Windows 10 Live Tile: Displaying Network Data Usage

Windows 10’s Start Menu can show a live tile for your network data usage over the past 30 days — useful if you’re on a metered connection or just want an at-a-glance view without opening Settings each time.

Steps

1. Click the Start button.
2. Click the Settings cog.
3. Go to Network & Internet.
4. In the left-hand menu, right-click Data usage and select Pin to Start.

Head back to your Start Menu and you’ll see the new live tile showing your recent wired and wireless data usage, updating automatically as you use it. It’s a small thing, but it saves a few clicks compared to digging into Settings every time you want to sanity-check how much data you’ve used — particularly useful on laptops tethered to a mobile hotspot or a capped connection.

Does This Still Work on Windows 11?

No — this trick is Windows 10 only. Windows 11 dropped Live Tiles entirely from its original release in October 2021; the registry workaround some early testers used to bring back the classic tiled Start menu was blocked by Microsoft before Windows 11 even shipped. The Start menu on Windows 11 uses static pinned app icons instead, with a separate Widgets panel (accessible from the taskbar) covering the kind of glanceable, auto-updating info that live tiles used to provide — weather, calendar, news, and similar — but there’s no per-app dynamic tile equivalent built in. Microsoft has tested an experimental “Companions” panel in Insider builds that’s explicitly live-tile-like, but as of writing it hasn’t shipped to the general release Start menu. If you want genuine Live Tile-style tiles back on Windows 11, the practical option is third-party software such as Stardock’s Start11, which restores dynamic tiles as part of a replacement Start menu.

A Note on Windows 10’s Support Status

Windows 10’s mainstream free support ended on October 14, 2025. If you’re still running it, you’re now dependent on the Consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) programme for security patches — enrollable for free by syncing your settings to a Microsoft account, via 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or for a one-time payment, and that consumer ESU coverage runs out on October 13, 2026. Business and Education ESU can be extended further, up to three years. Worth bearing in mind if you’re relying on this guide day-to-day rather than maintaining a legacy machine for a specific reason — the underlying OS itself is on a firm countdown even though the Data Usage live tile trick above still works exactly as described for as long as you’re on Windows 10.