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
    2017-03-17T23:57:05+00:00

    Delete windows.old, this fixed it for me after months of searching.

    https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-delete-the-windows-old-folder-from-windows-10/

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-03-30T09:52:38+00:00

    Still with the problem. Today we've seen that the computers that have the problem (it's a complete classroom), do have a 240w power supply. 

    Intel Core i5-4460 3.2Ghz

    16 Giga RAM

    Nvidia Quadro K620

    Could it be that the power supply is not enough?? 

    Anyone with this problem??

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-04-05T16:59:17+00:00

    This worked for me and went from 100% disk usage down to 2% disk usage in an instant--this is after many many months of frustration and trying every possible fix.  For those of you that have already tried the fix involving the registry editor and changing the Dword value for 'Prefetcher' to show "0", you merely go back through the instructions for initially changing the 'Prefetcher' value but THIS TIME change it to read "1".  Voila!  Can't believe that it was this easy :)

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-04-05T17:45:27+00:00

    Hello map77_1. Could you, please, be more specific regarding the instruction? I could not locate the "This worked for me", I mean specifically what worked for you (I could not backtrack your reply). It would be very helpful if you could include a link to those instructions, or provide the instructions, for changing 'Prefetcher'.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-04-05T19:06:57+00:00

    Hello map77_1. Could you, please, be more specific regarding the instruction? I could not locate the "This worked for me", I mean specifically what worked for you (I could not backtrack your reply). It would be very helpful if you could include a link to those instructions, or provide the instructions, for changing 'Prefetcher'.

    Hello there,  let me say this to start with;  I had tried multiple fixes, at different times, and among those fixes was one that reappeared on a lot of different websites that suggested using the registry editor to change the Dword value for Prefetcher from the default value of 3 to read the new value of '0';  (the link below will show you how to do this, but DON'T change it to '0'--doing that helped me a little bit, but not much;  however if you continue reading down the page in the link it eventually says that a person can also try changing the value to read '1' (instead of changing it to '0')--doing this is what finally fixed it for me.  Hope this helps you as much as it helped me!  Here is the link (read it entirely through):

     https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3083595/task-manager-might-show-100-disk-utilization-on-windows-10-devices-with-message-signaled-interrupt-msi-mode-enabled

    Good luck! (you can copy and paste the link if it is not clickable)

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