System Idle Process

[Jeff Granger]

Task manager shows me that of the many applications running on my XP machine
the only one using significant CPU resources is "System Idle Process" taking
95 CPUs (anyone know what the units are??).

Is there a way to discover what this process is doing, or is a case of
shutting it down to see what crashes?

Jeff

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

Task manager shows me that of the many applications running on my XP
machine the only one using significant CPU resources is "System Idle
Process" taking 95 CPUs (anyone know what the units are??).

Is there a way to discover what this process is doing, or is a case of
shutting it down to see what crashes?

Jeff

It isn't doing anything. It's a record of how much of the time the CPU is
idle.

 

[Guest]

Hi Jeff,

The CPU column displays the percentage of CPU usage for the process listed
under Image Name. The System Idle Process displays the CPU "power" that is
waiting to be used.......thus, it is "idle", waiting for something to do.



Regards,

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Task manager shows me that of the many applications running on my XP machine
the only one using significant CPU resources is "System Idle Process" taking
95 CPUs ...

... (anyone know what the units are??).

Percentage.


Is there a way to discover what this process is doing, or is a case of
shutting it down to see what crashes?

Jeff

Break out a dictionary and look up the word "idle," sometime. ;-}
The "System Idle Process" metric is the amount/percentage of time that
your CPU has *nothing* to do. A reading of 98-99% is generally
considered a good thing, and readings above 90% are normal. Think of
it like a car's engine idling in your driveway before you place the
car in gear.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Ken Blake, MVP]

Task manager shows me that of the many applications running on my XP machine
the only one using significant CPU resources is "System Idle Process" taking
95 CPUs (anyone know what the units are??).

Is there a way to discover what this process is doing, or is a case of
shutting it down to see what crashes?

"System Idle Process" is not any problem at all. That's just the name
for what the system is doing when it's not doing anything. It's there
to make the total add up to 100%.