Windows 10: Processes causing high CPU use in Windows 10

Hello.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that since I upgraded a laptop to Windows 10, the CPU fan kept running on high all the time. I found out the cause of the problem were these two background processes:

From Microsoft Background Task Host - backgroundTaskHost.exe

From Microsoft Download/Upload Host - BackgroundTransferHost.exe

They are both located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder and whenever they run, which happens at seemingly random times, CPU utilization goes up to 60 or even 80%.

Does anybody know what these processes are for, or how to disable them to prevent them from running?

Thank you.

:)

 

Processes causing high CPU use

The amount of post-install work must indeed be significant, because I've had Windows 10 for a week and these processes have been running every day, the whole time the computer is on, and they never stop (not by themselves, I mean). This is strange to me.
There must be a very, very, very large amount of work to do if it's taking this long for these processes to finish it... or if they actually need the computer to be otherwise idle for 12 hours.

I also want to note that Windows 10 doesn't seem slow to me, at all. The high CPU use is the only problem I've had with it so far. This is either abnormal behaviour or poor design.

 

Processes causing high CPU use

That's the cause of the problem, when you kill them like that, they have to start the work over entirely and it'll just take even longer. These are processes that finish building install caches, optimizing system files, and downloading patches (among
other things).

 

Process Explorer should tell you what the problem is.

 

Go to Settings, Update & security, Windows Update, Advanced options,
Choose how updates are delivered, Updates from more than one place.

Turn the switch OFF.

Now your laptop won't be revving the CPU to share updates in the background with other computers.

 

Yes, I do have that program, thank you.

But I'm not trying to determine which processes are causing high CPU use. I already know it's those two processes. Rather, I want to find out if I can prevent them from running.

It did occur to me that it had something to do with that setting. So the switch is already off, but they keep popping up.

 

With the switch set to OFF your laptop will still get updates, it just won't share them with anyone else.

 

It's probably something in your startup disable everything but your AV.

 

No, I meant the processes still pop up, as in the Task Manager.

 

Well, I still haven't found out what these two processes are for. One reply that I did get in another forum saying that these processes "finish building install caches, optimizing system files, and downloading patches" seemed very vague.

I also found other instances of people noticing a process called "Photos Background Task Host" use up a lot of CPU, and another one who noticed a process called "Facebook Background Task Host" in Windows 8.1, although this one did not specifically mention that there was a high CPU use.

Could these two processes have something to do with Windows Store apps? Who can tell me... ?

 

Yes, they do what they say on the tin: host apps running in the background.

Go to: Settings->Privacy->Background Apps and turn all that nasty crap off.

Restart your PC and see if the situation has improved.

If not then something else is running in the background.

 

If I turn "all that nasty crap" off, will apps still be useable, update and the like when I use them? I don't need these apps working in the background, but I want them to work as usual when used.

 

They will work, but any updates in Facebook or mail or anything won't get updated until you show them in the foreground. At background those apps are in suspended state like in Windows 8.1. See my Win 10 screenshot to know what I mean:

 

Well, I've disabled everything there is to disable and these two processes are still showing up. I really don't think there's anything else I can do, save for deleting the two files.

 

If you are still having a problem you might try ESET online scanner. I solved high memory usage by finding a virus that no other scanner found.

http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanne...008aAmTJ8P8HAQ