It is concluded the "npcap" is the cause of this issue, at least on my PC. I have tried two versions of "npcap": 0.990 and 1.10. Both versions triggered the same problem as soon as installed. And the problem goes away right after "npcap" is removed.
1.10 is the latest version available so there is not much I can do at this point.
Just to confirm: I am on windows 10 pro version "10.0.19042.685". Vmware workstation version 16.1.
