Is Windows Modules Installer Worker utilizing a lot of your CPU? In this guide, we cover what Windows Modules Installer Worker is, whether or not its safe, and how to stop if from utilizing too much of your processor.
Is your Windows computer running slow for no reason? Are your case fans spinning at high speeds and you can’t figure out why? Do you see the Windows Modules Installer Worker process using a lot of your CPU and want to know why?
In this post, we’ll discuss what Windows Modules Installer Worker is, whether or not its safe, and how to fix the issue where it drives up your CPU utilization.
What is Windows Modules Installer Worker?
Windows Modules Installer Worker is a Windows 10 process that works with Windows Updates. Reading the service description within Task Manager will show that Windows Modules Installer Worker ‘enables installation, modification, and removal of Windows updates and optional components’.
If you have automatic updates enabled on your PC, Windows Modules Installer Worker will start whenever your computer detects a new update.
Is Windows Modules Installer Worker safe?
Windows Modules Installer Worker is part of Windows and is regarded as safe. It is not a virus, not malware, and not a file you need to delete. It is best left alone to do its work unless it is causing irregularly high CPU utilization.
You should not try to disable or remove Windows Modules Installer Worker.
How to fix Windows Modules Installer Worker High CPU issues
If you have used Windows 10 for any length of time, you will already have an idea of what’s going wrong. Try as they might, Microsoft cannot get Windows Update to work correctly. Seeing Windows Modules Installer Worker utilizing a lot of your processor is just one of the many symptoms of a broken update system within Windows 10.
The vast majority of the time, Windows Modules Installer Worker will spool up, perform the update, and shut itself down with no issues. Occasionally, it may get stuck and use more of your CPU, which will cause your PC to slow down and its fans to spin up in an attempt to keep your processor cool.
The easiest way to check if it is Windows Modules Installer Worker causing high CPU issues is to use Task Manager. Select CPU at the top to sort by usage. If you see Windows Modules Installer Worker utilizing a lot of your CPU and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down, you can intervene.
You can either restart Windows Update or delete the folder it is writing to.
Restart Windows Update
This is the easiest fix for Windows Modules Installer Worker using up too much CPU, so it is worth doing first.
- Right-click on your Windows Task Bar and select Task Manager
- Select the Services tab at the top and select the Open Services text link at the bottom
- Highlight Windows Update, right-click and select Restart
Restarting Windows Update should reset Windows Modules Installer Worker and make it behave. If it doesn’t fix it, try the next solution.
Delete the SoftwareDistribution folder
The SoftwareDistribution folder is where Windows stores downloaded update files ready for installation. Occasionally a file may become corrupted or overwritten and cause Windows Update and/or Windows Modules Installer Worker to get stuck. One of the symptoms of that is the increased use of your CPU.
Deleting the SoftwareDistribution folder forces Windows Update to download a fresh copy of the file in question. This should fix the problem.
- Right-click on your Windows Task Bar and select Task Manager
- Select the Services tab at the top and select the Open Services text link at the bottom.
- Highlight Windows Update, right-click, and select Stop. Keep this Window open
- Navigate to C:\Windows and highlight the SoftwareDistribution folder.
- Hit Delete or rename it to SoftwareDistribution.old.
- Go back to Task Manager and restart Windows Update.
Once restarted, Windows Update should create a new SoftwareDistribution folder and download a fresh copy of all files. Windows Modules Installer Worker should now work fine.
Windows Modules Installer Worker is an essential Windows process and should rarely go wrong. That doesn’t mean it won’t, but at least now you know what it is and what to do about it if it does!
