Everytime WW does an update, CPU usage shoots up to 100% on 3 different machines (P3/1G, P3/700, Celeron/1.25G). All systems become less responsive. It’d be nice to update at LOW cpu priority, or to improve programming with reduced CPU usage. (I’ll keep this updated when I get new results.)
Additional info:
I have got more details about the duration of 100% cpu usage. The slower the network response (e.g. some people behind firewalls), the longer the duration of 100% cpu utilization. Besides multiple instances of “dl.exe” taking up CPU usage, there’s two other processes called “svchost.exe” and “services.exe” which take up most of the CPU during weather update. “dl.exe” can be run with LOW cpu prioriy with the workaround described below, but “svchost.exe” and
“services.exe” still run at NORMAL priority. In other words, the workaround only improves machine responsiveness, though to a pretty good/acceptable degree; you may still experience some slowing-down. On the flip-side, although the GUI is more responsive when WW is updating, IE may take a hit on opening new web pages for non-apparent reasons. It might be because each time WW updates weather, it also has IE update it’s proxy settings by running the potentially very large autoproxy script.
My WW setup:
General: Start minimized, Retrieve on startup, Check for new version, Pause 10 sec
Auto update: every 5 min, enable auto update, only download when connected
System tray: display feels like, flash system tray
On download: all checked except display the actual time
WORKAROUND
- Turn off WW auto load at windows startup/user logon.
- Create a windows shortcut or batch file with the following command: [code]start "" /low "C:\Program Files\Weather Watcher\ww.exe"[/code]
- Put a shortcut in the Startup folder.
WinXP Task Manager Snapshot (WW is sitting IDLE, NORMAL priority):
Image Name CPU Base Pri
System Idle Process 91 N/A
taskmgr.exe 09 High
ww.exe 00 Normal
svchost.exe 00 Normal
services.exe 00 Normal
WinXP Task Manager Snapshot (WW is UPDATING, NORMAL priority):
Image Name CPU Base Pri
svchost.exe 47 Normal
dl.exe 26 Normal
services.exe 18 Normal
taskmgr.exe 09 High
dl.exe 00 Normal
dl.exe 00 Normal
ww.exe 00 Normal
dl.exe 00 Normal
WinXP Task Manager Snapshot (WW is sitting IDLE, LOW priority):
Image Name CPU Base Pri
System Idle Process 92 N/A
taskmgr.exe 07 High
QCTRAY.EXE 01 Normal
ww.exe 00 Low
svchost.exe 00 Normal
services.exe 00 Normal
WinXP Task Manager Snapshot (WW is UPDATING, LOW priority):
Image Name CPU Base Pri
svchost.exe 44 Normal
dl.exe 29 Low
services.exe 15 Normal
taskmgr.exe 11 High
QCTRAY.EXE 01 Normal
dl.exe 00 Low
dl.exe 00 Low
dl.exe 00 Low
ww.exe 00 Low
(other zero CPU items ommited)
Download time (duration of popup window):
NORMAL priority: 51, 57, 56; [b]Average: 55 seconds[/b]
LOW priority: 89, 84, 84; [b]Average: 86 seconds[/b]Be happy. [:D]
Cheers,
xyn