Daylight Saving Time (DST), also daylight savings time or daylight time and summertime is the practice of advancing clocks during warmer months so that darkness falls later each day according to the clock. If you notice high CPU and memory usage in Windows 11/10 when DST is configured, then this post is intended to help you. In this post, we will identify the possible cause and offer the corresponding workaround, as well as a solution you can try to remediate the issue.
Let’s look at a typical scenario where you can encounter this issue of the DST setting causing high CPU & memory usage on Windows 11/10.
You have a Windows 10 computer set to a time zone where daylight saving time (DST) changes occur at midnight instead of 2:00 AM. In this situation, you may experience the following issues.
Issue 1
The TaskHostw.exe process consumes 100 percent of CPU resources. Therefore, system performance and battery life decrease dramatically. This issue may affect thermal management on small form factor devices, as the process keeps running in a loop doing time conversion calculations.
Issue 2
The pagefile consumes excessive disk resources, which triggers high disk utilization.
Issue 3
Excessive memory use occurs.
Issue 4
Excessive disk, CPU, or memory use causes the computer to hang or freeze.
Daylight Saving Time setting causes high CPU & memory usage
This issue of the Daylight Saving Time (DST) setting causes high CPU & memory usage on Windows 11/10 because of a race condition in the TaskHostW.exe process (a generic host process for Windows services) that runs one of the energy.dll scheduled tasks. This scheduled task runs according to the time set on the computer. This issue occurs only on the day when DST changes.
The energy.dll file is loaded when DST changes occur at midnight instead of 2:00 AM.
If you encounter this issue, try the recommended solution or workaround (per your requirement) described below to mitigate it.
To resolve this issue, update your computer to the latest version of Windows 10.
If, for one reason or the other, you prefer to stay on your current Windows install and not upgrade to the latest version of Windows, or you’re already running the most current version of Windows. Still, the issue is not resolved. Try the workaround below.
To work around the issue, you need to disable the Power Efficiency Diagnostics task by using one of the following methods.
- Use the Task Scheduler UI (User Interface)
- Use the Command Prompt
Here are the steps for each method to resolve the DST setting that causes high CPU & memory usage on Windows 11/10.
1] Use the Task Scheduler UI (User Interface)
To use the Task Scheduler to disable the Power Efficiency Diagnostics task, do the following:
- Press Windows key + R to invoke the Run dialog.
- In the Run dialog, type taskschd.msc and hit Enter to open the Task Scheduler console.
- In the Task Scheduler console, navigate to the following:
Task Scheduler Library > Windows > Power Efficiency Diagnostics
- In the middle pane, select and right-click AnalyzeSystem.
- Click Disable.
You can exit the Task Scheduler console.
Read: How to Automatically adjust clock for Daylight Saving Time in Windows
2] Use the Command Prompt
To use the Command Prompt to disable the Power Efficiency Diagnostics task, do the following:
- Press Windows key + R to invoke the Run dialog.
- In the Run dialog box, type cmd and press CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER to open Command Prompt in admin/elevated mode.
- Copy and paste the command below into the Command Prompt window and press Enter.
schtasks /Change /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Power Efficiency Diagnostics\AnalyzeSystem" /DISABLE
You can now exit the Command Prompt once the command executes. But you can query the status of the task to confirm that the changes have been applied by running the following command:
schtasks /Query /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Power Efficiency Diagnostics\AnalyzeSystem"
The output should appear as follows:
Folder: \Microsoft\Windows\Power Efficiency Diagnostics
TaskName Next Run Time Status
===================== =========== ===============
AnalyzeSystem N/A Disabled
That’s it!
After completing the workaround or the solution itself, the issue of high CPU & memory usage on Windows 11/10 caused by the Daylight Saving Time (DST) setting should be resolved.
How do I turn off daylight savings on my computer?
In Windows, you can turn off daylight saving time when setting up the clock. Go to Settings > Time & language > Date & time. Set it manually and then turn off the toggle next to Adjust for daylight saving time automatically. Usually, if you have selected the correct region, you don’t need to do anything, or if the Set time is automatically turned on, it works fine.
Do computers change time automatically?
Yes, they do, based on the selected region and time zone. However, if you move to a different region, you must change accordingly. Set a time zone that matches your Wi-Fi or Ethernet network, as some applications depend on it. That said, you can always use additional clocks to track multiple time zones.
