What's eating my CPU in idle?

[AusWolf]

I've noticed that my CPU usage crawls up to 15% (1 core) when I leave my computer alone for a while. I've been trying to track down what it is, but as soon as I start moving the mouse, it settles back to 1-2%. Task manager says it's the process called "System" which isn't saying a lot. Can it be Windows Defender? Or Windows Update? What else can cause similar behaviour? All telemetry that can be turned off is turned off. Is there another setting somewhere that I should change? System specs in my profile.

 

[Soup`]

It's most likely to be Automatic Maintenance. You can turn it off through the registry. Be warned that turning it off might make your system slower over time since it performs things like disk defrag and other optimizations when you're not using the system.

How to turn off Automatic Maintenance in Windows?

Windows comes with a feature known as automatic maintenance. This feature run maintenance tasks in the background on their scheduled timings. The

appuals.com

 

[thesmokingman]

I've noticed that my CPU usage crawls up to 15% (1 core) when I leave my computer alone for a while. I've been trying to track down what it is, but as soon as I start moving the mouse, it settles back to 1-2%. Task manager says it's the process called "System" which isn't saying a lot. Can it be Windows Defender? Or Windows Update? What else can cause similar behaviour? All telemetry that can be turned off is turned off. Is there another setting somewhere that I should change? System specs in my profile.

Figure out which process it is first, like is that drilled down to the actual process? Btw "System" loads drivers and you'll prob have to drill into that with event tracker to figure out which may be causing this issue if it is.

 

[AusWolf]

It's most likely to be Automatic Maintenance. You can turn it off through the registry. Be warned that turning it off might make your system slower over time since it performs things like disk defrag and other optimizations when you're not using the system.

How to turn off Automatic Maintenance in Windows?

Windows comes with a feature known as automatic maintenance. This feature run maintenance tasks in the background on their scheduled timings. The

appuals.com

Hmm... I guess I'd better leave it, then (and move the mouse every now and then during a Cinebench run).

 

[Bill_Bright]

Hmm... I guess I'd better leave it

A wise move.

Note that behavior is normal. Windows and some other programs intentionally wait until you, the user, and the computer are idle so they can perform scans, check for and/or install updates, and perform other "housekeeping" chores (like indexing, wear-leveling tasks or defragging hard drives) during times that will not bother you. That's a good thing and why many, including yours truly, recommend users just walk away and allow our systems to go to sleep instead of powering them off every day. That's my advice to you too. When doing with your computing session, just walk away and let Windows and your installed programs do their thing to keep your computer (and its security) updated. After all, keeping the OS and our security programs fully updated is a major component of "practicing safe computing", and a key step in keeping the computer (and us users) safe and secure.

BTW, 15% utilization is no big deal. If it was pegging out at 100% and staying there, then I would be concerned.

 

[chrcoluk]

I've noticed that my CPU usage crawls up to 15% (1 core) when I leave my computer alone for a while. I've been trying to track down what it is, but as soon as I start moving the mouse, it settles back to 1-2%. Task manager says it's the process called "System" which isn't saying a lot. Can it be Windows Defender? Or Windows Update? What else can cause similar behaviour? All telemetry that can be turned off is turned off. Is there another setting somewhere that I should change? System specs in my profile.

Its Microsoft stuff.

They are a fan of running things when idle, and it really annoys me.

The most recent it happened to me, it was grinding on 3 of my drives at once, some serious data harvesting lol.

 

[Mussels]

Windows waits til you're idle for a whole bunch of cleanup stuff

Defragmentation, TRIM, compressing old windows updates to save disk space, "Dot.net cleanup" (whatever that is, i've seen it a few times) and so on.
It's always worth investigating in case its malware, but the windows tasks continue until they're done, and then they're gone. Malware goes on forever.


Oh one common mistake i see is the people who hoard everything on their desktop, and then the windows indexer has to index it all - and that ends up in a never ending background task. (This also triggers 'quick' antivirus scans to have to cover all that data too) - hell even onedrive can try and back those files up causing CPU and internet usage.