What Is Cryptographic Services & How to Fix Its High CPU Usage

You can try renaming the Catroot2 folder or scan your PC for virus

5 min. read

Updated onOctober 28, 2024

updated onOctober 28, 2024

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Is yourPC performance slowor are you coming acrossfrequent system crashes? This could very well be because a service is eating up most of your CPU resources. The service that we are talking about is the cryptographic service, which has been troubling Windows 10 users for quite some time.

Users are looking to fix the cryptographic services’ high CPU usage issue but in vain. Fortunately, in this guide, we have some effective solutions lined up for you that will help you resolve the service host cryptographic service’s high CPU usage problem on your Windows PC.

What is Cryptographic Service?

Before we get ahead with the solutions to resolve the cryptographic service high CPU usage problem, let us first understand what is this cryptographic service.

The cryptographic service in your Windows 10 PC is an official service by Microsoft that performs the action of encrypting and decrypting the data as and when it is accessed.

The reason why users are reporting service host cryptographic services high CPU usage problem is that the encryption software runs an algorithm to secure the data file and this process requires a lot of resources.

How can I fix the Crytpograhic Service high CPU usage issue?

Here are a few preliminary solutions that we would suggest you apply right away:

Now, let us check out the advanced solutions and possibly fix the high CPU usage caused by the cryptographic service.

1. Rename the Catroot2 folder

2. Clean boot your PC

Clean boot will start your PC with a minimal set of drivers and startup items. Only essential programs will load. You can now check if the cryptographic service was having any issues with another process that was ultimately causing high CPU usage.

3. Run SFC Scan and DISM

We have a guide to helprestore and repair corrupt system fileson your Windows PC. It contains a bunch of effective solutions to fix system-file-related issues.

Otherwise, you can also use adedicated third-party toolthat can repair corrupt system files with just a few clicks.

It will help scan your PC, find new files to replace the corrupt ones, fix DLL-related issues, fix BSOD errors, and much more.

4. Reset your PC

This should be performed only as a last resort if none of the above solutions work for you. Chances are the cryptographic service itself is faulty, and a reset would help replace the file and also resolve the issue of high CPU usage.

We also have a bunch of solutions tofix the high CPU usage issuethat can trigger without any reason. In such a case a dedicated virus infection or malicious remover software can come in handy, and we would recommend you make use ofESET HOME Security Essential.

There is also a chance that the cryptographic service itself isn’t causing the high CPU usage issue, but the other background processes are conflicting with it and causing the problem. For such situations, you can refer to our guide on how you canfix too many background processes running on your PC.

Before you leave, you might want to visit ourWindows Cryptographic Service Provider reported an errorguide for more useful information.

That is it from us in this guide. Let us know in the comments below, which one of the above solutions helped you resolve the problem.

What Is Cryptographic Services & How to Fix Its High CPU Usage#

What is Cryptographic Service?#

How can I fix the Crytpograhic Service high CPU usage issue?#

1. Rename the Catroot2 folder#

2. Clean boot your PC#

3. Run SFC Scan and DISM#

4. Reset your PC#