Wind 10 high CPU usage

OnlyAlex

OnlyAlex

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Explorer-exe-high-usage

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I have an MSI laptop running Windows 10. Everything has been working fine since setting it up with Windows 10 a month ago or so but recently when I turn on the laptop, explorer.exe uses a quarter of the CPU power. Is that normal? As soon as I click restart explorer.exe it goes down to 0.1% and the fan eases off.

I have tried searching for malware, nothing found. Sfc/ runnow, also checked desktop for any broken shortcut icons etc.

Not sure what to do?

Cheers

Update: on another forum someone said this is a known bug and not to do anything?
 
It is a known issue but i wouldn't do nothing. First thing I'd try is doing the normal check of your event logs (custom view > admin events) for any obvious errors or warnings, next I'd boot into safe mode to see if the same thing happens.

If it still does it in safe mode and nothing shows up in the event logs you'll have to start digging deeper. I'd probably move onto checking what's being loaded on startup using AutoRuns, look for anything that doesn't have Microsoft as the publisher and anything you don't recognise as something you installed.
 
Murphy said:
It is a known issue but i wouldn't do nothing. First thing I'd try is doing the normal check of your event logs (custom view > admin events) for any obvious errors or warnings, next I'd boot into safe mode to see if the same thing happens.

If it still does it in safe mode and nothing shows up in the event logs you'll have to start digging deeper. I'd probably move onto checking what's being loaded on startup using AutoRuns, look for anything that doesn't have Microsoft as the publisher and anything you don't recognise as something you installed.
Click to expand...

So you recommend to do something then. hehe

Windows 11 is more resource hungry than Windows 10
 
TBH fixing this potentially involves using process explorer to look into the thread activity of the process and see what calls are being made.

Windows 10/11 is poor for stuff like this - I spend far too much of my time fixing such issues :(
 
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hornetstinger said:
So you recommend to do something then. hehe

Windows 11 is more resource hungry than Windows 10
Click to expand...
Yea i knew that wasn't great wording when i wrote it but it was late and i couldn't think of how to put it better. :)
Rroff said:
TBH fixing this potentially involves using process explorer to look into the thread activity of the process and see what calls are being made.
Click to expand...
Yea, Process Monitor was going to be my next suggestion if nothing obvious was causing it but i didn't want to go into the details of what/how to look for potential signs of what maybe causing it as trying to sift through the captures from it can be a bit overwhelming.
 
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hornetstinger said:
Windows 11 is more resource hungry than Windows 10
Click to expand...
That is utterly nonsense and 100% false.

I am using Windows 11 for over a year now since beta test Insider build back in June 2021 and was used Windows 10 for 7 years since beta test Technical Preview build back in October 2014.

I noticed big difference with Windows 10 and 11, Windows 10 was more resource hungry and CPU hungry than Windows 11. Prior upgrade to Windows 11, I noticed everytime PC boot and at idle Windows 10 used 20% memory usage, 150 Windows processes and more CPU resources running tasks, Chrome, Edge and Firefox browsers etc then dropped to 10% CPU normal usage. Opened 5 to 10 File Explorer windows will used lots of memory resources. Now on Windows 11 22H2 at idle after boot PC used only 18% memory usage, 102 Windows processes and low CPU usage running tasks, Chrome, Edge and Firefox browsers etc then dropped down up to 5% CPU normal usage. File Explorer now have tab support, opened 5 to 10 tabs used far less memory resources than Windows 10.

Windows 11 is more effective than Windows 10 and Windows 11 22H2 is much smoother than 21H2.
 
AthlonXP1800 said:
That is utterly nonsense and 100% false.

I am using Windows 11 for over a year now since beta test Insider build back in June 2021 and was used Windows 10 for 7 years since beta test Technical Preview build back in October 2014.

