CPU always at 100%; multiple copies of programs

Hi,

Having more than one antivirus running on your system, leads to poor performance. Windows 10 ships with it's own antimalware solution (Defender) and it do the job.

First, I would suggest to uninstall Avast and Malwarebyte, then start scanning your system for malware using Windows Defender.

Eve11 said:

There are also countless svchosts.exe (over 50)

That, at least, I can assure you is normal. I've just counted 72 on mine.

Starting with the Creators Update (1703) where previously groups of related processes were run under one svchost, now each gets it's own svchost. There aren't actually any more processes running, it just look like more because you can now see them listed individually.

Microsoft said:

Beginning with Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703), services that were previously grouped will instead be separated - each will run in its own SvcHost process. This change is automatic for systems with more than 3.5 GB of RAM running the Client Desktop SKU. On systems with 3.5 GB or less RAM, we'll continue to group services into a shared SvcHost process.
Benefits of this design change include:

• Increased reliability by insulating critical network services from the failure of another non-network service in the host...

...Instance counts can typically range from approximately 17-21 for grouped services, and 67-74 for separated services.

https://docs.microsoft.com/windows/a...ce-refactoring

So you see, our large number of svchosts is what Microsoft say we should expect to see. In fact, your 50+ is a little on the low side :)

Eve11 said:

...why are programs like Dropbox and most other apps using the 32 version even though I have a newer machine?

For Dropbox, it's because they don't make a 64-bit version. 32-bit apps run fine on 64-bit Windows, and unless an app needs the huge address space that 64-bits allows (eg. enormous Excel spreadsheets) there's no pressing commercial reason to develop both a 32 and 64 bit version. Many other apps will only have a 32-bit version.

At the moment there is not 64bit for windows...

Dropbox Forum | Solved: Is there a 64bit beta for windows?

Eve11 said:

Thanks for the responses everyone. I was thinking of uninstalling Avast, as that is one thing that shows up in multiple instances. Has anyone ever seen that, 100% CPU, column in red?

Don't use Avast so can't comment, others may be able to help there...

I just wish I knew what was what since there are multiple pids rapidly changing all over the place....

Just click on the top of the PID column to sort the list by PID (works for all the columns).

...when I looked in my programs and programs (x86) folders, it looks like there are some of the same programs in each. Why would it download two copies of the same program?

Not sure, but they must think it makes sense. Even Microsoft do that, look for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Silverlight...

I think I will try to post a screenshot of my CPU usage screen. I had previously never seen it go much above 50%, let alone be parked at 100.

Task Manager's Details tab and Processes tab, sorted in descending order of CPU would be useful too.

I often see my cpu permanently at 100%, but then I regularly do heavy-duty video processing in the background, so I know the reason why :)