If you find your programs begin to lag or the cursor moves slowly, perhaps the CPU usage of your computer is high. So, how to lower CPU usage? After reading this post, you can know some useful methods offered by MiniTool and just try them to easily reduce CPU usage.
High CPU Usage
Central Processing Unit (CPU), also known as processor, is the core of a computer and many computer components including graphics card and RAM rely on the instructions of CPU. However, CPU usage can become very high. You may find a game stutters or crashes, programs open at a snail’s pace, the cursor moves slowly, etc.
Then, you ask “why is my CPU usage so high”. The common reasons for this are background processes, malware, some specific processes, and more. Well then, how to reduce CPU usage so that your computer can run smoothly? It is easy and you can follow these methods below.
How to Lower CPU Usage
Reboot PC
Save your work and reboot your PC. This may be helpful to reduce CPU usage since a reboot can clear out temporary files. Just have a try.
End Background Processes
Your computer may have many background processes that run without opening them in a window. These processes may take up much CPU. As time goes on, they overwhelm your PC. To lower CPU usage, you can end these background processes.
Step 1: Open Task Manager and go to Processes where you can see some processes that take up high CPU. Just click them one by one and click End task.
Step 2: Go to Startup, stop the background processes from running at PC startup by clicking Disable.
In addition to background processes, some known processes always cause high CPU usage, for example, WMI Provider Host process (also known as Windows Management Instrumentation or WmiPrvSE.exe), System Idle Process, Svchost.exe, etc. To lower CPU usage, you also need to end these processes in Task Manager.
Scan for Malware
Malware may disguise as a normal Windows process to appear in Task Manager and uses up CPU. So, how to lower CPU usage? Just run a full scan with an antimalware to check for this. Windows Defender, Malwarebytes, Avast, etc. can be your good choices.
Change Power Plan
Some power settings can lead to high CPU usage and you can optimize your PC to run on a balanced mode to decrease the CPU usage.
Step 1: Go to Control Panel and click Power Options.
Step 2: Change the power plan to Balanced (recommended).
Avoid Running Many Programs
If your computer is running many programs at a time, the CPU usage will be high. So, you should avoid running many apps at the same time. If possible, run one or two programs every time. This point is also important.
Other useful methods:
- Remove any programs you don’t use
- Turn Windows Notification settings off
- Reinstall Windows
Bottom Line
Are you bothered by the high CPU usage in a Windows PC? If yes, how to lower CPU usage? Now, you should know it after reading this post and just follow these ways to fix your issue.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Vera is an editor of the MiniTool Team since 2016 who has more than 7 years’ writing experiences in the field of technical articles. Her articles mainly focus on disk & partition management, PC data recovery, video conversion, as well as PC backup & restore, helping users to solve some errors and issues when using their computers. In her spare times, she likes shopping, playing games and reading some articles.