Windows 10: Cortana background task host resource hogging

Hey all
i have been having a problem with the cortana background task host. It seems to take up a lot of the CPU and disk after i have used either itunes or windows media player.

I have no idea how long this has been going since i only noticed as i have other issues with itunes. I have provided some screenshots of both task manager and resource monitor. Sometimes it does eventually go away and return to normal though sometimes it does not and when the PC is restarted normally the process does behave itself (the first 2 screenshots of each program were taken after i restarted).

I should say that i have disabled all the cortana settings that you can after the anniversary update and that if i run a for example of viral scan the process returns to normal and all programs and windows 10 are all up to date and i have antiviral scans using 3 programs which found nothing and have encountered the same problem when i clean boot. I hope i have provided all the information needed to see if this is serious or whether i'm being paranoid (which if its the case you have permission to laugh at me).

:)

 

Cortana Background Task Host

cpu is using 100% usage after installing Itunes. cortana background task host is taking all the resources and running in the background. i tried uninstalling Itunes. My problem is solved. And also make sure disabling all cortana settings.

 

Cortana Background Task Host

Mighty and all the community members...

I have been worried about this issue for several days, I am finally trying this background prevention.

So far, the Cortana Background Task Host hasn't showed at all and stopped consuming resources.

I am only concerned about mail, calendar, contacts, wheater and other apps that run backgrounded for automatically update data... If not working, for instance not getting mail notifications, then how shall we live with Cortana's resources burnning feast?

 

Hi, just a quick thought from your 3rd screenshot (thanks for providing these)..
This suggests to me you have an extensive music collection being catalogued (or whatever it is Groove does with music files).

I suggest you disable music cataloguing and see what effect that has.




I've never let that happen so I can't comment from personal experience. (However I can say that if you say
Hey, Cortana, play some music
with nothing catalogued, the response demonstrates a certain lack of thought by MS!)


The first screenshot requires technical analysis to discover what servicehost.exe is doing.
Here's a starter for 10:
What Is svchost.exe and Why Is It Running?

 

I'am a bit of a audiophile I have ~ 2000 songs in my iTunes library

 

That's ok- but I suggest you disable Groove's indexing of them in trying to discover what's happening here.
(I've 60Gb or so of classical + selected Chinese pop and more...)

 

I should say i have a 39GB combined itunes library but the attachment you posted wasn't valid so it wouldn't open

 

Redone.. odd, it looked ok in Edit mode.

 

it does appear that the music cataloging was the culprit. i haven't tried doing what made it go real beserk such as app updates on itunes so i won't mark it as solved yet but thanks fo the assist. My guess is that itunes downloads everything (in my case songs and apps since i stream my tv shows from icloud) into the music folder and that groove then scans the apps as well since some of them (like hearthstone) are rather beefy.

 

Good. For amusement (?) this is what happens when, with no music catalogued by Groove, I say
'Hey Cortana, play some music'
'All right, playing your music'

 

that was probably from system mechanic's memory mechanic since i had just done a RAM defragment on my PC

 

Mine does similar. Whenever I close iTunes I notice cortana background host runs about 10% for about 30 secs in the aftermath. I have about 4000 songs locally stored in the PC / iTunes library. It always happens and I haven't added any new songs in months!