Windows 10 Cryptographic service high disk usage

Susan Dodds 191

Upgraded from Win 10 1909 to 2004.

Ever since, I've had high disk usage from the Cryptographic Service.

No errors, just running slow due to high disk usage.

Looking for solutions.

Thanks

Dale Kudusi 3,236 Reputation points

2020-09-04T06:31:42.037+00:00

Hi,
Was the issue resolved?
If any reply is useful for you, please accept it as answer.
If you have any issue or concern, please reply to us directly.
Best Regards.
Brian Uphoff 1 Reputation point

2021-01-23T05:48:54.38+00:00

Hello,

I'm hitting this same issue and I've been unable to update my PC for some time now.

I ran sfc /scannow and then through the steps of clean boot. After this, I ran Windows Update and my 3 pending updates (20H2, KB4586876, KB4580325) keep failing with a generic error (0x8000ffff).

-Brian
Patrick S 6 Reputation points

2021-05-17T16:12:55.787+00:00

Same issue here.
High disk usage and high CPU usage by cryptographic services.

And also for me "run sfc /scannow" does not fix this problem!

MS please support.
Thank you
TK 11 Reputation points

2021-05-20T05:46:43.24+00:00

See answer from @Darren Lathen
I had the same problem and It worked! It seems Cryptographic services keeps recreating logs on and on and on due to some error. Deleting catroot2 fixes it!
CJohnson509 16 Reputation points

2022-01-05T18:14:50.923+00:00

I manage a domain network with around 40 windows machines running 21H1. Starting on Monday (1-3-22) we've had 12 machines suddenly experience this issue, and I expect more to crop up. The solution from DarrenLathen-9492 listed below seems to work, but I wish I knew why this has suddenly become an issue for us. This is what we've been doing to fix:

Boot into safe mode
cmd > Run as Administrator > net stop CryptSvc
Go to Windows\system32 > rename or delete folder catroot2
net start CryptSvc
Restart
Aun Raza 1 Reputation point

2022-01-24T08:15:18.943+00:00

Hey CJ, i tried your method on my laptop by renaming the catroot2 folder in safe mode. However, on restart, the catroot2 folder got created again but the cryptsvc didn't use high cpu or high disk usage like before. Are your machines running smoothly since then?
Ian K 1 Reputation point

2022-12-14T14:12:43.817+00:00

I got a razer mouse and installed the software. Had performance issues until I removed the software. Task manager told me the cryptographic service was on the fritz but I know what changed and it was only that software.
Janos Garam 0 Reputation points

2023-03-10T14:40:28.9066667+00:00

It is March 2023, and the same problem still exists. Luckily, the same fix also applies (getting rid of catroot2).

Sadly, MS can't be bothered to deal properly with things like this...

11 answers

Jason Aw 1 Reputation point

2021-09-23T16:05:47.2+00:00

I have two disk drives in my laptop, the system drive C: is on SSD, while drive D: is a mechanical drive which I use it for windows paging files and storing non-essential files including VMware images.

I have not been able to update my Windows properly for the past year and had many update failures. And for the past couple of months, I kept seeing very high cryptographic services CPU usage to the point if I don't stop the cryptographic services, I have to wait very long for applications like file explorer, zoom and teams meeting, excel, powerpoint etc. to start. Once I stop the cryptographic services, then those applications would start loading.

I haven't suspected my mechanical drive was actually failing, causing the issues with windows updates as well as high CPU loads, until I suddenly was not able to run one my my VMs on VMware, saying the virtual disk was missing. I did CHKDSK and found there were errors, and even after fixing, it was still not working properly. I finally replaced the disk with another (copying all the content of my D: over) and viola! I was able to update the windows to latest 21H1 and the cryptographic service works normally now without high CPU usage.

So if anyone has similar issues as I did experience above, you may want to check your disk drive if it may be failing or having errors.
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Windows 10 Cryptographic service high disk usage

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