Any idea why the Cryptographic services in Windows 10 is contently running?

Question

I've noticed that Cryptographic services is constantly running weather I am online or offline. It will let me stop the service but as soon as I close Task Manager (or) Services.exe after stopping the services it automatically starts back up by itself. Not getting any error messages nor issues with the OS itself but have noticed that it is the cause as to why my Internet speed will randomly slow down to the point of face palming with that being said I've also double checked to make sure the services and associated files/folders are legit and not malware or worse and they are all good from as far as I can tell and my research can tell. If I'm not mistaken the Cryptographic services is needed to check for Windows Updates amongst other use cases but I really don't want to disable the service for this reason. Any ideas/help would be amazing.

Thanks,

Beta

Answer 1

Hi,

We apologize for the delay, hope your doing fine.

Cryptography helps protect data from being viewed, provides ways to detect whether data has been modified, and helps provide a secure means of communication over otherwise nonsecure channels. For example, data can be encrypted by using a cryptographic algorithm, transmitted in an encrypted state, and later decrypted by the intended party.

Generally speaking its for additional security of your information but it always depends on you though practically speaking as a user we are always aiming for a better performing device.

If you want to have the feature disabled, you can perform this,

• STOP the Cryptographic Services service either in command prompt (run as administrator) or in services.msc It may take a few minutes for the service to finally stop. It may also, stop, but restart on it's own again requiring you to stop it again.
• DELETE or RENAME the catroot2 directory located in C:\Windows\System32
• Restart the Cryptographic services service.

Thank you for choosing Microsoft!

Sincerely,

Leonardo_Y

Microsoft Community

Answer 2

Hi,

We still have not received any response from you since our last follow up message. Please feel free to create a new thread if you have different and new concerns.”

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Answer 3

Thank you for the tips. However, the High CPU/RAM usage isn't my problem but follow up question.... am I wrong in saying that the Cryptographic Services is needed for Windows Updates to function correctly? I will take another look at the link you have provided on a more detailed article about the Cryptographic Services.

Answer 4

Hi BetaKast,

Thank you for posting your concern here in Microsoft Community. We understand you need help about Cryptographic Services in your Windows 10 PC. Lets' go over with this together.

The Cryptographic Services is a Microsoft Windows feature that encrypts and decrypts data on storage devices when they are accessed so generally speaking this is used protect your data. You can review more about this here Cryptographic Services | Microsoft Docs.

Nevertheless, for high RAM CPU usage issues, you can try this methods:

• Disable the Cryptographic Services and see if there is difference. Here's how:
  • Start Menu > type services.msc and press Enter
  • right click Cryptographic Service and select Properties
  • select Disabled from the Startup type box
  • Restart your computer
• Perform Clean Boot - open link for complete guide How to perform a clean boot in Windows (microsoft.com)
• Check and pending Windows update - use this link for complete guide Update Windows (microsoft.com)
• Run System File Checker - use this link for complete guideUsing System File Checker in Windows (microsoft.com)

Please perform the steps accordingly to check the effectiveness of the troubleshooting.

Thank you for choosing Microsoft

Sincerely,

Leonardo_Y

Microsoft Community

Answer 5

Hello

We have noticed that he has not responded to our latest answers. We would like to know whether the issue you have raised with us is still ongoing. If yes, please respond kindly so that we can continue to resolve your concern.

With respect,

Leonardo_Y Moderator of the M365 Consumer Forum