Comments for How do I find out what program is using all my CPU?

Comment from David Cox on 2012-01-16

2012-01-16T19:26:14Z

Using either Task Manager or Process Explorer, with nothing open except one IE page (yours), System Idle Process ranges for the CPU column as 75-95. Your comments indicate this is a percentage. Under the Performance tab, the graphics for CPU Usage and CPU Usage History are ranging 0-40-50%. And, at the bottom of Task Manager the number of prcesses open is indicated along with Commit Charge and CPU Usage in a range of 5-18%. What are the difference between the two CPU usage percentages then? I still have not been able to figure out why some execute files such as iexplore.exe, explore.exe, taskmgr.exe also keep bouncing around with different CPU and Mem Usage numbers. Thank you.

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Comment from Bombay Granny on 2010-04-22

2010-04-22T12:49:32Z

OK, I've found the cause, but how do I tell if this is something that can be removed, deleted, disabled, etc.? I don't know enough to know what might disable or even crash my machine.

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Comment from Nicholas Gimbrone on 2010-04-21

2010-04-22T00:27:05Z

Few things any of us do really uses much of the CPU (burning DVDs, movie editing, etc are some examples that do)... most of the time when you have a performance problem it is from another source than pure CPU usage. Four primary culprits are: disk access contention; memory saturation; network saturation; lock contention. My home systems are almost always at 100% CPU usage with no problems as we use background processes doing real science: see http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ for more information.

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Comment from Steve Bukosky on 2010-04-20

2010-04-20T16:55:39Z

This is great. It should help me determine why my wife's computer is so slow, before I do a clean reinstall of everything.

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Comment from Frank D on 2010-04-20

2010-04-20T16:29:20Z

Time after time over the past 10 years of using WinXP (now SP3) I've found that it's always the "DNS Client" service that's taking up all my (single) CPU's cycles after a Windows Update. Simply disabling that service whenever I see _svchost_ going berserk immediately brings my computer back to its normal operating state, and there are absolutely no negative consequences in terms of web-surfing. Try it and see if it works for you.

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Comment from Richard Collins on 2010-04-20

2010-04-20T15:57:09Z

What about the dire warning you get when you elect to kill a process? Overkill? I have experienced a serious crash after killing a running process.

Yep, that depends entirely on the process you're killing, which is why you must be warned. Some are benign, others are critical. Process Explorer can't know the ramifications, so it must warn.

22-Apr-2010

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Comment from Faldor on 2010-01-09

2010-01-09T17:21:09Z

So svchost.exe uses up a lot by providing services to other programs. How do I know which program is the culprit calling svchost to do all the work? I've looked in Process Explorer and seen scvhost.exe with no underlying executable (unlike when Windows Update uses it). I've tried svchost Viewer but that once again only lists the modules that instance of svchost is responsible for. Thoughts?

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Comment from Rita on 2009-01-22

2009-01-22T14:21:49Z

Is there a way to actually specify which program gets to use all of the CPU? When I used a Mac years ago, we were able to designate more memory to the program we used the most. Can Windows Vista or XP do anything like that?

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Comment from Ryan on 2008-08-03

2008-08-03T16:01:28Z

Wow, this is an amazing problem, found one computer had the update problem, and another has the error from HP's program.

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Comment from Cheryl on 2008-02-29

2008-03-01T02:44:38Z

Where do I go to find out what Browser I am using? I am NOT Computer Knowledgeable, so please help me. Some of the programs I want to use do not function and it all depends on what Browser I have.

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Comment from Peter Robinson on 2007-04-30

2007-05-01T00:28:09Z

At Last Leo
Thank you I've been Hoping this type of program would pop up.
Now when my computer freezes or slows down I can find out why
Pete

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Comment from Michael Horowitz on 2007-04-30

2007-04-30T22:11:48Z

I agree with Leo, Process Explorer is invaluable. So much so that I have it set to run automatically at startup time (minimized to the system tray).

I use PE with the display sorted by process name. This keeps things from jumping around like they do when sorted by cpu usage. It also gets rid of the process tree display which is of no use to me. The only down side to this is that if you have many processes, the one using the most cpu may not fit in the display and you'll have to scroll down to see it.

