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This post will show you how to Fix “Service Host Local System high CPU or Disk usage” issue. In Task Manager, you may find that the Service Host: Local System is using a lot of your disk, CPU, and memory. Most of the time, the Windows Update service is to blame.
Many users have said that if your PC is having trouble with the update, it may be stuck in a loop of crashing and trying again. This is, of course, just one example. In your case, the problem that’s causing the high CPU use could be different. You can also go to the official Microsoft support site for more information about this issue.
If you’ve ever noticed your computer slowing down and your disk always being heavily used with little free memory, you may have looked in Task Manager and found a process called svchost.exe or Service Host Local System running with very high CPU, disk, memory, or network usage in Windows 11/10.
Ways to Fix “Service Host Local System high CPU or Disk usage” issue
Fix the Memory Leak in the Non-Paged Pool of Memory
- Press Windows Logo key + R to open a Run
- Type Regedit into the Run dialog and press Enter.
- In the left pane of the Registry Editor, navigate to the following directory:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > ControlSet001
- Click on Services in the left pane and then scroll down under services and choose “Ndu“.
- In the right pane, locate and double-click on the registry value titled Start to modify it.
- Change its Value data to 4. Doing so will disable it and plug the memory leak in the non-paged pool.
- Click on OK.
- Close the Registry Editor.
- Restart your computer. When your computer boots up, you should see that System Host: Local System (Network Restricted) is no longer using a massive amount of your CPU and/or Disk.
Running the System File Checker
System File Checker (SFC) is a built-in tool that checks all the important files on your computer by downloading a list of them from the internet and comparing it to the version on your computer. If it finds differences, it will automatically get the most recent version from the internet and replace the old one. If something is wrong with your system files, running SFC might fix the high CPU.
- Open the Start menu and type ‘cmd’. Right-click on the Command Prompt icon and click on ‘Run as Administrator’.
- Accept the UAC prompt when it comes up.
- In the command prompt, type the “sfc /scannow” and press enter.
- Wait for the scan to complete and perform a fix as well. If it’s successful, you’ll see the response Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log. It can be found at
%WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log.’
- Enter the command
dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth.
- After this command finishes running, monitor your CPU and Memory load and then check if the issue still exists.
Disable the Superfetch Service and Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Services like Superfetch and Background Intelligent Transfer Service play a big part in making your applications and other services that run in the background go faster. It basically takes care of several modules that run at the same time and makes sure they are scheduled well. But sometimes they don’t work right or don’t sync up right, which makes the CPU work too hard. If you turn them off, the problem might go away.
- Press Windows Logo key + R to open a Run command box.
- Type services.msc into the Run dialog and press Enter.
- Scroll down the list of services on your computer and locate the service named Superfetch.
- Double-click on Superfetch to edit its settings.
- Click on Stop to stop the service.
- Set the Startup type for Superfetch to Disabled.
- Click on Apply and then on OK.
- Now find out the Background Intelligent Transfer Service and double-click to open its settings.
- Click on Stop to stop the service.
- Set the Startup Type for Background Intelligent Transfer Service to Disabled.
- Click on Apply and then on OK.
- Click Apply and OK to confirm the changes.
- Restart your computer and check if the problem has been fixed.