taskhostw.exe high CPU and disk load on network access

Question

After installing a major Windows 10 update yesterday, my Internet connection got extremely slow when using Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer or Firefox. But Google Chrome runs at normal speed.

The problem is only when I load a page - loading www.microsoft.com takes about 10-15 seconds in a private browser window. Except for Chrome where it takes less than 2 seconds. Drop-down menues and other elements works at full speed - but AJAX autocompleting is also slow.

This is general for all pages - they are about 5-10 times faster in Chrome now, and they used to have the same speed in the other browsers before the Windows update.

I've noticed that every time the browser is loading something, taskhostw.exe has a high CPU and disk usage. (Except Chrome where taskhostw.exe doesn't seem to be active).

I tried to disable Windows Defender real time protection - that did not make any difference. I have no other firewalls, proxies or virus scanners.

The latest updates from Windows Update are installed today. Current software versions are Microsoft Edge 41.16299.15.0, Internet Explorer 11.98.16299.0, Firefox 57.0.1 and Chrome 62.0.3202.94. taskhostw.exe has version 10.0.16299.15.

Answer 1

The problem described by Boyan Mihaylov seems to occur at random times after the computer has been in sleep mode. My problem is consequently when I access the Internet from the mentioned browsers - no matter if have just rebooted or worked for several days without a reboot.

Answer 2

Hi,

We found a thread that provided steps on how to resolved the issue regarding high CPU usage of taskhostw.exe. To resolve this issue, you may follow the first response provided by Boyan Mihaylov on the second page of this thread.

Feel free to contact us if you need assistance with Windows.

Answer 3

Hi,

Taskhostw.exe is a type of EXE file associated with Windows 10 Operating System developed by Microsoft Corporation for the Windows Operating System. Taskhostw.exe problems can be attributed to corrupt or missing files, invalid registry entries associated with Taskhostw.exe, or a virus / malware infection. To resolve your concern, we suggest that you update your PC device drivers and try to clean out your system junk files with disk clean up.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

Answer 4

Thank you for updating us. It is possible that a third party app/driver is causing this issue. You may start your computer in clean boot to verify whether this issue is really being caused by a third party app/driver or not.

If you have other concerns, feel free to post.

Answer 5

Any specific drivers, you would recommend to update? (There are ~100 devices to go through...)

HP has an update agent that check for new HP drivers regularly, and I think most other drivers are Microsoft drivers, so I guess my drivers are generally updated.

I also tried the disk clean utility (including the system files option), but it doesn't seem to make anything faster.