I noticed big difference with Windows 10 and 11, Windows 10 was more resource hungry and CPU hungry than Windows 11. Prior upgrade to Windows 11, I noticed everytime PC boot and at idle Windows 10 used 20% memory usage, 150 Windows processes and more CPU resources running tasks, Chrome, Edge and Firefox browsers etc then dropped to 10% CPU normal usage. Opened 5 to 10 File Explorer windows will used lots of memory resources. Now on Windows 11 22H2 at idle after boot PC used only 18% memory usage, 102 Windows processes and low CPU usage running tasks, Chrome, Edge and Firefox browsers etc then dropped down up to 5% CPU normal usage. File Explorer now have tab support, opened 5 to 10 tabs used far less memory resources than Windows 10.

Windows 11 is more effective than Windows 10 and Windows 11 22H2 is much smoother than 21H2.
Click to expand...

Memory usage is twice as much, I idle 3.8GB on the Windows 10 machine, 7GB on the W11 PC
 
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To be fair - on my laptop booting both 10 and 11 to basically the same environment

Windows 10: 159 processes, 11% memory used
Windows 11: 130 processes, 9% memory used

Both of them though take about 2-3 minutes with significant amount of background activity post the initial desktop stabilising with Windows 10 using up to 14% CPU and Windows 11 up to 22% CPU, it then takes another 5+ minutes on both of up to 6% CPU use before they stabilise to idle CPU use around 1% but even then you'll sporadically get bursts to 15% causing the fans to ramp up now and again even when "idle". With stuff like:

Edge Installer
Store Updates
Compatibility Telemetry tasks
Anti-malware tasks
Windows Installer Modules

If Windows update decides to do its thing it can easily spend 30 odd minutes there with significant background CPU and IO utilisation...

Meanwhile my Windows 7 install on a similar but older spec laptop immediately goes to 0-1% CPU use after the initial desktop loading in, background processes kick in rarely and at most push it up to 2-3% CPU use if that and does everything Windows 10 or 11 do aside from the Store stuff. Has 64 processes and 7.4% RAM use and is ultimately a far more useful system if it wasn't for the GPU being much older (had to buy a newer laptop with a 3070 for RTX support for stuff I do or I wouldn't have bothered).

Another difference between 7 and 10/11 though infrequent sometimes get a blue circle cursor in 10/11 and focus pulled from the foreground task, even games occasionally - never get that in 7.

EDIT: And I just broke Windows 11 on shutting down after testing that when something malfunctioned while trying to close tasks and got a Windows 95 like UI - always makes me chuckle. I wonder when the MS development team will pull their heads out their behinds and make an actual good OS again.
 
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hornetstinger said:
Memory usage is twice as much, I idle 3.8GB on the Windows 10 machine, 7GB on the W11 PC
Click to expand...
That about 5.4GB loads of apps, software and drivers installed on Windows 11.

My old Windows 10 used 5.7GB memory at idle and after upgraded to Windows 11 used 5GB memory at idle. Used same software and drivers like Nvidia Geforce, Corsair iCUE, VirtualBox, VMWare Workstation, Skype, Samsung Magician, Epic Games Launcher, Origin Launcher, Chrome Crash Handler, Macrium and Edge etc.

vNXOjkT.png

When cleaned installed Windows 11 22H2 used 1.6GB about 300MB less memory usage than Windows 10 1.9GB memory usage at idle.

FcAevs8.png

tdwci8A.png

Windows 10 on 32GB hard disk file used 25.16GB space after downloaded and installed 36 apps updates on Microsoft Store and updates from Windows Update, leave only 6.14GB free space.

qNvOS7J.png

Windows 11 on 32GB hard disk file used 20.1GB space after downloaded and installed 41 apps updates on Microsoft Store and updates from Windows Update, leave impressive 11.1GB free space, extra 4.96GB free space than Windows 10.

r8PO2rK.png
 
I've never understood why people care about memory usage, it's there to be used and with even half decent memory management stale data should be evicted if and when needed.

It would be great if the memory management was intelligent enough to predict what's going to be needed and fill the RAM up,
 
Done some testing and I think it's only when I plugin an external monitor. Is that normal then for the CPU to be around 22% and power usage to be high plugging into one?

There was an update to nvidia driver and Windows 10 which I installed and am on the move this weekend and had no problems with it as laptop not been plugged in to any external monitors.
 
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