TrustedInstaller.exe

Very often I have TrustedInstaller.exe utilizing about 100% of my cpu for
several minutes. Is this something I need to worry about; especially if I
have Windows Update on notification mode only?

Yeah, I seem to get it too, but I have windows update set so I have to manually do it. Microsoft really need to let us know exactly what it's doing, because I think i'd rather choose when it eats 85-95% of my cpu if it is going to.

i was seeking what the trustedinstaller.exe was doing and also seeking why it was utiuizing my cpu for 100 % and eeting up almost 200 MB of ram..

sinse i dond trust the trusted installer i began searching for a way to shut it down.. and perhaps remove it from the system.... and i have succeded. here the way to delete the trustedinstaller.exe from a windows vista home premium 32bitt system..

in order to get your pc running smooth again you have to do the folowing things.

---------------------------------
first kill the trustedinstaller.exe in your task manager.
then go to the \windows\servicing derectory and richt klik on the trustedinstaller.exe file. then go to property's and go to the securety tab. usualy the 3th tab.

there you can change the richts of the system file. ad youself as administrator of the file and remove al the privelegis of the other dont remove the names only the rights. .... the trustedinstaller user must have read acces otherwise al the changes wil be set back to standard.

when you have granted youself admin richt to the file and removed al the other rights of the other users of the file al but the read acces of trustedinstaller account.. you can go to the directory \windows\servicing\.. and delete the file.

be awera that the file wil try to start itself while you are bussy doing this. if it is started again you are to slow and have to start over again. if you are fast you can delete the file and the problem is fixed. since i dont now what the file does and i stil have a working system i think its save to delete it. but i am not shure. microsoft wont tel us where the file is for so i have deleted it an have it stil in my recycle bin so i can put it back if needed...

also i noticed that the trustedinstaller user account can be find in al system files with al the acces richts.. i think if you hack this file you can acces a system from the trustedinstaller user account. i am not shure but its the impresion i get while shuting the file down.. i am stil seeking what happends if you remove the trustedinstaller user account from the computer.. i think nothing wil change but i have not tested it at this time...

perheps sombody can edit this tekst to some good english. thanks..

read this first before doing anything of the above post.......

i have found out that the trustedinstaller is working with the login of the useraccounts. who are not administrator wil not be abele to log in anymore
if you remove the file the user accounts wil stop working...

oeps... further i stil dont now what the file is doing exept eeting up the cpu and mem

next problem is that i cant put the file back in the directory......

i have made a recover point before doing the delete of the trustedinstaller.exe that was the only way to get the file back on its place...

beware if you try to remove the file.. i could not put it back becouse i had no write acces to the \windows\servicing folder and could not obtain it also......
somewhere there is a hicher administrator than myself. and i could not find the administrator account in vista also. and i geus that wont work becous the administrator has got no write acces to the directory also.. verry strange.......

the trustedinstaller user account seems to have al acces to the complete machine.... strange very strange. for now i have set the priorety of the trustedinstaller to low so i can stil work on my laptop without seeing al the cpu and mem going to the trusted installer program....

TrustedInstaller.exe is used by the windows service called "Windows
Module Installer" (Or rather is the service) Says it has something to do
with updating windows, so uninstalling or disabling it could cause some
updates to fail. I wouldn't remove or delete the file itself. Simply set
the service to start manualy.

1. Start Menu ->Run
2. type msconfig and select Services section.
3. delect the box next to Windows Module Installer

this will keep it from starting up when loading windows

Now to set it to manual start

1. Right click taskbar and select properties
2. Select Start Menu tab and choose Customise..." button
3. In the list, check "Display administrative tools" and click apply
and click ok
4. Now go to Start Menu -> Program Files -> Administrative tools ->
Services
5. Look in the list for the service "Windows Module Installer"
6. Double click and look for the dropdown menu, this will be on the
"General" tab
7. Select "Manual" from the list
8. Click apply, click ok
9. Now restart

Everything should be good now :) You might need to turn it off in the
processes from task manager, but I dout it.

If any problems show up, you can always set it to automatic again. Then
switch it back. Though manual should make it so it updates when told to
:-p Anyway...

I just figured this out after reading this thread so I signed up to
post my findings :)

Hope this helps people, have fun.

Ok, what I have been able to acertain is this:

TrustedInstaller.exe works in conjunction with the Integrated Windows Update in Vista. What it is doing, when you see it draining your CPU is that it is checking for new updates. This usually occurs whenever you have a scheduled update scan, as well as after you finish installing a set of updates and reboot. It is an automatic process, and while you can disable it if you want to, or set it to manual control like the post suggests, it is trying to make sure there are no additional updates that are important, after you complete an update installation.

