[Issue Fixed] What is the WMI Provider Host? Fix High CPU Usage

WMI provider host high CPU usage windows 10
WMI Provider Host

#What is WMI Provider Host (WmiPrvSE.exe)?

WMI Provider Host (WmiPrvSE.exe) stands for Windows Management Instrumentation Provider Service. This is a Windows feature that provides a standardized way for software and administrative scripts to request information about the state of your Windows operating system. If this process stops, many of the features in your PC will become useless. On top of all, you might not even receive error notifications.

This WmiPrvSE.exe is a particularly useful feature for enterprises that centrally manage PCs, especially as information can be requested via scripts. However, even on a home PC, some software you have installed may request information about the system through the WMI interface.

#Issue & Cause of Issue

Although WMI provider host allows other applications to request for information about your system, but it should not consume much resource i.e. CPU or RAM. However sometimes WMI provider host starts using too much CPU and causes other applications to crash and affect the overall system performance.

There are several reasons why this can happen, such as corrupt system files, backdated OS, Virus etc. I have discussed several methods to resolve this issues below.

In general there are two main reasons behind this issue

#1. One or more processes are using a high number of handles

All the handles are stored in the kernel structure \BaseNamedObjects. The WMIPerfClass provider must scan this structure when creating the performance class that is related to the Job objects. If this structure is bloated because of the high number of handles, the operation will have high CPU usage and will take longer than normal.

Updating your Windows device may fix the issue, if not then follow the below troubleshooting methods

#2. One or more processes running on the system are using lots of memory

This affects the creation of the Process performance classes because the memory area of each running process will have to be queried. The memory that’s used by the process may be fragmented, and this makes the operation more resource-intensive. This happens because WMIPerfClass is also querying “Costly” performance counters.

More information regarding this and troubleshooting method is available in this Microsoft document

#Resolution – WMI Provider Host Performance


1. Update your Windows

If you are using an older version of Windows or have not updated your OS for a long time, then updating may fix the issue.

Check for windows Updates WMI provider host issue

2. Scan your PC for viruses

Some viruses may be the culprit and cause this issue. So if you have an antivirus software then, run a full PC scan. If you find any issues or corrupted software then remove them.

3. Restart WMI service

It is possible to check the status of services in PC and start/stop them as per requirement. And sometimes restarting a service may resolve issues related to it.

Similarly you can try restarting WMI service from the services manager. To open services manager, search for Services in windows start menu.

Restart WMI provider host service
Restart WMI

Note** do not stop the service as it may cause other windows apps to fail

If your PC starts to behave abnormally after restarting the service, then restart your PC as well.

4. Check Event viewer and look for WMI related errors

Right click on windows start menu and open event viewer

WMI provider host related performance issue tracking
Open event viewer

In event viewer app navigate to the below path and check for logged error reports
Logs\Microsoft\Windows\WMI-Activity\Operational

WMI provider host event viewer error logs
WMI-Activity event viewer

Note the ClientProcessId

Now open Task manager from start menu or taskbar or by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Escape
Next, open the details tab and look for the process with the same process id.

  • If you see two process with the same name but running with different process ids then stop the one which reported the error
  • If the process is related to a software which you installed recently then uninstall and reinstall the software
  • If you are not sure about the service and don’t want to stop it then leave it as it is
  • Otherwise stop/restart the service/application
stop erroneous process from Task manager WMI provider host related issue
sort by PID

That’s all I have for resolving issue related to WMI provider host performance. If you are still experiencing the issue I would recommend you to check the registry key settings as per this Microsoft document and remove unwanted monitoring applications from your PC as applicable.

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Author @ramizmollahmd

About Ramiz

Ramiz is a professional working in an MNC as a business and technology consultant for quite a few years now. Ramiz is proficient in various Microsoft tools and technologies. He is a tech enthusiast and an active blogger. Ramiz spends his free time playing games or watching movies. He writes blogs to share his knowledge with the world and to make it a better place to live.


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