High Windows 7 CPU usage - what to do?
If you seem to have a high CPU usage and thus a significant loss of performance under Windows 7 for no reason, there are several possible causes. Three approaches are presented here.
High CPU usage due to a virus
You may have a virus on your PC. To check this, you can do the following:
- Open Task Manager by pressing [CTRL] + [ALT] + [Del] and then clicking "Open Task Manager".
- Sort the list of processes by clicking on the "CPU" tab.
- If you are idle, none of the processes should have high CPU usage. So try to find the process that is responsible for CPU usage. If you don't find one, you probably have a virus on your PC, because they know how to hide from Task Manager.
- So run your virus scanner to find the virus.
High CPU usage due to the autostart programs
The high CPU usage may be caused by the software that starts together with Windows.
- Perform steps 1 and 2 from above to open the Task Manager with the CPU tab
- Look for processes that require a lot of CPU power.
- Press the Windows key + [R], enter "msconfig" in the window that appears.
- Go to the "System start" tab and see if you can find one of the processes here that currently requires a lot of CPU power.
- You can exclude this from the autostart by removing the tick on the left. But be careful: you should not remove your virus scanner or backup program from the autostart. However, some of them still require a lot of CPU power.
High CPU usage due to svchost.exe
By installing a library incorrectly, a senseless but CPU-intensive process can start in AppData: svchost.exe. This should not be confused with the windows-own svchost.exe.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 from above.
- If the svchost.exe process is at the top, continue.
- Press the Windows key + [R], enter "% appdata%" in the window that appears.
- In the Explorer window that appears, locate the "dll" folder and, if it exists, delete the "svchost.exe" file from it.
- As an alternative, you can also download WinFuture, as the high load can be attributed to an error in the update function.
- Help is also offered here by the update WinFuture, which you can download either as a full version or as an upgrade.
The last resort: More performance thanks to the new CPU
If the tips mentioned do not help, your processor is most likely too old and weak for Windows 7. In this case, you should consider buying a new one.
- Of course, it doesn't have to be an Intel i7 for 1, 000 euros. Our best list of CPUs already contains good entry-level processors for less than 30 euros.
- Gamers and graphic designers, on the other hand, use the balanced middle class. This includes, for example, the AMD FX-9370 for less than 200 euros.
To get even more information about running processes you can use the Free Extended Task Manager. Before troubleshooting, you should also check whether the option "Balanced" or "Energy-saving mode" but not "Maximum performance" is selected under "Power options" in the Control Panel. If you need individual help to solve your problem, then contact the experts in the CHIP forum.