Does Windows 10 reserve 80% of internet bandwidth for the system?

SaggyMaggyPoo · 23 Sep 2016

I am currently struggling with an appallingly slow internet speed.

In trying to resolve this I came across a Youtube video that claims that Windows 10 reserves 80% of internet bandwidth for the system, and shows you how to change this.

The video quality is worse than poor, but I worked out that it's through gpedit.msc then Administrative Templates then Network.

I wasn't able to try this as my laptop doesn't recognise gpedit.msc but does anyone know if this is correct (that bandwidth is significantly restricted by the system) and, if so, is it possible to change the setting to free up bandwidth?

dalchina · 23 Sep 2016

Hi, never heard that one. There is the very well known setting from the earliest days to stop your PC redistributing (uploading) updates to other PCs.

Normally there's almost nothing happening on my connection when my PC is idle.

Windows update deals with- well- updates, and Windows Defender updates if in use.
Universal apps will maintain their data as applicable (you have some control of which run in the background in Settings.
Universal apps are updated on a 4 hourly schedule.

Hope that helps.

LMiller7 · 23 Sep 2016

That is a myth, dating back to XP days. The claim that was that 20% was reserved. Actually 20% bandwidth (by default) can be reserved by QOS aware applications. Windows does not do this. But even then this only happens if they are actively using it. Otherwise 100% of bandwidth is available for applications.

TairikuOkami · 23 Sep 2016

SaggyMaggyPoo said:

I am currently struggling with an appallingly slow internet speed.

How do you define slow? Slow loading webpages could be fixed by cleaning various caches and changing DNS.

CCleaner - Builds

How to Switch to OpenDNS or Google DNS to Speed Up Web Browsing

1. What is your supposed internet speed provided by your ISP provider?

2. What is your real internet speed? Check at https://www.speedtest.net and copy URL with the result.

3. How are you connected to the internet? Cable or WiFi? Do you use a router? What AV and firewall do you have?

Mystere · 23 Sep 2016

No. As LMiller7 states, Windows *can* reserve 20% of bandwidth (leaving 80% for normal operations) in some conditions, primarily for Windows Update. This is not a constant 20%, only when Windows Update is downloading. Other apps can reserve this bandwidth as well, but they are not normal apps people would typically run (for instance, a VOIP client might do this to reserve enough bandwidth to ensure call quality is good).

SaggyMaggyPoo · 23 Sep 2016

TairikuOkami said:

How do you define slow? Slow loading webpages could be fixed by cleaning various caches and changing DNS.

CCleaner - Builds

How to Switch to OpenDNS or Google DNS to Speed Up Web Browsing

1. What is your supposed internet speed provided by your ISP provider?

2. What is your real internet speed? Check at https://www.speedtest.net and copy URL with the result.

3. How are you connected to the internet? Cable or WiFi? Do you use a router? What AV and firewall do you have?

Sorry for my original post seeming a little vague, @TairikuOkami, but I was really looking for an answer to the specific query not a solution to the problem on this occasion, strange as it may seem.

Reason is I am house sitting for a friend and using her satellite internet. We had some bad weather earlier this week which may have knocked something out, but I don't want to get into trying to sort things with her ISP as she's back on Sunday.

I have already tried CCleaner, and the speedtest, which was a staggering 0.08mps for download (it got up to 0.24 once though). I have no idea what speed she should be getting but I can't deal with the ISP to sort this out as I have none of her details.

I was just curious about this video talking about the 80% retention. It did seem to show a setting mentioning 80% but as the screenshot was blurry I can't verify that. I have actually seen a few people making a similar claim and recommendation.

I will look into the DNS options you mentioned though, as this is something I can try on my laptop without affecting her system.

Many thanks for your suggestions :)

lordraptor1 · 22 Mar 2018

LMiller7 said:

That is a myth, dating back to XP days. The claim that was that 20% was reserved. Actually 20% bandwidth (by default) can be reserved by QOS aware applications. Windows does not do this. But even then this only happens if they are actively using it. Otherwise 100% of bandwidth is available for applications.

no it is NOT a myth the default usage for bandwidth is indeed 80%.

here is a copu paste of the gpedit.msc txt:

"
Determines the percentage of connection bandwidth that the system can reserve. This value limits the combined bandwidth reservations of all programs running on the system.

By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 80 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default.

If you enable this setting, you can use the "Bandwidth limit" box to adjust the amount of bandwidth the system can reserve.

If you disable this setting or do not configure it, the system uses the default value of 80 percent of the connection.

Important: If a bandwidth limit is set for a particular network adapter in the registry, this setting is ignored when configuring that network adapter."

note what it states about default package scheduler. so that is a fact NOT a myth my friend

RickC · 22 Mar 2018

Perhaps a better explanation is this Configure & Limit Reservable Bandwidth Setting In Windows 10/8.1 Windows Club article.

Raymond Chen, Microsoft Windows engineer, offers even more insight in this Placebo setting: QoS bandwidth reservation article, showing that the controversy has been around for over a decade.

Hope this helps...

LMiller7 · 22 Mar 2018

lordraptor1 said:

no it is NOT a myth the default usage for bandwidth is indeed 80%.

here is a copu paste of the gpedit.msc txt:

"
Determines the percentage of connection bandwidth that the system can reserve. This value limits the combined bandwidth reservations of all programs running on the system.

By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 80 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default.

If you enable this setting, you can use the "Bandwidth limit" box to adjust the amount of bandwidth the system can reserve.

If you disable this setting or do not configure it, the system uses the default value of 80 percent of the connection.

Important: If a bandwidth limit is set for a particular network adapter in the registry, this setting is ignored when configuring that network adapter."

note what it states about default package scheduler. so that is a fact NOT a myth my friend

It IS a myth.

I am quite familiar with the text in the dialog, having read it on more than one occasion. The wording is not the best and can lead to misunderstandings. In technical writing it is difficult to describe something in a way that is both technically accurate and yet easy to understand. Microsoft user level documentation tends toward the latter and even computer professionals sometimes it wrong. I have seen this lead to lengthy discussions on forums where nothing is resolved.

Note the first sentence in the text:
"Determines the percentage of connection bandwidth that the system can reserve."
By default no bandwidth is reserved but QOS aware programs can reserve a portion of bandwidth if needed. But even then other programs have the full bandwidth. Only if the reserving program is actively using bandwidth does the reservation come into effect.

Back in XP days there was so much confusion about this that Microsoft had an article that accurately described how things worked and debunking the myth. Unfortunately it seems that it no longer exists. We still have the explanation by Raymond Chen mentioned in post #8. He has been a developer with Microsoft since Windows 95 days.

I have tried the QOS changes, including some with values larger then 20%. I noticed no changes in bandwidth.

Edit: It seems that old myths like this never die. They are continually being spread around the internet and leading to endless confusion.

TairikuOkami · 22 Mar 2018

lordraptor1 said:

By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 80 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default.

If you are too concerned about it, uninstall QoS Packet Scheduler protocol from the network adapter.