Windows – does the CPU Usage reach 100% too often

cpu usagewindowswindows xp

I'm using a dual-core processor and often see my CPU usage reaches 100%. I realize this may happen if I'm running too much applications, so when I know the computer starts to run slowly, I start to close my applications.

I usually run 4-5 applications simultaneously. Usually those are: web browser (Google Chrome), Adobe Photoshop, Notepad++, XAMPP, and Windows Task Manager. Usually I close tabs in my Chrome first, because I often browse the net with about 20 tabs/4 windows open, so I presume that would take much memory (bad habit, I know).

But even after closing Chrome's tabs or closing other applications, my CPU Usage often stays at high percentage – 72% at best, 100% at worst. I check the Processes tab on Windows Task Manager and usually found the System, System Idle Process, or services.exe taking the highest CPU process (could reach 60).

Why is this happening? And is there any solution?

EDIT
I have T2250 @ 1,73 Ghz and 2.5 GB RAM

Best Answer

System

If this process is causing high CPU usage, it's a driver. See these questions for further analysis support:

System Idle Process

This process will use all remaining CPU resources that were not used by any other process. That's actually how CPU load is measured in the first place.

If the CPU spends 20% of it's time processing the Idle Process, then it's under 80% load. This process is nothing to worry about.

services.exe

services.exe is the service control manager and shouldn't really be causing you any trouble.

What could cause trouble is svchost.exe which is the host process for Windows services. Every service in Windows is started through an instances of svchost.exe. So if a svchost.exe is causing high CPU load, it's a service running wild.

You can use Process Explorer to determine which services run inside a service host by simply hovering over the process:

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