One of the most common of reasons for high CPU usage is the WMI Provider Host (WmiPrvSE.exe) process over utilizing system resources.
High CPU Usage By WMI Provider Host (WmiPrvSE.exe)
The WmiPrvSE process is used for monitoring by developers. The exact cause behind this issue is not known, though many users have reported that the disk utilization remains high for a long period of time, thus slowing the system.
Preliminary steps
1] Scan your system for virus and malware either using Windows Defender or any reputable third-party anti-virus software.
2] Uninstall any recently installed suspicious software.
Thereafter, proceed with the following solutions:
1] SFC scan
2] Restart the Windows Management Instrumentation Service
3] Restart other associated services
Solution 1] SFC scan
An SFC scan would help replace missing or corrupt files in the system. Here’s the procedure for an SFC scan.
Solution 2] Restart the Windows Management Instrumentation Service
1] Press Win + R to open the Run window and type services.msc. Press Enter to open the Service Manager.
2] Locate the Windows Management Instrumentation Service in the list which is arranged alphabetically.
3] Right-click on the service and select Restart.
Solution 3] Restart other associated services
1] Search for Command prompt in the Windows search bar. Right-click on the option and select Run as administrator.
2] Type the following command one by one and press Enter after each command to execute it:
net stop iphlpsvc
net stop wscsvc
net stop Winmgmt
net start Winmgmt
net start wscsvc
net start iphlpsvc
3] Restart the system and check if it helps resolve the issue.
Hope it helps!
I tryed all the options from the text above and none of it worked for me so I installed a clean version of Windows and everything was fine UNTILL…
UNTILL I scanned my PC with my „360 Total Security“ Antivirus. He showed me there are some potentially dangerous operations happening but I ignored it all and clicked on „Add to Whitelist“ for all these warnings.
That’s when my WMI Provider Host started using CPU a lot! (BTW, 3 of those warnings were some „WMI Provider Host“ warnings aswell!)
So I immediately went on my 360 Total Security Settings and deleted all „WMI Provider Host“ things from my „Trust List“ but WMI still contined using CPU.
So, THE SOLUTION finally happened after I scanned computer for viruses again and then 360 Total Security showed me those 3 WMI Provider Host warnings again, BUT THIS TIME I LET MY VIRUS DELETE THOSE 3 „WMI Provider Host“ THINGS FROM MY COMPUTER (instead of adding it to whitelist) and then I had to Restart a computer and after that WMI was using 0-1% of CPU all the time.
SO THAT’S WHAT I NEEDED TO DO IN ORDER TO FIX MY PROBLEM WITH „Wmi Provider Host“. Hope this helps! Btw even if you have some other Antivirus, go check and see whether your Antivirus has some „WMI Files/Operations“ in his „Trust List“/“White List“.
Try deleting all those WMI files from there and then Scan your computer again so your Antivirus can warn you again about these files/operations and then let your antivirus DELETE/REMOVE those files, don’t add them to whitelist anymore!
That should solve your problem! Hope this helps! Good luck!