[FIX] 100% Disk Usage all the time with Windows 10 update 1607 (9th December 2016)

Hello everyone! A new Windows 10 update was released 3 days ago that has had many people with 100% disk usage issues. There are a few things you can do that will fix, at least 1 of these will work if the others don't:

Disable Microsoft Search and Superfetch. Do this by hitting WindowsKey+R and typing "services.msc", then find Microsoft Search and Superfetch, right click on both, click properties, click startup type and change this to Disabled for both Microsoft Search and Superfetch. Then after this right click on both and click "Stop".

This usually works but if not, do the following:

Type in the search bar at the bottom right "cmd" without speech marks and right click and click run as administrator when it suggests "Command Prompt". Type into the command prompt "WPR -cancel" and hit enter. This may fix it.

This usually works but if not, do the following:

Again open up an administrator command prompt using the method just above. This time type the following 3 things 1 at a time, hitting enter and waiting for a response before typing the next:

  1. sc start "DiagTrack"
  2. sc stop "DiagTrack"
  3. sc config "DiagTrack" start= disabled

Notice the space between the "start=" and the "disabled". This is very important. Also the speech marks around "DiagTrack" are important.

If anyone has been having this 100% disk usage problem recently, after updating Windows 10 to version 1607 on or after the 9th December 2016, this should fix it.

NOTE: Anytime you restart your PC, you will need to input "WPR -cancel" and "sc config "DiagTrack" start= disabled" into CMD again otherwise disk usage will go back up to 100%.

Before and after screenshots to show what it did for me:
Before
After
Information sources as requested:
For the "wpr -cancel" command: this reddit thread
For the disabling windows search and Superfetch: my knowledge of windows 10 and what those services can do to disk usage.
For the DiagTrack command: thekrautboy's comment

Comments

  • Could you cite the sources for your information please.

  • HOW TO NOT HAVE TO REPEAT THE PROCESS ON STARTUP

    This issue is the result of the (pretty much) spyware that comes with Windows 10. In order to turn them off more permanently, I would personally recommend using a 3rd party program like Anti-beacon, OO Shutup or similar. Alternatively there exist Copy+Paste commands that you can put in a .bin and run, but make sure to do your homework before running them, or any 3rd party program for that matter.

    About PFC Plumbleys fix

    The fix and issue is legitimate, several people with same issue and solution can be found here, here and here. These were all posted a couple hours ago.

    To explain what is actually done in the fix, "WPR -cancel" stops the current telemetry recording that Windows 10 performs at almost all times. These are done to "enhance user experience" but it's essentially spyware, it wouldn't be so bad if you could turn it off, but you can't. Anyways, the command halts the recording, for the time being.

    Note that all permanent solutions to this might be undone by the next patch. But hopefully by then Microsoft will have learned to at least use less of the disk when spying on Windows 10 users.

    Enjoy Windows 10 folks.

    TLDR: If you are having issues with telemetry or system taking up all of your CPU and/or disk usage on Windows 10 recently, PFC Plumbleys fix does work

  • edited December 2016

    I had to do this for my laptop. It worked. My Main Desktop never encountered this Problem though.

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