How can I see the process that brings my PC to a crawl?

What version of Windows are you on? Wonder if this is the same as my issue. It only happens every so often (2 to 3 days) and doesn't last long but i can't right click on Taskbars or anything

It happens as you say, @AntJac. But this is another story which I've learned to live with. Indeed, there are random times when the system simply halts any activity, allowing only the cursor position to be updated. No spikes in CPU or Disk I/O and this is what is frustrating. BTW this cursor thing changed in update 1709; now the cursor update priority seems equal to that of the UI (progress bars).

Back to the matter at hand:
Every time any CPU demanding application runs, it looks like the CPU load doubles.
One part is reflected in the app percentage as expected and there's another part which adds to that unknown difference. It's as if something outside the system bears the hardest burden of that application or extra burden, leaving the application itself with a reasonably high load.

So how can we know what is responsible for the said difference?

Speccy
Download Speccy 1.31.732 - FileHippo.com


1. File > Save Snapshot. This will create a file called [hostname].speccy
2. File > Publish Snapshot. This saves your snapshot to their servers
3 Copy and Paste the link to your next Reply


Step 2:
Click on Start menu
Type in cmd
Right click on cmd in list and select run as administrator
Copy and Paste the commands into the command window
sfc /scannow
(Windows 8 or higher)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
(Windows 7 or lower)
dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:C:\Windows /LimitAccess
(Change C:\Windows to correct path of source)



When these have completed.
Right click on the top bar command window
Left click on Edit then Select Alloesnt
Right click on the top bar again
Left click on edit then copy
paste into your reply


If any Errors:
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"
Upload sfcdetails.txt


Step 3:
Download Process Explorer
Process Explorer - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs


1. Save it to your desktop then run it. Right Click and Select Run As Administrator
2. Select View Menu Click Select Columns
3. In the Select Columns Window Check Verified Signer and Click OK
4. Select Options Menu and Check Verify Image Signatures
5. Double Click o the CPU Column to sort by highest CPU usage.
(System Idle Process should be at the top once sorted properly)
6. Wait approximately a minute
7. Select Save or Save As from the File Menu and save System Idle Process.txt to Desktop
8. Upload the file to your Reply


Step 4:
Please download and Run the Event Viewer Tool by Vino Rosso
http://images.malwareremoval.com/vino/VEW.exe


1. Right click on Vew.exe program and select Run as Administrator
2.. Under Select log to query
3. select System
4. Under Select type to list
Select:
* Error
* Warning
Choose the Number of events as follows:
Click on umber of events
Type 20 in the box (1 to 20)
Click the Run button (Notepad will open the log)
upload files to next reply
Rename to SystemLog.txt or it will be overwritten


Run these steps again Except at step 3.
Select Application
Rename log file to ApplicationLog.txt
Upload or Paste to next reply


Next Steps if Needed