How To Fix Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) High CPU Usage - Windows Basics

Latest

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

How To Fix Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) High CPU Usage

Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) is a Microsoft service that runs with Windows OS by default. It manages your Windows desktop.
This service allows Windows to load visual effects such as transparency and icons on your desktop. It also controls how live thumbnails are displayed when you navigate various Windows components.
Windows also uses this service when you connect a high resolution external display.
It’s a critical service that manages your desktop. Disabling it may hinder regular Windows experience.
How to know if dwm.exe is working normally on PC?
Although Windows OS has come a long way when it comes to visual effects, it can still become a nuisance.
Usually, this service should consume minimal resources. Most of the times, it uses less than 2% CPU and under 50 MB RAM. That’s pretty normal for a service that renders visual effects.
READ  System and Compressed Memory — Fix 100% Data Usage for Windows 10 CPU
If you are wondering where to find these stats for Desktop Window Manager on your PC, follow the steps below.
1. Click Start button on your desktop and search Task Manager
2. Alternatively, press Windows key + R key to open Run dialogue, type taskmgr.exe, and press Enter on your keyboard
3. Once Services window shows up, locate Desktop Window Manager
How to Disable the Desktop Window Manager on Windows 10?
It is extremely simple for you to stop the Desktop Window Manager service. If you feel like to do that, just obey the following procedures.
1. Press Windows Key+ R to activate the Run box.
2. Type in service.msc in the box and click OK to run the Service window.
3. In Services, locate Desktop Window Manager and right click it to open its Properties.
4. In Properties window for the Desktop Window Manager, under pinpoint Startup type under General tab, choose to see it as Disabled.
5. Restart your computer to take effect.
Fix Desktop Window Manager DWM.exe High CPU Usage
Solution 1: Change Wallpaper and Theme
As you have been told, Desktop Window Manager is used to manage desktop utilization. So if the high CPU is caused by the DWM.exe on Windows 10 (as you can check it in task manager), you can try to make some adjustments for some related settings, such as desktop wallpaper and theme.
1. Right click your Desktop and choose Personalize from the list.
2. In the left pane, pick out Theme and then Apply a theme to your computer.
Here you can also manage to change Background, Colors, Lock screen and Taskbar, too.
Then close this Personize Settings window and open Task Manager to check the CPU usage again. Maybe the Desktop Window Manager high CPU error is corrected for Windows 10.
Solution 2: Adjust for Best Performance
As for the performance issues concerning the high CPU caused by the DWM.exe, there is another way available for you. To be more specific, it is to tinker the performance options.
1. Go to Control Panel.
2. In Control Panel, search Performance in the search box.
Then choose to Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows from the results.

3. In Performance Options, under Virtual Effects, pick out Adjust for best performance. Then hit OK.
Solution 3: Troubleshoot Windows Performance
If the ways above are infeasible for you to solve the DWM.exe high CPU issue on Windows 10, try to troubleshoot with the windows command.
1. Search Command Prompt in the search box and right click the best-matched result to Run as administrator.
2. In Command Prompt, type in the command below and then press Enter to perform it.
msdt.exe /id PerformanceDiagnostic
3. The Performance window would pop up. Click Next to continue the performance troubleshooting.
If lucky, Windows 10 would inform you of the specific performance errors. Maybe it can also fix it and in this case, the high CPU in Desktop Window Manager will disappear from your PC.
Solution 4: Scan for Malware or Virus
It is held that the Desktop Window Manager is an official Microsoft service for Windows system, it is anything but virus on Windows 10. But the case is some malware or applications replace it.
That is way though running in the background, sometimes, the DWM.exe can cause so high CPU on your PC.
To be safer, it is not advised that you decide to scan your computer with any third-party software.
You are to make full use of Windows Defender, the Windows 10 built-in tool for protection to scan for virus.
1. Click Start button and then input Windows Defender in the search box.
2. Hit Enter to open the Windows Defender Security Center.
3. Choose Virus & threat protection in Windows Defender.
In the searching result, Windows Defender Security Center would let you know which software is accompanied by viruses or threat for Windows 10.
Once it prompts you any problematic applications, manage to uninstall it in Control Panel.
Apart from the effective solutions to deal with the Desktop Window Manager (DWM.exe) high CPU usage on Windows 10, some users would rather know the way to disable it permanently as so to let this high CPU issue perish.
Solution 5: Updating Graphics Driver
If all the above solutions don’t produce any improvement, we can try updating your graphics drivers. Graphics hardware is responsible for visual representations on your computer. If the drivers are outdated or corrupted, they can be causing the high CPU usage. Navigate to your manufacturer’s website and download the drivers to an accessible location.
1. Pressing Windows key + R to launch the Run application and typing devmgmt.msc.
2. Right-click on the adapter and select Update Driver.
3. Now a new window will pop up asking you to whether update the driver manually or automatically. Select Browse my computer for driver software.
4. Now browse through the folders to where you downloaded the drivers. Select it and Windows will install the required drivers. Restart your computer and check if the problem got solved.

No comments:

Post a Comment