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

Dennis,

Hello!

I have the very same issue.

In my case, if I use SRWare Iron —a fork of Google Chrome— then taskhostw.exe won't slow down my web browsing experience. If I use any other web browser, it will. Even accessing to my router will be slow down by this process. I will tell you more: if it's not taskhostw.exe the one who "eats" my SSD access, it is the COM Surrogate proccess, or System. This happens every time I load a webpage. When loading proccess is done, then as the SSD usage as the CPU usage reach an idle state.

Clean boot doesn't help this. Any idea about this?

I'm not sure but I think this issue appeared with KB4088776 installed a couple of days ago.

Can you help us, please?