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Service Host: Agent Activation Runtime_15831 high cpu and memory consumption

Anonymous
2020-08-14T00:22:06+00:00

Hi! Anybody knows why Service Host: Agent Activation Runtime and Service Host: Local Service (Network Restricted) consumes about 25-30% cpu and up to 2.5Gb or memory all the time already for several days?

I read that it's kind of related to the Cortana but I don't use it much. I just type something in Visual Studio and these two services keep burning my cpu.

I have all windows updates installed and my cpu is intel core i7-1065G7

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2020-08-21T04:47:39+00:00

Hi! Anybody knows why Service Host: Agent Activation Runtime and Service Host: Local Service (Network Restricted) consumes about 25-30% cpu and up to 2.5Gb or memory all the time already for several days?

I read that it's kind of related to the Cortana but I don't use it much. I just type something in Visual Studio and these two services keep burning my cpu.

I have all windows updates installed and my cpu is intel core i7-1065G7

I'm not sure about "Service Host: Local Service (Network Restricted), but I was having a similar issue with the "Service Host: Agent Activation Runtime" where it was unnecessarily using my CPU and RAM. Here is how I fixed it:

First, disable Cortana in startup apps (you can do it from the task manager startup tab). Then, in the services app (you can open services from the services tab in task manager), right click on "Agent Activation Runtime_xxxx" (xxxx will be random letters and numbers) and then click stop. This should stop the running service and it will no longer appear in task manager processes, but this is only a temporary fix because the service will start itself again soon, so it needs to be disabled.

It did not allow me to disable it from the services manager, so I did it on the registry. You can search for "registry" in the search bar and then click it, then "yes" to allow it to run (needs to run as administrator). Navigate to: Computer/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services. Then, in the list, find "AarSvc" and "AarSvc_xxxx" (xxxx = random letters and numbers). Click on the first one, then to the right, double click on "start" and change the value data from 3 to 4. 3 = manual, and 4 = disabled. The base should remain at hexadecimal. Do the same thing for the second one. Now, restart the computer. This fixed it for me.

After restarting, if you go to task manager and then services, there should be 2 services with "AarSvc" that are stopped. Opening the services app will show "Agent Activation Runtime_xxxx" as disabled.

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-03-15T16:24:27+00:00

    Had a client with termal and performance issues.

    task manager showed 7.5 million handles open.

    Ram usage was 80%+

    task manager wasnt displaying what was using it though,

    found the service name matching Agent Activation Runtime_xxxx using roughly 15% CPU at all times, 

    killed its process and handles dropped to about 90,000 from the 7.5 million.

    CPU turbo dropped off and normal operation resumed.

    Disabled the services via registry as described in the marked answer and issue has not returned.

    100% a Cortana memory leak.

    Why can we not just simply disable or remove this horrendous piece of bloatware that is the root of so many random issues even when essentially unsused by the users.

    thank you @AdamMoloo  for the fix to this one, saved me a hell of a hunt for what was holding open all the handles.

    Should also mention user was using a 10th Gen i5 
    Running Windows 10 2004

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-09-23T23:59:56+00:00

    Hi! Anybody knows why Service Host: Agent Activation Runtime and Service Host: Local Service (Network Restricted) consumes about 25-30% cpu and up to 2.5Gb or memory all the time already for several days?

    I read that it's kind of related to the Cortana but I don't use it much. I just type something in Visual Studio and these two services keep burning my cpu.

    I have all windows updates installed and my cpu is intel core i7-1065G7

    Got same issue on a Dell XPS 13 7390 2-in-1, Intel Core i7-1065G7.

    Temp Solution, stop the Windows Audio Service.

    From Command Line (Run as administrator):

    net stop audiosrv

    net start audiosrv

    I really don't mind as I always hibernate.

    Hope it helps.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-09-19T14:39:02+00:00

    It is September 19th and I discovered that a Cortana update installed. Since then and even if I disabled Cortana to start at Startup, this service initiates. This one was the only solution that worked. Cortana worked before (until two weeks ago) without any of these problems, now it is completely useless. Thanks for the solution. I hope it is temporary and Microsoft start worrying that its assistant is falling behind its competitors.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-08-23T21:30:22+00:00

    I tried to disable Cortana like some others mentioned above.

    And this works like a charm for me. No more Service Host, no more hot, no more running fans. CPU will keep at a normal low level, around 5%.

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