WireShark: “No interfaces found” on Microsoft Windows

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When I start Wireshark, sometimes I’m unable to select the network interface to be used to analyze network traffic. I was able to resolve this by restarting a service called “NetGroup Packet Filter Driver“. Please note, this service can not be found in “Computer Management > Services“.

The procedure below can be followed to resolve this:

  1. Open a Command Prompt with administrative privileges.
  2. Execute the command: “sc query npf” and verify if the service is running.
  3. Execute the command: “sc stop npf” followed by the command: “sc start npf“.
  4. Open WireShark and press “F5“

Hope this helps!

C:\Windows\system32>sc query npf
 SERVICE_NAME: npf
 TYPE : 1 KERNEL_DRIVER
 STATE : 4 RUNNING
 (STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, IGNORES_SHUTDOWN)
 WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
 SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
 CHECKPOINT : 0x0
 WAIT_HINT : 0x0
C:\Windows\system32>sc stop npf
 SERVICE_NAME: npf
 TYPE : 1 KERNEL_DRIVER
 STATE : 1 STOPPED
 WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
 SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
 CHECKPOINT : 0x0
 WAIT_HINT : 0x0
C:\Windows\system32>sc start npf
 SERVICE_NAME: npf
 TYPE : 1 KERNEL_DRIVER
 STATE : 4 RUNNING
 (STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, IGNORES_SHUTDOWN)
 WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
 SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
 CHECKPOINT : 0x0
 WAIT_HINT : 0x0
 PID : 0
 FLAGS :

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