Windows Processes Utilizing Too Much of the CPU

Question

I have a 4yr old Dell Vostro 1540 laptop with an i3 M380 and 4GB RAM. I only perform light tasks e.g. web browsing, document reading & editing, light Photoshop...,thus I don't need a newer laptop. I recently upgraded the OS from Windows 7 Home to 8.1 Pro. There are two processes that once in a while use too much of the CPU(~50% by themselves) even when the computer is idle thus drastically reducing the time I can spend not plugged in: 'Host Process for Windows Tasks'(taskhost.exe) & 'Windows Modules Installer Worker'(TiWorker.exe) . I never had this problem with Windows 7. I have two questions: 1. What do each of these two processes do? 2. Is it safe to stop them?

Solution

From taskhost.exe consumes 50-60% of cpu

The taskhost.exe is a Task Host which is a generic Host Process for Windows 7 32-bit Services. The full path to this file should be shown in TUT as C:\Windows\System32\Taskhost.exe.

TASKHOST is a generic process which acts as a host for processes that run from DLLs rather than EXEs. At startup TASKHOST checks the Services portion of the Registry to construct a list of DLL-based services that it needs to load, and then loads them. There can be many instances of TASKHOST running, as there will be one instance of TASKHOST for every DLL-based service or grouping of services (the grouping of services is determined by the programmers who wrote the services in question).

Since this is an integral part of the operating system, I wouldn’t suggest you to delete it. However, for the high CPU consumption issue, please use Performance Monitor to view performance data either in real time or from a log file.

The new Resource Monitor lets you view detailed real-time information about hardware resources (CPU, disk, network, and memory) and system resources (including handles and modules) in use by the operating system, services, and running applications. In addition, you can use Resource Monitor to stop processes, start and stop services, analyze process deadlocks, view thread wait chains, and identify processes locking files.

A closer look:
View CPU utilization and other performance information
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/View-CPU-utilization-and-other-performance-information
See details about your computer's performance using Task Manager
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/See-details-about-your-computers-performance-using-Task-Manager

Last but not the least, perform virus scan to remove any trace of infection on your computer. If your antivirus database is not updated, please update the same and then run the scan. If you don't have antivirus installed, you may opt to download Microsoft Security Essentials on your computer and run it.

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

---

From Windows 8 high disk usage caused by Tiworker.exe

TiWorker.exe is Windows Modules Installer Worker. It is related to Windows Updates.

Method 1: I would suggest you to run system and maintenance trobulshooter and see if that helps.

a) Press Windows key + W key on your desktop.
b) Write Troubleshooting in the search box on the upper right hand corner.
c) Select the Troubleshooting option obtained after the search.
d) Click on View All option present on the top left corner.
e) Select the System Maintenance.
f) Click on Next to perform the System Maintenance troubleshooter and follow the steps.

Method 2: To resolve the issue with TiWorker.exe, check for updates in Windows Updates and install them.

a. Click on the Windows + X keys and select Control Panel.
b. Click on Windows Updates, in Large Icons View.
c. In the left panel, click on Check for updates.

Method 3: Perform a Clean Boot (KB929135) to see if there is any software conflict as clean boot helps to eliminate software conflicts.

Note: Follow How to reset the computer to start as usual after troubleshooting with clean boot from article KB929135 to reset the computer to normal mode.

For reference: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-8/improve-pc-performance http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-8/improve-performance-optimizing-hard-drive

Note: This tool deletes unnecessary or temporary files on your hard drive so you can increase the amount of free storage space.