Fixing 100% disk usage in Windows 10 with Chrome and Skype running

Anonymous
2015-08-16T12:25:27+00:00

How to fix 100% disk usage in Windows 10

This is caused by a common combination of Skype as well Google Chrome. Similar issue with other programs could also cause 100% disk usage. To fix this do the following:

Google Chrome:

In Google Chrome, go to Settings > Show Advanced Settings ... > Privacy > Prefetch resources to load pages more quickly

and untick it. See Figure-1 below:

Figure-1

Skype:

Make sure you have exited Skype and it is not running in the taskbar (if it is running in the taskbar then quit it).

Open Windows Explorer and open the following folder:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone"

Now right click "Skype.exe" file and then click "Properties" and open the "Security" tab.

Click the "Edit" button and then highlight "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" and place a tick in the "Write" box.

Click "Apply" and then "OK" and then "OK" again. See Figures-2 to Figure-6 below:

This is it, now run Skype and check the Disk Usage in Task Manager and it will no longer show you 100% disk usage anymore:-

I hope this helps people. I spent a long time in finding a solution to this problem.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-08-07T11:46:51+00:00

    Had no effect.. Additionally in Skype I had no "All Application Packages" option..

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-06T21:40:29+00:00

    First of all, I am not an expert, but I found a solution to my old laptop.

    I had the same problem in a HP Pavilion DV6700 (Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz, 2 GB Ram, 160 Gb 5400 RPM HD, nVidia Discrete PCI Express X 16 Graphics) that I bought in 1998.

    I upgraded from Windows 7 Pro 64 to W10 Pro 64 on January of this year, the computer worked fine, a little slow (she is old and needs more RAM) but never got unresponsive and I could do most of the basic tasks. A month and a half ago the problem started, frequently the HD was at 100% of usage and the computer was unresponsive, I tried the following and couldn’t resolve the issue:

    • Cloned W10 to a bigger and faster (7200 rpm) HD. Did not work.
    • Disabled MSI mode via the registry. Did not work (As I understand this only apply for SSD)
    • Uninstalled Skype and Chrome. Did not work.
    • Disabled SuperFetch Service. Did not work.
    • Installed last SATA driver from Intel. Did not work.
    • Ran Chkdsk /f. No problems found.
    • Installed an old SATA driver from Intel, made for Windows 7. WORKED!!! It ended the disk madness.

    I thing that a faulty driver was installed automatically by Windows Update, I am not 100% sure, but I disabled the automatic driver upgrade (Advanced System settings, Hardware (tab), Device Installation Settings. Run the command sysdm.cpl via Run Dialog) just in case.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-06T17:19:33+00:00

    In my case, the problem was due to a disk error. The system log showed a lot of errors and chkdsk /f fixed it. I suspect that some of the more esoteric fixes shown here also work because they alter the system behaviour to avoid a bad sector rather than because of software bugs. Who can say for sure?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-05T06:06:42+00:00

    I fixed this lasting with the following steps:

    • DIsable MSI mode
    • https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/kb/3083595
    • Disable Chrome prefetch (erweiterte Einstellungen)
    • Install chipset drivers by chipset vendor (in my case AMD) - radeon-crimson-16.7.3-sb-sata-ahci-win10-win8.1-win7-64bit + install IDE / AHCI ACPI driver manually (choose from disk)
    • Edit Skype.exe application rights (Set APPS to WRITE)
    • Install 3rd party virus scanner (360)
    • Disable Windows tipps and tricks notification
    • Chkdsk /f
    • Disable most background apps (Settings > privacy)

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-08-04T19:41:17+00:00

    I had this issue and it seems some others encountered the bug. What fixed it for me is going to settings, system, notifications, and turning off "show me tips about Windows." I believe that was the one causing problems, though I turned all of them off besides the app notifications. System processes went back down after a restart and haven't spiked since.

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