And, I get rid of the lower half of the display which is also of no use to me. There is button on the toolbar for this - it is referred to as the lower panel.

Click on View -> Select columns. PE is a wealth of information.

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-04-30

2007-04-30T19:29:43Z

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What browser are you using?

Leo
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Comment from Bombay Granny on 2007-04-29

2007-04-29T23:04:50Z

Very useful and easy to understand. I've printed this article for myself because I need the hard copy of multiple-step instructions right in front of me as I'm doing whatever. But as with so many Web pages, the meat of the article printed in such tiny print that I'm having a devil of a time reading it. My 8 1/2 x 11 page is full, I didn't have to shrink it to fit, and under my View category, I've clicked on the Largest type size, but none of this helps the pages to print the type in a larger size. This is only for Web pages and email. Word and Excel documents print whatever size I tell them to print. Suggestions, please. My printer is an hp 7660 and I know how to change things in the printer only through the pages I can reach when I click on the Print button. Thanks for any help you can give me.

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A comment on: How do I find out what program is using all my CPU?

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Comment from Bill on 2007-04-29

2007-04-29T21:28:56Z

Got that program after reading about on your newsletter and I find it a great boone to getting info on what is going on and where all the named processes are.Thanks for great leads.
Bill

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-04-28

2007-04-29T05:07:07Z

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Joseph: a garage mechanic can't fix a car without seeing it. There are SO many
reasons that a program might suck up all the CPU there is no one, single
solution. All that mechanic-at-a-distance can do is provide you with some tools
to help diagnose the problem yourself.

What this article does is provide a way for you to gather perhaps the most
important clue: to figure out what program is taking all the CPU. That could be
any of 100's programs, and the next steps to fixing the problem will depend on
what program that is.

Leo
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A comment on: How do I find out what program is using all my CPU?

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-04-28

2007-04-29T04:54:35Z

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It jumps around because which programs are using the CPU changes. Every second
process explorer updates the list to be in the current most-used CPU usage
order. You can adjust the update speed if you like using the View->Update Speed
menu item. Or you can click on the CPU column again to get things sorted by
name.

Leo
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Comment from wlc network on 2007-04-28

2007-04-28T10:13:30Z

Re: Posted by: Dell at April 27, 2007 08:46 PM

If you simply left-click on any column heading, OTHER than CPU, the the list will stop jumping around like banshees.
Regards
Bill

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Comment from Joseph Goodof on 2007-04-28

2007-04-28T09:39:39Z

Processing power... Unless I missed something,you've explained how this effects a slowing of PC operation... but how does one cure it....Telling me, by a garage mechanic why my car does what it does is not much help unless someone tells me how to fix it....Most of us are not too interested in "why"... just how can it be remedied?

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Comment from Fred on 2007-04-27

2007-04-28T04:52:09Z

Sometimes when a process begins hogging CPU, it locks the computer and nothing can be done to trace it. There is one solution to this, a free program called Process Tamer http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/proctamer/index.html
It limits CPU usage for individual programs effectively preventing your PC from seizing.
While you're checking it out, check out the rest of Donation Coder, they are a very good group of programmers.

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Comment from Dell on 2007-04-27

2007-04-28T03:46:10Z

Leo, I've been around the block a time or two and can make absolutely NO sense of this program. Once I click on "CPU" the list keeps jumping around like banshees. I tried to right click on one program but couldn't catch it!!

Quite frankly (and I'm no beginner) I can't figure out what it's supposed to do or how I'm supposed to run it. Any suggestions before it finds the bottom of my recycle bin?

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Comment from Ken on 2007-04-25

2007-04-25T20:28:49Z

D'oh! That's what I get for not reading the article as thoroughly as I should have. I missed the part about "here's how to get the list of services..."

Thanks.

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-04-25

2007-04-25T20:14:32Z

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Sure. Download and use Process Explorer as described in the article.

Leo
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Comment from Ken on 2007-04-25

2007-04-25T14:51:12Z

Speaking of multiple svchost processes...

Is it possible to know which svchost process is handling which services? (This is XP Home, which doesn't have a "tasklist" command.)

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A comment on: How do I find out what program is using all my CPU?

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