Users of Windows systems, starting with the Vista modification, often in the task manager observe many obscure processes that load the system resources of the computer quite heavily. One of these is DWM.exe. What is it - few people imagine. Meanwhile, there is nothing complicated in understanding the nature of this process. Next, we will consider the features of the service, issues of disabling it and fixing errors that may appear at the stage of loading the operating system, which is most common.
DWM.exe: what is it?
The process is one of the components of the “Desktop Manager” service, which starts with the system and is a tool for composite display of the contents of all active windows.
Roughly speaking, the contents of all windows are recorded in specific memory cells, after which the system creates its own (composite) preview, allowing you to change the appearance of each window (for example, add effects).
Memory and CPU Involvement
In Windows 7, DWM.exe is responsible for installing specialized themes, including Aero, which has many visual special effects. As a rule, the process in memory takes about 40-50 MB for itself, however, on weak machines, the load can reach higher values.
In Windows 10, effects such as translucent panels are absent, so usually the load does not exceed 15-20 MB. It is easy to figure out that to reduce the consumption of system resources, you just need to disable this system component.
How to reduce the load on resources in the simplest way?
The easiest way to deactivate this process in a loaded system is to call it normal completion in the "Task Manager". But how appropriate is it? Judge for yourself, because upon restart this component is activated again.
To reduce the load, you should use a change of theme. For example, you can go to personalization through the PCM menu on your desktop and select a classic theme. Even better, use the performance options section, where you should specify the best performance setting instead of the optimal
Service errors at system startup and correction
We should also pay attention to the fact that sometimes the process itself, due to incorrect functioning of the service, can cause a malfunction directly at system startup, the message “DWM.exe has stopped working” will appear).
According to statistics, most often this problem for some reason appears in Windows 7 Ultimate with 32-bit architecture.
No less common failure can be considered the appearance of the message "Application error DWM.exe" in a running system. It is quite difficult to fix such problems, since the true reasons for this behavior of Windows are not known for certain.
Of all the solutions, one can recommend restoring or loading system libraries using the DLL Suite program. It is possible that some service-related components can be restored in this way.
Some experts recommend a complete reinstall or update of the drivers for the graphics adapter, which is directly involved in the service. For Windows 7, you can recommend troubleshooting tools for the Aero shell.
How to disable DWM.exe?
But, as practice shows, it is better to disable this service and related processes on weak computers. The first step is to deactivate the main DWM.exe service. What is this from a system point of view? Actually, there is nothing critical in this, only to configure the classic theme in this case is not necessary.
Call the menu "Run" and by entering the services.msc command, go to the services section. Here you need to find the component of the “Desktop” window manager, then go into the service settings, stop it and indicate the disabled startup type. Completing the process in the "Task Manager" is also not required. After rebooting, the process will be deactivated completely.
What if it is a virus?
This is all for the DWM.exe service. What is this, I hope, readers already understand.
Now let's say a few words about the effects of viruses. The situation can be twofold: either the virus infects the system file of the same name, or it has the same name and disguises itself as the described process. Alas, copying the same file from an uninfected computer to the system does not lead to anything, the problem persists.
First you need to make sure that we are faced with a virus. In the task manager through RMB on the process, locate the file location. This should be the System32 directory exclusively. If you see another directory, immediately terminate the process, delete the file and start a deep system scan with some portable anti-virus application.
But it’s best to use the Kaspersky Rescue Disk utility, write it to removable media and boot from it before starting Windows. If the file is corrupted by a virus, a process error appears exactly at the system startup, it is possible that a deep scan will detect the desired virus and neutralize it. This will be the best solution.
Instead of a total
Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that there is nothing wrong with disabling this service, unless you can take advantage of the effects. But if similar problems constantly arise (especially on older computers), it is better to completely deactivate it. By the way, due to this, you can increase the overall system performance. Finally, if the appearance of errors and failures on modern machines with powerful processors and large amounts of RAM is not observed, process deactivation is not required.