How to make windows task manager to show network usage?

Question

I found that Windows 8 Task manager does not show network usage correctly:

As you see, my torrent client downloads at a speed of 1 MB/s, while Windows shows zero.

All adapters are disabled except one. Update speed is normal. And still zeros for all network traffic.

I use no bandwidth control utilities and have Windows up to date. Updating Windows (including windows optional updates) didn't help.

Answer 1

Try to use Resource Monitor (A native build-in tool for Windows 8 to monitor system resource)

If you see small difference in network activity, it can be Resource monitor and uTorrent do not use same unit (kB and B) to calculate or just because both not update at the same time

You can run Resource Monitor from your Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools\Resource Monitor or it is a shortcut in Task Manager window (mark as red underline in my picture)

Answer 2

In my case, Virtualbox Bridged Networking Driver was the problem.

Just go to Network and Sharing Center. Click on your network. This should show status window. Next click Properties and uncheck "Virtualbox Bridged Networking Driver".

If you have any other bridges try to uncheck them too.

Start Task Manager. That's it.

Answer 3

If you have any other network adapters (virtual or physical), try disabling them one-by-one. If it suddenly works, you have found the problem adapter. Then, you can disable it if it is unnecessary. (Especially look for NetLimiter or NetBalancer or something such as that).

Another thing to check is if the "Update Speed" checkbox is disabled under the "view" menu. If that happens, the network usage will show 0%.

Answer 4

If you have installed any bandwidth-control product such as NetBalancer or NetLimiter, these interfere with the Windows 8 Task Manager display.

You would need in this case to use the Resource Monitor instead, or try a newer version for the bandwidth-control product.

You should also fully patch Windows 8, including optional Windows Update items (especially the ones pertaining to network). Try to find an update for the driver to your network card from the manufacturer's website (or give us its reference so we can see if one exists).

As another remark, if your network adapter is rated as having a very fast maximal bandwidth such a 1 Gbps, Windows might ignore 1 Mbps as being too small a percentage to show. Use the Resource Monitor in this case (or a Task Manager replacement).

Answer 5

I started facing the problem after installing Killer Network Manager or Killer Control Center. Later i removed it completely but it didn't fix the problem. It seems that problem arises when a third party software like Killer Network Manager tries to interfere with Windows NDU (Windows Network Data Usage Monitoring Driver). Both services work by examining packets, and both doing so at the same time can cause conflicts. So third party software disables/stops Windows NDU in order to avoid conflicts.

To enable or re-activate Windows NDU you need to open CMD as Administrator and run the following command.

sc config ndu start=auto

Now reboot the system. NDU should now be set to start automatically and the Task Manager Processes tab should show traffic in the Network column, but the Killer Network Manager might not work properly.

Source

Answer 6

I see two possibilities here. One is that you have a 64bit Windows 8, and 32bit BitTorrent; and the Task Manager has problems in identifying traffic from within the 32-bit VDM. If you have a 64bit Windows 8, you can test this hypothesis by installing 64bit bitTorrent.

The other possibility is that bitTorrent is playing tricks with WFP, the Windows Filtering Platform (ex LSP, Layered Service Provider) in order to make good its claim to "optimize bandwidth usage":

BitTorrent auto-adjusts bandwidth usage, based on your network and Internet connection, to ensure fast file delivery. Your downloads run in the background. Which means they’ll never slow down video chats or game play.

In that case, you could try fiddling with bitTorrent's bandwidth usage options to see whether one of those is responsible.

The fact that user Hardy's installation appears to be working proves that there are no inherent problems in either Windows 8 or bitTorrent; this must be a configuration problem (or maybe a conflict with some other installed software. In that case, maybe unistalling bitTorrent and re-installing it, therefore "on top" of whatever network driver and service chain you have, might fix the matter).

Answer 7

I have two ethernet adapters installed. I needed to disable the unused one to be able to see the traffic usage through the task manager (search for "Network" -> "Display Network Connections"):

Usually the task manager should list all ethernet adapters, but in my case it displays only the "first" and this seems to be the reason why it did not work.

Answer 8

Try installing WinPcap, the latest version, and restarting your system, this might work on your system. Also try installing Microsoft Network Monitor 3.4, and then trying again. (What I mean is install these applications, and then run the Task Manager again, and see if you are lucky.)

Let us all know if any of these solutions work, thank you.

Answer 9

For me, it is working by disabling the "Connectify LightWeight Filter". No need to disable IPv6 or any other.

Right click start menu -> Network Connections -> Right Click your network (Ex: Ethernet) -> Properties -> In network tab disable/uncheck Connectify LightWeight Filter.

It will immediately reflect in task manager, check in your task manager network tab now.

Answer 10

Don't know if this helps but what I did on Windows 8.1 to fix my Network Usage of 0% was right clicking on the Network Utilization Tab under Processes in the task manager and selected Process Name and all of a sudden, my Network Tab displayed real time usage.

Answer 11

I just try with Task Manager and I can see it work, although Task Manager result is not best matched with utorrent but it is work.

To explain why the monitor is different from Task Manager and uTorrent. I think result from utorrent is already calculated, it just only count the data you want to receive/send, not include all other data which can use to request tracker, find peer, some maintain data, etc., but Task Manager count it all

Finally, please retry with Task Manager. It is work.