formerly known as Windows Task Manager) is a task manager, system monitor, and startup manager included with all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. Windows Task Manager provides information about computer performance and shows detailed information about the programs and ...
What I did was disable the whole USB device in Windows Device Manager by right-clicking the corresponding USB Mass Storage Device revealed by menu "View->Devices by connection" for the related drives and selecting "Disable device". Note that I tried to disable the disk drives individually but even that didn't remove those from Task Manager. Share.