DWM.exe CPU Usage

[SjanaWilgani]

When I went from Windows 7 to Windows 10, I noticed that dwm.exe ALWAYS uses 10 - 13% CPU, no matter what I do. When I'm idle on Desktop, when I'm playing games or anything else.
Why does dwm.exe use so much CPU when it never did in Windows 7?

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... Settings, APPS/Services running in the background enabled/default, Live/update Web page connections, and Programming.

 

[SjanaWilgani]

Heya, thnx for the reply.
I have no apps running in the background, there's no update I'm currently on the latest version. It also happens with no browser open. With programming do you mean that it was poorly optimized?

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... NO... a default installation can have items enabled that you Don't use or need for your Personal Computer use.
1) Check your Processes and Services ( Task Manager ).
2) Check items installed at BOOT ( type MSconfig ).

 

[SjanaWilgani]

I don't think you understand my problem. The specific process, dwm.exe, is using 12% CPU constantly. Only that 1 process. The other processes are running at 0%. I fix PC's for a living, like software problems and stuff. I also speed up PC's. But this problem is beyond my current knowledge. I don't know what could cause it, and since in Windows 10 you can NOT disable it, I want it to stop hogging my resources.

 

[johnbl]

desktop windows manager enables the use of hardware acceleration to render the graphical user interface of Windows. If you have problems :
consider: update the graphics card drivers, disable nvidia shadowplay streaming, disable unused sound sources in windows control panel. Particularly in the HD sound source of the GPU if you don't get sound to a monitor via a HDMI or displayport cable.

nvidia shadowplay streaming can be very slow if you have old ethernet drivers, it can make your CPU kind of back up until it fails. Works if you update the ethernet drivers to a current version (2014 or later)


----------------------
(dwm.exe) is using between .1% and zero percent of the CPU time
13900 k of memory.

resource manager shows that DWM.EXE has 10 threads and is accessing these handles
Image PID Type Handle Name
dwm.exe 1092 ALPC Port \BaseNamedObjects\[CoreUI]-PID(1092)-TID(2080) 6af126d0-9607-4e0f-9209-0b507f15fe49
dwm.exe 1092 ALPC Port \Sessions\1\Windows\DwmApiPort
dwm.exe 1092 ALPC Port \Sessions\1\Windows\DwmApiPort
dwm.exe 1092 Desktop \Default
dwm.exe 1092 Directory \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects
dwm.exe 1092 Directory \KnownDlls
dwm.exe 1092 Event \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\DWM_DX_FULLSCREEN_TRANSITION_EVENT
dwm.exe 1092 Event \KernelObjects\MaximumCommitCondition
dwm.exe 1092 Event \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\DwmComposedEvent_1
dwm.exe 1092 Event \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\DwmComposedEvent_1
dwm.exe 1092 Event \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\Nvy8dhamHYs5sWt
dwm.exe 1092 File C:\Windows\System32\en-US\d2d1.dll.mui
dwm.exe 1092 File C:\Windows\Registration\R00000000000d.clb
dwm.exe 1092 File C:\Windows\Fonts\StaticCache.dat
dwm.exe 1092 File \Device\CNG
dwm.exe 1092 File \Device\KsecDD
dwm.exe 1092 File \Device\DeviceApi
dwm.exe 1092 File C:\Windows\System32
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Nls\Locale\Alternate Sorts
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Nls\Locale
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-3298206165-501811769-1360654118-1000\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Nls\Language Groups
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{F38BF404-1D43-42F2-9305-67DE0B28FC23}\PropertyBag
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\USER\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\USER\.DEFAULT
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Nls\Sorting\Ids
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Nls\Sorting\Versions
dwm.exe 1092 Key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\SESSION MANAGER
dwm.exe 1092 Section \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\SMARTMAX_Shared_Memory
dwm.exe 1092 Section \Sessions\1\Windows\Theme4071126047
dwm.exe 1092 Section \Windows\Theme3095545415
dwm.exe 1092 Section \BaseNamedObjects\__ComCatalogCache__
dwm.exe 1092 Section \BaseNamedObjects\__ComCatalogCache__
dwm.exe 1092 WindowStation \Sessions\1\Windows\WindowStations\WinSta0
dwm.exe 1092 WindowStation \Sessions\1\Windows\WindowStations\WinSta0

I don't think you understand my problem. The specific process, dwm.exe, is using 12% CPU constantly. Only that 1 process. The other processes are running at 0%. I fix PC's for a living, like software problems and stuff. I also speed up PC's. But this problem is beyond my current knowledge. I don't know what could cause it, and since in Windows 10 you can NOT disable it, I want it to stop hogging my resources.

 

[embeGaming]

TL;DR: Shadowplay was causing dwm.exe to use too much CPU and I was unable to capture with my HD60 and stream with OBS at the same time. Shadowplay is great for generating gifs for social media, or capturing content to upload to YouTube, but leaving it turned on takes resources and you are not warned about this anywhere in the GeForce Experience software.

For me it was Shadowplay. I use Shadowplay to record game play and create content for my social media.

I am capturing my wife's PC with an Elgato HD60 on a 50' HDMI. I am capturing her webcam on a 50' USB. I am playing on my machine. My webcam is being captured as well.

I am putting all that in to OBS and streaming to Twitch. With Shadowplay on, I maxed out my overclocked (4.5ghz) i5-3570k because dwm.exe was using between 25% and 40% of my processor constantly, before I even launched a game on my PC. I turned Shadowplay off and it dropped to between 2% and 5%. I am now only using 50% of my processor while I stream, before gaming on my own machine. My machine is also the media server for my laptop which feeds video to my kids almost constantly. (I'm at 50% CPU/RAM with all of the above running as well as streaming video on my network to my laptop from my HDD)

My specs:
i5-3570k (oc'd to 4.5ghz)
ASUS P8Z77-V LK
8gb DDR3 Corsair Vengeance (single channel, explained below)
512gb SSD as main drive for windows and high end games
2x3tb HDD divided in to 3 partitions (one 1tb mirror and two 3tb drives [one of these partitions hosts the media files])
GTX 960 4G
Noctua NH-D14 (this is why RAM is in single channel as the cooler covers the first two RAM slots on my mobo)

With this hardware, and Shadowplay disabled, I can capture my wife's webcam and monitor, capture my own game play, and stream it all to Twitch via OBS at 720p30 @ 2800kb/s and only use about 50% of my CPU/RAM. It works for me, but I struggled to get this far. This thread solved my problem, pointing me towards Shadowplay.

If I had the money, I could upgrade my PSU and replace all my 120mm chassis fans with Noctua's (and add 2 or 3 more) and probably push this CPU to 5.0ghz, but I'm comfortable where I'm at.

I hope this helps anyone else trying to accomplish what I've been struggling with for weeks.