If you poke around in your Task Manager, you’ll likely see an process named “Spooler SubSystem App”, “Print Spooler”, or spoolsv.exe. This process is a normal part of Windows and handles printing. If this process consistently using a high amount of CPU resources on your system, there’s a problem.
What Is “Spooler SubSystem App” (spoolsv.exe), and Why Is It Running on My PC?
If you poke around in your Task Manager, you’ll likely see an process named “Spooler SubSystem App”, “Print Spooler”, or spoolsv.exe. This process is a normal part of Windows and handles printing. If this process consistently using a high amount of CPU resources on your system, there’s a problem.
Whether you no longer have the HomeKit accessory in question or simply need to remove a phantom entry in your HomeKit home, it’s simple to do so—if you know where to look. Let’s remove a HomeKit device now and guide you through the process.
Microsoft Office applications have a built-in Safe Mode feature. This helps when you can’t use Office normally. Perhaps Word crashes every time you open it, or maybe Excel crashes when you open a single file. You can start the application in Safe Mode and there’s a good chance it will work normally.
DirectX is part of the Windows operating system. So why does it seem like every PC game you install from Steam, Origin, or elsewhere installs its own copy of DirectX?
For the most part, the Plex Media Server experience is pretty flawless. You install the server software, you point your Plex clients at it, and start watching your movies. But sometimes, you’ll go to log into your server only to be mysteriously shut out. Let’s dig into some arcane settings and get you back to media nirvana.
The winlogon.exe process is a critical part of the Windows operating system. This process is always running in the background on Windows, and it’s responsible for some important system functions.
If you have a Windows PC, open your Task Manager and you’ll definitely see one or more Client Server Runtime Process (csrss.exe) processes running on your PC. This process is an essential part of Windows.
Windows 10 includes SmartScreen, a feature that helps protect your PC from downloaded malware and malicious websites. The “SmartScreen” process—with the filename “smartscreen.exe”—that you see in Task Manager is responsible for this feature.
Just like desktop applications, the application packages on your Synology NAS need an occasional restart—but unlike desktop applications, it’s a little less clear on how you do so. Let’s dive into the why, when, and how of restarting application packages.
You’re checking Activity Monitor, seeing what’s taking up resources on your Mac, when you notice a process called opendirectoryd. What does that even mean?
The “wsappx” process is part of Windows 8 and 10, and you may see it running in the background or even using a significant amount of CPU and disk resources. It’s related to the Windows Store and Microsoft’s new “Universal” app platform.
Looking through Activity Monitor, you notice something named “dbfseventsd.” How do you even pronounce that? It’s running three times: twice by the root account, and once by you. What is it?
An iPhone that won’t charge properly is more than a little bit frustrating. Before you tear your hair out, take a stroll down out troubleshooting checklist to rule out common causes of charging problems—and, fingers crossed, resolve your issue without sending your phone in for service.
It’s rare, but every once and a while your MacBook’s Touch Bar can get stuck, showing you only one set of buttons and not responding to touch. For me it was displaying the “Unlock With TouchID” message long after I logged in, but it’s hypothetically possible for this to happen while running any application.
There are some things you can only do from the command line—even in Windows. Some of these tools don’t have graphical equivalents, while others are just plain faster to use than their graphical interfaces.
Windows offers a few built-in tools for performing remote assistance over the Internet. These tools allow you to take remote control of another person’s computer so you can help them troubleshoot it while you’re on the phone with them. They work similarly to Remote Desktop, but are available on all editions of Windows and are easy to set up.
Windows 10 automatically installs updates in the background. Most of the time, this is good, but sometimes you’ll get an update that breaks things. In that case, you’ll need to uninstall that particular update.
We’ve all been there: the characters on screen are talking and it’s way too quiet so you crank up the volume only to be blasted by a loud explosion two seconds later. Why is the dialogue so quiet and what can you do to fix it? Read on as we show you how to tame wild swings in TV audio output.
Android apps on Chromebooks have some great benefits: they expand the device’s capabilities, have an overall small footprint, and they work very well on limited hardware. That said, they’re still in beta, and sometimes things don’t work as they should.
If you hear your computer’s fans spin up and feel it getting hotter for no apparent reason, check the Task Manager and you might see “Windows Modules Installer Worker” using a lot of CPU and disk resources. This process, also known as TiWorker.exe, is a part of the Windows operating system.
For the most part, Windows Update works silently in the background. It downloads updates automatically, installs the ones it can, and saves others to install when you restart Windows. But sometimes it breaks and stops working. Here’s how to fix Windows Update when it gets stuck or frozen.
If you spend any time in Task Manager, you may have noticed something called “Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation”, and wondered why it sometimes goes a bit nuts with system resource usage. Here’s what it does and what you can do if that happens.
If you ever browse through your Task Manager window, you’ve likely spotted a process named “System interrupts” and then probably ignored it. But if it’s using up your CPU and you’re wondering what you can do about it, we’ve got the answer for you.
If you’ve ever noticed a process named “Windows Shell Experience Host” in your Task Manager window, you may experienced a fleeting curiosity and then gone on about your business. Here’s what that process is and why it can occasionally eat up some people’s CPU and Memory.
If you browse through your Task Manager in Windows 8 or 10, you’ll probably see several instances of a process named “Device Association Framework Provider Host” running. If you’ve ever wondered what it was, why there are so many, and why it might be spiking your CPU usage, we’ve got the answer for you.
