The NPF driver isn't running – Wireshark

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March 31st, 2009

Wireshark – The NPF driver isn’t running

As soon as I opened my wireshark, the message popped up: “The NPF driver isn’t running…

As a local administrator do this:

net start npf

Now go back and open WireShark. Everything will be ok ;)

12 Responses to “The NPF driver isn't running – Wireshark”

  1. Scott says:

    Your post has been found. I thank you for this information, as it worked quite well.
    ~Scott

  2. Filipe says:

    Is there anyway to run this at startup?

  3. Joao says:

    Thanks!

  4. Tim says:

    I’ve tried doing this, but when I do it gives me this message “System error 5 has occured. Access is denied”
    I am using Win7 Pro in administrator mode, and I even used the run program with control+alt+enter to make sure I was in admin command prompt. What else can I do?

  5. Sarah says:

    Tim, make sure you are running Wireshark itself as administrator.

  6. tom says:

    click on the shortcut, select properties, select run as administator. when she starts npf will start also.

  7. Nik says:

    Run command prompt as admin not as user admin. you need to be in the C:/windos/system32/ directory to run the ‘net start npf’ command as admin

  8. Lazfroc says:

    @Tim

    You can start the driver by hand before starting Wireshark and stop it afterwards.
    Using Wireshark running in a user account could look like:
    Start the NPF driver:
    runas /u:administrator “net start npf”
    Start Wireshark as a user and work with it, including capturing, until the specific job is finished.
    Stop the NPF driver again:
    runas /u:administrator “net stop npf”

  9. António Santos says:

    Thank you!

  10. Diana says:

    Running it as an admin worked for me.

    Thanks.

  11. Chris says:

    Ran the program in administrative mode. Worked fine. Loaded all drivers and everything.

  12. Herjan says:

    Thanks for the solution!

    Simple but effective ;)

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