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Compared to Windows 8, Windows 2012's Task Manager has Disk and Network columns disabled.

  1. Why are these columns disabled?
  2. How can one activate them, especially the Network column?

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Hennes
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Cetin Sert
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4 Answers4

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This is because disk metrics are disabled by default on Windows Server 2012 because of significant performance impact, however, it is enabled in Windows 8.Use Resource Monitor to gauge Disk and Network IO usage. - Syed Yusuf from Microsoft R&D

If you need to see the metrics, you can use Resource Monitor.

Alternatively:

You can enable Disk performance monitoring on this tab by running the following command from a Command Prompt launched using the "Run as Administrator" option.

diskperf -y

Sources:

Community
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ronalchn
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    Can the Network column not be enabled independently of the Disk column? – Cetin Sert Nov 03 '12 at 06:08
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    I can't find a way, since it is disabled by design, perhaps nobody has found it important enough to allow them to be enabled independently. – ronalchn Nov 03 '12 at 06:16
  • I use Windows Server 2012 Standard as my Laptop OS with adaptations as seen on http://win2012workstation.com so I would really love to have the Network column available for Metro apps. Hope somebody updates us on this issue some day :) – Cetin Sert Nov 03 '12 at 06:20
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    "significant performance impact"? So why is it enabled by default in Win8‽ Doesn't it have the same impact on the client OS? – Karan Nov 03 '12 at 23:11
  • well, that's what they say. I don't know why, but it could be because it is a server, where performance matters more – ronalchn Nov 04 '12 at 01:57
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    Easy to experiment and try. Turn it OFF on Windows 8 or any other OS with "diskperf -N" then reboot. Once you do, the same condition will exist on Windows 8. Measure both ways, rinse, and repeat. – Warren P Jul 02 '14 at 12:49
  • Partially related: unfortunately, the `diskperf` instructions do not work for Windows Server 2016 (not the original question, I know). I ran `diskperf -Y`, restarted, and the disk and network columns are still disabled in Task Manager. The `diskperf` output indicates that Server 2016 always has the counters available but enables them on-demand. Resource Monitor is still a good alternative. – Aldaviva May 26 '17 at 01:52
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    This is weird - on my Windows Server Server 2012 R2 box, running `diskperf -y` enabled the Disk charts in the Performance tab of Task Manager, but wouldn't enable the disk, network, and power columns in the Processes tab. – Dai Apr 02 '20 at 06:52
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Same problem , thanks for ronalchn's explanation... I will let it go. Before that ,I was searching for solution . In case someone need it:

One way to unlock this option is to hack the taskmgr.exe program. By using a reverse software like ida to edit taskmgr.exe , search IsServer ,change a jnz to six nop.

Source:

https://www.zhihu.com/question/57357900

A video is available here, you don't have to know what he says,just follow the steps.

Windows Server 2012/2012 R2/2016 Unlock all functions

Jay
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  • After watching the video, it would seem that you have to: Copy Task Manager to a working dir. Open it using IDA. Make changes to your copy of Task Manager. Save the changes. Kill any running Task Managers. Open it with IsServer. Remove "Force Integrity" from the properties of something. Save it. Change ownership and full access permissions of the original Task Manager. Rename with .bak appended to it. Copy your edited Task Manager to the original location. – Tmanok Aug 30 '21 at 18:48
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I've tried diskperf and Windows 7 says "counters on this system are automatically enabled on demand" so that didn't help.

I found an interesting fix just now (run as administrator):

LODCTR /r

"Rebuild the perf registry strings and info from scratch based on the current registry settings and backup INI files."

For the first time ever, I now have disk statistics showing up in Process Explorer with Windows 7.

Katastic Voyage
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I found next post (at russian), where described how to patch taskmanager for missing columns (and direct link to patched at end of post). http://habrahabr.ru/post/160161/

zz222
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    Could you post a brief summary of what it says here (because of the language factor and also in case the link goes dead)? – jonsca Nov 27 '12 at 00:12
  • Patched binary does not render properly on my machine: http://snag.gy/gKYB7.jpg – Cetin Sert Nov 27 '12 at 04:07
  • @jonsca, You can use Google Translage. In brief words: taskmgr itself checks for Server/Client version of OS and hides columns. – zz222 Nov 27 '12 at 17:41
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    @CetinSert - if you run task manager from a separate folder, you should add MUI folder (en-us\taskmgr.exe.mui). This folder contains nessessary resources. You can copy it from windows\system32\en-us subfolder – zz222 Nov 27 '12 at 17:43