Windows 10
Users haven’t had it easy in recent months. And while some problems were out of Microsoft’s control, the company has brought a lot of problems on itself. And now users need to watch out for another.
KB4512941 was released as an optional update on August 30. Microsoft said in a knowledge base article that the update was supposed to address numerous issues affecting Remote Desktop, Windows Sandbox and other aspects of Windows 10. (The company also said that it would be phasing out the Edge browser’s support for ePUB files, which are typically used for e-books, “over the next several months.” More information can be found here.)
Windows Latest
Said that numerous people have complained about high CPU usage problems after installing the update, however, purportedly because of an issue with Cortana. The virtual assistant’s SearchUI.exe process has reportedly used 30-40% of the CPU as well as 150-200MB of memory since the installation of the KB4512941 update. But those resources are being totally wasted–the Cortana window opened from the Taskbar fails to load.
It’s not clear why Cortana decided to be a processor hog with the KB4512941 update. What is clear, however, was the fact that members of the Windows Insider Program reported these problems to Microsoft via the Feedback Hub before the update was made available to the public. Those reports appear to have slipped through the cracks; now people who install the optional update are sacrificing a significant portion of their CPU to Cortana.
In fact, at the time of publication, Microsoft’s head still remains in the sand. On the KB4512941 page, the company states “Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update.“
Windows Latest said that some users resolved the problem with Cortana by deleting a registry key, but unless one of the update’s improvements outweighs the performance hit, it’s probably easier to simply uninstall the KB4512941 update until Microsoft addresses the issue.
