1. Open the Start Menu and type “cmd” and hit enter.
  2. Type “netstat -an” and hit enter.
  3. The netstat output will show the number of active TCP/IP connections, the amount of data transferred, and the time it has been running. If something is downloading in background on your Windows PC, this information will help you to determine what it is.

Ways to Check if Something is Downloading in Background on Windows

Task Manager

In the Windows 10 Task Manager, click on the three lines in the top left corner and select “Task Manager (x64)”. The Task Manager opens in a new window. On the left side of the Task Manager window, click on “Processes” and then “Tasks”. On the right side of the window, click on “End Processes” to close the Task Manager.

Network bandwidth usage by application

Network: -Select sorting method from drop-down menu. -Sort by clicking on the column header. -Click on the arrow next to the column header to move the application to another position. ..

Using Resource Monitor

The Resource Monitor can be used to obtain a more thorough overview of the background activity on your computer. In addition to programmes that download data in the background, there may be programmes that post data back to the internet. If you use programmes like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive, your local backups or synced data will be uploaded on a regular basis in the background.

Windows Resource Monitor can show you which applications are using the most bandwidth on your computer. ..

The Resource Monitor displays the resources used by your computer. You can see how much memory, CPU, and disk space are being used, as well as the amount of time each resource is being used.

To open the Open Resource Monitor in Windows Task Manager, follow these steps:

  1. Open Windows Task Manager by pressing the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys at the same time.
  2. Click on the Processes tab and then click on the name of the process you want to view its resources.
  3. Right-click on the process and select Open Resource Monitor from the context menu. ..

In the Network tab, you will see a list of networks that are available to you.

Final Words

To check if something is downloading in background on your Windows computer, open the Start menu and type “netstat -an”. This will show you the active network connections on your computer. If there are any downloads that are taking up a lot of resources, you might see a message like this: Netstat -an: active internet connections: 1 (total) If there are no active internet connections, then nothing is downloading in background.