Wmiprvse.exe - what is this? What if wmiprvse.exe loads the processor?

In an era when the number of processor cores is about to exceed a hundred, and dozens of RAM do not surprise anybody, few people remember the "brakes" of the computer. However, sometimes the hardware itself is reminiscent of this, when a proven and tuned system suddenly starts to work incredibly slow due to CPU usage, close to 100%.

Often this applies to the wmiprvse.exe process. What is it and what is it for? We will talk about this in this article.

Basic concepts

To begin with, this is a special system process that is responsible for controlling the connected external equipment of the computer (printer, for example). Some users who happened to see it in the task manager, immediately begin to panic, thinking about the virus infection of the machine.

But this is a normal system process necessary for the stable functioning of many Windows OS options. But do not immediately trust wmiprvse.exe. What does it mean?

Where should it be located?

The safety of this process can be considered proven only if it is located in the "right" place. More precisely, "in the neighborhood" C: \ Windows \ System32. If something similar to the name starts directly from the root directory of Windows, the likelihood of a virus infection is high. So, Norton experts point out that in the vast majority of cases W32.SillyFDC or W32.Babelloh is so disguised.

How do I know where the process starts?

You may already have noticed that it is the location of the launched application that matters. To learn it, you need to perform a few simple steps. First, press the "magic combination" Ctrl + Alt + Delete. The task manager window will appear, in which we are interested in the "processes" tab. Look for wmiprvse.exe in it. What does this give us?

Click on it with the right mouse button, and then select "Open Storage" in the context menu. That's all. This opens the folder where the process starts. We are convinced of the authenticity of the application.

Why is the process overloading the system?

It happens that the system starts to move just as it does because of wmiprvse.exe. What does it mean? Strangely enough, even the technical support of Microsoft can not give an exact answer. Users constantly describe the same situation: first everything was fine, but then for unknown reasons the process started to load the processor by 99%.

It may be due to updates to the system or the program itself, on behalf of which this application is launched. Remember, did you update the driver on a printer or other peripheral device recently. If so, you should try using the old version. Often this helps, since the very inadequate work of the process is often associated with errors in the final releases of the drivers.

By the way, how can I disable wmiprvse.exe? This is done as simply as possible: press Ctrl + Alt + Delete, then the Processes tab is selected in the task manager . Find the "scoundrel" in the list that opens, click on it with the right mouse button, and in the menu that appears, select the "End the process" item. Attention! If the processor is loaded by 90% or more, doing all these operations can take a very long time.

Take your time and do not be nervous, since the Reboot button should be used only in the most extreme case.

The viruses?

Yes, this may seem trivial, but viruses also act as a reason for processor overload. However, in this case it is not the wmiprvse.exe process itself that is to blame, but the malicious application that masks it.

To see this, use the advice to determine its normal location, which we gave above. If the result is positive (starting from the root of the disk or from the Windows folder, and not System32), you have to think about which program you will "smoke an infection".

We recommend using the products of domestic anti-virus companies: Dr.Web and Kaspersky Anti-Virus. This is due not only to their better focus precisely against the threats that are most widespread in Runet, but also with the fact that manufacturers have taken care of the availability of normal Live-CD versions.

Important! Users report that the PUP.Adware.RelevantKnowledge virus is very often to blame, which until recently, in the regular mode, was not detected by antivirus software. In the system, it often penetrated because of the old version of Flash, and then substituted for itself a normal system file. Because of this circumstance, the detection of this infection for a long time was very difficult.

By the way, in a number of cases, viruses successfully masquerade as system processes, but they are often given out by the fact that a second instance of the same application is suddenly found in the task manager. In this case, not so. If you see two wmiprvse at once, you should not immediately blame all the blame on malware. Microsoft technical support says that two of these processes can work simultaneously in the system, if they are started by different services or some utilities.

In other cases…

What to do if wmiprvse.exe loads the processor "under the string," but is not a virus? You will have to be patient and methodically calculate the program, on behalf of which it is launched. This is done simply, but the work is rather methodical and tedious.

Press the combination of keys Win + R, and then in the appeared field for input you enter command MSConfig. We are interested in the "Startup" tab. Remove the checkboxes from all programs, except one (random), click on "OK". Agree to reboot.

After that, check how the process behaves. If everything is fine (or if it does not exist at all), you repeat the whole procedure again, in the "Startup" including the following program. So do until the culprit is overloaded. After that, you should act on the situation. If the program is necessary, try to install a fresh or older version. If not, it is better to remove it altogether. As a rule, after this the problem disappears.

If it's not about programs

How to be, if wmiprvse.exe (wmi provider host) does not depend on the programs, and their disconnection does not give any results at all? In this case, it's time to take up the service. Again press on Win + R, again we enter a command. At this time, go to the "Services" tab. All subsequent actions are similar to those about which we wrote above.

In addition, do not be lazy to disable gadgets (on the desktop). User reviews show that often the ill-fated process starts to load the computer just after installing some weather application or something like that.

If you have not forgotten, wmiprvse.exe (which is the process, we have already figured out) is also responsible for the connected peripherals. Try to turn off the printer, the scanner and all available equipment, and then observe the developments.

Updates

As early as the beginning of the article, we said that such problems can begin immediately shortly after some updating of the system. If this is the case in your case, we recommend that you delete all patches that came in, then put them one at a time (similar to programs or services). That update, because of which the process begins to behave inadequately, must be deleted again.

Important! If the process is standard, in some cases it can occur and overload the processor when connecting some equipment (GPRS modem, for example) via the COM port. In this case, panic and worry is especially not worth it: if such an effect is observed within a few seconds, then there is nothing wrong with that. However, you can try to replace the modem driver with a newer one or an older one. As we have already said, in a number of cases this proves to be quite effective.

Thus, it is quite possible to cope with this problem, but this will take time and patience.