Best not to disable then. Unless you plan to regularly check microsoft's
update center yourself I would leave it at automatic. Since I like to
manually do this, it works out for me and my company :smile: If
Microsoft decides to fix a few issues with Vista, we might even upgrade
from XP. :tongue:

This became a lot longer than I expected so if you want the short answer without how I figured this out, scroll to the bottom.

Long Answer

So I think I've devised a solution to this problem.

First, some background on what TrustedInstaller is.

Essentially, TrustedInstaller.exe is this kind of third-party master "administrator" which holds the rights to certain files/applications that the OS deems to be essential. Windows basically gives TrustedInstaller carte blanche to do whatever it wants -- use as much CPU, RAM as it wants. This is because if TrustedInstaller.exe has allowed a certain application (let's call it Program X) to perform a given task, then Windows essentailly "trusts" that Program X is an essential system resource -- because it is running under the purview of TrustedInstaller. (Hence the strange, spyware-esque name of TrustedInstaller.) And since Program X is an "essential" and "trusted" system resource, Windows will make sure to give it all the CPU time it needs.

I found the MSDN blog post found at http://blogs.msdn.com/irenak/archive...installer.aspx to be particularly insightful on what TrustedInstaller actually does.

Anyway, on to the solution.

So, I would be trying to watch a movie in windows media player when all of a sudden the movie stutters and skips and TrustedInstaller is using like 90% CPU, can't end task, lowering task priority does nothing. And if i closed wmplayer, TrustedInstaller would go away. After looking around on some forums I learned that TrustedInstaller has something to do with the new Integrated Windows Update feature in Vista. So I tried to deactivate Windows Update but that did nothing. Then I realized, TrustedInstaller.exe (in my particular case) is only hogging ridiculous amoutns of resources when I use programs that depend on a certain codec (ffdshow) that I had been having problems with earlier and which Vista logged in its "Problem Reports and Solutions" service. I then realized, Windows is continuously checking for "updates" or "new solutions" to the ffdshow problem I used to have because I had not yet removed the entry for the codec problem in the Problem Reports and Solutions control panel. So, removing all of these entries should result in Problem Reports and Solutions stopping its requests on the Windows Update service, which will then stop its requests to TrustedInstaller to take up massive amounts of system resources.

Short Answer

Do the following:
Start > Control Panel > Classic View > Problem Reports and Solutions > Clear Solution and Problem History > (Confirm that you want to clear the history) > Close the control panel

Caveat: The thing is, this assumes that Problem Reports and Solutions is the root cause of your particular TrustedInstaller using up all these resources. If there is something else that is making calls on TrustedInstaller (which it very well could be as TrustedInstaller serves as a central hub for what Vista deems mission-critical requests) - then you will have to diagnose your unique problem.

you're absolutely right - that should work as well and is probably a better more 'permanent' solution.

Also, SP1 should have better performance here.

What about changing the setting from "Check for solutions automatically," to
"Ask me to check if a problem occurs"?

you're absolutely right - that should work as well and is probably a
better more 'permanent' solution.

talking about the TrustedInstaller.exe < it annoyed me like hell, k this wat i did. doing nothing on the pc everything seems normal, then i start to play any game like on Int. or installed, all of the updates and installers including TrustedInstaller would open and start doing wat they do best ^_^ eat up my CPU...RAWR... which makes any game i play laggg majorly, now that from someone's elses post i read that told me how to shut it down i am relieved.

And talking about the updating system and all other stuff from Microsoft or any other company i most likely do it at end of a month or at end of 2nd month. cause the 1st time i installed Win Vista Ultimate, it was doing update every night at 2:00 AM.
also why i mentioned the "the 1st time i installed Win Vista Ultimate" is becasue there was a virus and after all updates done i reboot my computer it wouldn't work, which after the 2nd time a good anti virus helped me that wasnt listed on the Microsoft anti virus program list when i searched it for a computer defence, that would protect me from any harm at the same time not updating when i am on anything, like AVG free edtion which my friend got.

i am just going to stop talking now.... peace out.... Happy New Year to everyone...

This has been most annoying when playing on-line FPS games.

A lot of good information here. Many thanks to all of you.

In addition to clearing my history (as suggested in a previous post), I've gone into Start > Control Panel > Classic View > Problem Reports and Solutions > Change Settings and changed my machine to "Ask me..."

After I did that, TrustedInstalled.exe dropped out of Task Manager.

I'll post back after a while to give you an update as to whether or not this seems to have eased the problem.

Again, thanks for all of the good information.

The death of UseNet?