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Lately, every time I try to use Visual Studio a process called ntoskrnl.exe starts climbing to insane levels of disk usage. Which slows down my PC and brings VS to a crawl (sometimes freezing it for 10 seconds at a time). I can't even use VS anymore. Even something as simple as typing code freezes up my whole computer temporarily.

I've never had problems with VS until recently. The only change I can think of is: I installed Git for Windows. I uninstalled Git for Windows through the control panel. I uninstalled the github extension through VS extension manager. I even removed the git for windows option through the VS installer. But it still pops up on my task manager. I'm not sure if this is the culprit or not though.

I have had problems with ntoskrnl.exe's disk usage in the past, but never on such a consistent and persistent basis. Has anyone else dealt with, or heard of this issue? I've done plenty of Googling to no avail (about 8 hrs worth).

UPDATE: I disabled Superfetch, Prefetch, and Windows Search. Now ntoskrnl.exe is using less disk speed. My disk usage is still maxed out though, the main culprit is not "Git for Windows":

enter image description here

As I said earlier, this program should have been completely removed. I'm not sure why it's still running.

EDIT: BTW, I have two hard-drives (one for media, the other for software). So that "50% Disk" usage means 100% for my main hard drive:

enter image description here

Also, when I "open file location" for that process, it takes me to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TeamFoundation\Team Explorer\Git\mingw32\libexec\git-core
mkrieger1
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Rhett Prestwich
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  • [analyze what FileIO/DIskIO is done by using WPRUI/WPA.exe](https://superuser.com/a/1236558/174557) from Windows Performace Toolkit – magicandre1981 Sep 03 '17 at 07:26

1 Answers1

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This bug was described in this thread:

My change to improve this was part of the work for the 15.3 release (2017.3), and it should appear initially in 15.3 Preview 2.

So it depends on the exact version of your Visual Studio.
It has been official released 15 days ago.

Note: regarding Git for Windows, no need to use the msi setup: simply uncompress anywhere you want the latest realease like PortableGit-2.14.1-64-bit.7z.exe, add it to your %PATH% and you are good to go.

VonC
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  • I had a difficult time understanding that thread. How is the high CPU usage mentioned in the thread related to the high Disk usage I'm experiencing? – Rhett Prestwich Sep 03 '17 at 01:06
  • also, I was unaware that I was using the "msi setup" for Git for Windows. What does that mean, and how did you know I was using it? – Rhett Prestwich Sep 03 '17 at 01:08
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    Both involve ntoskrnl. The point is: check if your issue persists with the very latest version of Visual Studio. – VonC Sep 03 '17 at 01:08
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    Because you don't uninstall a simple zip archive, as the one I propose. – VonC Sep 03 '17 at 01:09
  • So you're saying I don't need to install Git for Windows? Could you elaborate on the alternative? What do you mead when you say "add it to your %PATH%? – Rhett Prestwich Sep 03 '17 at 21:05
  • @RhettPrestwich Yes, no installation required: it is a simple archive that you uncompress anywhere you want. As for the PATH, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/45784027/6309. – VonC Sep 03 '17 at 21:24