Windows – How to stop the Windows 10 Photos app (and Runtime Broker) from pegging the cpu

photoswindows 10

Every so often I'll notice my laptop fans kick into high gear for apparently no reason and my keyboard starts responding slowly.

Then I fire up Task Manager and see this…
Photos and Runtime Broker

Photo Runtime Broker

I've turned all the settings off within the Photos app.

Photos app settings

But it still insists on doing something behind the scenes.

How do I stop this from happening?

Best Answer

One way that might or might not work is to deactivate it from running in the background. Press Win + I, then go to Privacy, then to Background Apps. Switch off Photos.

Or, if you want to be a bit more drastic, you could simply remove the photo-app - this works and does not harm the system (though of course, you would need another viewer/organiser for your pictures).

Just fire up a PowerShell-Terminal as Administrator and type:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers "*Photos*" | Remove-AppxPackage -Verbose

Derived from my very own remove_win10_apps.ps1.

Further reading: Remove appx package for all users

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