Question: win10 ntoskrnl.exe - extended time during TDL launch?

[Jon R]

Dan,

I typically open say 10 or so TDL lists at the same time (in the same instance) and notice that it takes a minute or so to all crank up. They are all on my hard drive, no networking etc. The time doesn't bother me in particular but i'd swear that it has become longer very recently.

Task Manager shows ntoskrnl.exe is taking up a bunch of processor time right at this moment, swapping out with TDL exe - and I can't help thinking that it is a. the smoking gun and b. this is something new - defo not seen that before, 'like ever', for any software.

So my question is, do you know/think is this a TDL thing or a Windows thing? and should I be worried or do anything?

You might detect I am not a fanboy of win10. Every time I go online* it seems to download and install more junk that I literally never use, without even telling me, let alone asking me. So if I was a betting man I'd say this is not a TDL problem, but it does seem specific so I thought i'd better ask.

*i am one of the paranoids who likes to work 'offline' precisely to avoid being hijacked by microsoft deciding they want to restart the pc, yes i know things are better now but still... they say 'cut the hardline!' in the movies so i feel heroic at least.

Thanks!

Jon

[.dan.g.]

Hi Jon

It's certainly worth investigating further. Try using ProcMon to see what each of the processes is up to during this time and feel free to share the 'reports' here if you like.

[.dan.g.]

ps. Try starting TDL from a shortcut with '-g' appended to the exe path. This will enable logging of tasklist loading at startup -> ToDoList.log.

Dan

On Friday, 3 August 2018 03:03:49 UTC+10, Jon R wrote:

[.dan.g.]

ppps: https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/system-ntoskrnl-exe-high-memory-or-cpu-usage-in-windows-10

On Friday, 3 August 2018 03:03:49 UTC+10, Jon R wrote:

[Jon R]

Dan - Thanks for the quick response. I started down the path of investigation so will see what the log file says - will let you know.

 

but bc my UAC system got corrupted due to an update in Feb, I can't install or execute any new sw since that date or even change any system setting. I can see a weekend reinstalling windows in my future but tbh haven't got the time atm.

(back then i vented online quite a bit but all i can say now is 'grrrrrnnnnnaaah!')

[Jon R]

Dan, OK I attached the log file - I ran TDL a few times and the results are highly variable - one time it finished loading in one minute - the last it took two - and literally nothing had changed in the meantime.

that krnl exe swaps with TDL for some of this time at the top of the processor usage - i also took a screencap, not to be obsessive but...

In the log file you can see the sum of time doesn't comprise the whole time elapsed by a long shot. I made it 27sec for an overall duration of 2 mins - i timed it up to the tabs appearing but that exe dribbles on at the high cpu usage for a while longer. Note that the log file did not record every single tab (idk what determines which tabs should be 'loaded' or not?).

while the times per file might suggest size or complexity, the last file x(2018-08) is virtually empty despite taking the longest time - and tbh the reason krnl exe suddenly decides to take priority is a mystery to my layman brain. i mean it might have nothing to do with the files themselves, just the random timing of the 'work' that krnl exe is doing.

my personal bet is on file indexing being the problem (which i turned off once but win10 overwrote my group policy). idk how windows search/indexing is related to the (frankly awesome) search functions in TDL. I'd like to turn indexing off again once i get access to my PC settings.

Thanks,

Jon