A computer should rarely ever run at 100% Disk Usage, especially a new computer.
Outside of malware and viruses on your machine, here are a 10 things you can look for:
1) Services – Windows Search has been known to sometimes cause problems while indexing your files.
You can manually stop this service just for your current session until the next boot by stopping the services in an elevated command prompt:
net.exe stop “windows search”
To permanently disable the service, press Windows + R, enter services.exe, and hit Enter.
To find the Windows Search, click the top row and begin typing Windows Search. Double click the row. Click the Stop button to stop the service, and then click the Startup type dropdown and choose disable, click apply, then click OK.
2) Running Adobe Flash in your Internet Browsers could also be the culprit.
In Chrome Browser’s address bar, type chrome://plugins/ and hit enter.
Do a find on Adobe Flash Player and disable the player to see if that resolves the issue.
3) Identify if you are running the inbox AHCI driver (StorAHCI.sys):
Open an elevated command prompt. Type the following command in the command prompt window and hit Enter: devmgmt.msc
Under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers right-click on the AHCI controller node and select Properties. This node is usually called “Standard SATA AHCI Controller.
Navigate to the driver tab and click Driver Details. If you see “StorAHCI.sys” or “iaStorAC.sys” in the list, you are running the inbox driver, and so, disable MSI for the controller by doing the following:
a) In the same properties window, click the Details tab and select “Device instance path” from the Property drop-down menu. Note this path for you need to find it in the Registry.
b) Open the registry editor by typing regedit in the previously opened command prompt.
Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI<AHCI Controller>\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties where <AHCI Controller> is your device instance path you noted above.
For example: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A102&SUBSYS_364217AA&REV_31\3&11583659&1&B8\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties
Change the value of the MSISupported key from “1” to “0”.
If you don’t know which controller your boot device is attached to, repeat this process for all AHCI controllers found under the Details tab.
4) A memory leak on the Microsoft side with the Windows Network Data Usage Monitor (Ndu) driver could be the culprit. You can disable this driver in the Registry as follows:
Hkey_Local_Machine\System\ControlSet001\Services\Ndu
Change the “Start” DWord from 2 to 4
5) Disable Microsoft Telemetry. Open an elevated command prompt and enter the following one at a time.
sc delete DiagTrack sc delete dmwappushservice echo "" > C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\ETLLogs\AutoLogger\AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection" /v AllowTelemetry /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f If this doesn't work, then disable it from the Task Scheduler. 1) Click Start, type task scheduler and press Enter. 2) On the Task Scheduler window, go to this path: Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\Application Experience. 3) On the Application Experience folder, look for Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser. 4) To the right, disable all tasks. 5) On the Task Scheduler window, go to this path: Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\Customer Experience Improvement Program 6) To the right, disable all tasks. If this doesn't work, then disable it from the registry. 1) Start up the registry and go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection 2) If the DWORD (32-bit) value AllowTelementry doesn't exist, create it. 3) Open the AllowTelementry and set the value to 0. 4) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\TelemetryController 5) Rename TelemetryController to TelemetryControllerX
Note: You will most likely have to do this after every major Windows Update.
6) Turn off optimization.
1. Right click on the C drive. 2. Select the Properties. 3. Choose the Tools tab. 4. Click the Optimize button. 5. Click on the Change settings button. 6. Uncheck the Run on a schedule.
7) Turn off Feedback and Diagnostics.
1. Press Windows Key and i. 2. Click Privacy. 3. Click Diagnostics and Feedback. 4. Find the section called Feedback Frequency. 5. Click the dropdown and choose NEVER.
8) Disable Prefetch and Superfetch.
1. Run Regedit. 2. Copy and Paste into the address bar, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters 3. Double Click EnableSuperfetch and change value to 0. 4. Double Click EnablePrefetcher and change value to 0. If any of these are missing, right-click the PrefetchParameters folder, choose New > DWORD Value. Name the entry and set the value to 0. To disable through services, repeat step 1 and search for SysMain and follow the steps in step 1. SysMain used to be called SuperFetch.
9) Shut off background apps. (Keep enabled ones that you are necessary to you.
1. Press Windows Key and i. 2. Click Privacy. 3. Click Background apps. 4. Turn off 'Let apps run in the background'.
10) Delete any failed or pending reports.
1. Click start, type view all problem reports in the search box and hit enter.
2. Click the 'Clear all problem reports' button.
11) How to block the Chrome Software Reporter Tool.
You can find the tool here: C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter\[VERSION]\software_reporter_tool.exe
1. Remove permissions to the SwReporter folder.
a) Right-Click the SwReporter folder and click Properties.
2. Click the securities tab. Click the Advanced button.
3. Click on "Disable inheritance" and select "remove all inherited permissions from this object."
4. Select apply and in the Windows Security prompt "yes".
5. Click the OK button twice.
Reboot the machine.