SysTray & Icons speed killers?

**R'as al Ghul** · 02-01-2008, 19:55

Originally Posted by Beirut

Another question if I may. When I do the alt-crtl-del thingamaboober and check the performance, it shows the CPU running at 100%. I`m assuming it doesn't mean 100% free, since I' using it at the time and that should take some power, but why on earth would the machine be running at full tilt like that?

Hello Beirut,

when you summon the task-manager, could you please look at the tabs "Processes" and "Network"?
In processes sort the table by Cpu usage (3rd column I guess) and check which process takes most %.
In network you just check how much of the networks bandwitdth in percent is used at the moment. (Stop all downloading etc. before)

The processes tab will tell which process may cause your problem. The glance at the network tab is only to make sure that your pc hasn't been hijacked and is transmitting data like crazy.

**Ramses II CP** · 02-01-2008, 20:27

Very unusual for your CPU to be constantly maxxed out like that. After you follow R'as' advice if there's any unexpected network activity I'd immediately pull the plug (Or disconnect from your wireless) on that box and not hook it back up until you sort out the problem. Better safe than sorry.

**Beirut** · 02-01-2008, 22:08

Task Manager stuff

There's no network activity at all.
There are about 50 processes running (Is that bad?)They all show 00 under the CPU columnThe biggest reads as ENCWCSVR 0% CPU 40500 Mem usage
CPU is fixed at 100%
PF usuge is 418MB
Physical Memory is 2GBAvailable 1500000System cache 1617000
The HD is 2/3 free. 25GB out of 75GB.

The MSCONFIG still shows about 35 things in the Startup but only 6 icons are showing at the bottom right.

I was hesitant to do anything in there because the three files "they" say never to click off don't even seem to be there at all. (Unless I'm as blind as I am stupid, but let's hope not.)

**Xiahou** · 02-01-2008, 22:25

What do you make of this:

ENCWCSVR.EXE is a primary piece of Encarta Web Companion. You should verify this and see it is installed under Program Files/Common/Microsoft Shared/Encarta Web Companion.
The EXE does not always run in memory and definitely does not kick off based on you performing alot of web searches.

It appears to start up when you are not using your machine for a long time, 30 minutes or more and then seems to be indexing your hard drive. The EXE is pretty agile and when you CTRL-ALT-DEL it stops before you can catch on to what it was doing. The thread can be killed and you'll notice your system runs alot better.

After reviewing Microsoft's vague documentation, some kind of reference is made to web companion searching your hard drive. Well the only way for that to work effectively is if it indexes your hard drive. System performance drops about the same as if the indexer service is running so this is believable. However I do not see much in the way of Web Companion offering a real search across your HD to the end-user. So I suspect they didn't finish the functionality, it was full of bugs or they plan on claiming it is a new feature next year.

My recommendation is, if you aren't actually using web companion then get it off your PC. With the latest push by Microsoft to micromanage your PC you have no idea if they'll pulling a Sony on you.

I just got that off of Google, so I can't swear by it's accuracy. However, it would probably be worthwhile to kill that process and see how the PC performs then. If it actually does index your drive like the poster claims, that would definitely kill performance.

**Beirut** · 02-01-2008, 22:27

Originally Posted by Xiahou

What do you make of this:I just got that off of Google, so I can't swear by it's accuracy. However, it would probably be worthwhile to kill that process and see how the PC performs then. If it actually does index your drive like the poster claims, that would definitely kill performance.

Sweet. Thank you.

**Ramses II CP** · 02-02-2008, 02:36

Just so you can compare, on my non-gaming box I have 30 processes running, and that includes 6 that I'd kill if I wanted to do anything intensive (3 from Apple alone). My sys tray has 3 icons, anti-virus, volume, and network.

**Caius** · 02-02-2008, 02:50

I have 34. Pretty the same as Ramses, but I'd bet he have a better pc than mine. Anyways, this old pc still works when I wanna to.

**sapi** · 02-02-2008, 09:42

Originally Posted by Ramses II CP

Just so you can compare, on my non-gaming box I have 30 processes running, and that includes 6 that I'd kill if I wanted to do anything intensive (3 from Apple alone). My sys tray has 3 icons, anti-virus, volume, and network.

50's not too bad, though - I'm running 86 at the moment, and the system is still perfectly smooth (admittedly that's on a vista system, which has more OS processes as far as I can tell, but most are still from apps and haven't slowed me too badly)