What Is StartMenuExperienceHost.exe & How to Fix Its High CPU

What Is StartMenuExperienceHost.exe

StartMenuExperienceHost is a new feature that comes with the release of the Windows 10 1903 version. As its name implies, StartMenuExperienceHost.exe is mainly used to manage Windows 10 Start Menu. This feature was introduced by Microsoft to provide a dedicated and independent host process that’s only used to run the Start Menu and its subsidiary functions.

Before Windows 1903 update, the Start Menu was hosted by Microsoft Windows ShellExperienceHost.exe. This program runs with processes related to the File Explorer and Windows Shell at the same time, which provokes inconsistency and instability when running the Start Menu. Once ShellExperienceHost.exe crashes, the Start Menu would crash and need to restart. That’s why Microsoft release StartMenuExperienceHost.exe.

Since the ShellExperienceHost is independent of other processes, it is more reliable, faster, and stable than the Windows Shell Experience Host. It also improves the response time and performance of the Start Menu.

What Is Quickset64 and Is It Safe to Remove from a Dell Laptop

What is Quickset64? It is safe to remove Quickset64 from a Dell laptop? If you are trying to figure them out, you can obtain the answers from this post.

Read More

Is It Safe to Run on Windows

Start Menu Experience Host is a safe and legitimate program created by Microsoft Corporation. However, some Windows 10 users are suspect that this program is safe or a virus because it eats up much memory and CPU resources in Task Manager.

How to confirm its legitimacy? A simple method is to check its file size and file location. According to an official report, the file of StartMenuExperienceHost.exe is about 762 KB. The file is located in C:WindowsSystemAppsMicrosoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost folder by default.

To verify its safety and legitimacy, you can view the details of Start Menu Experience Host in Task Manager. Here’s how to do that:

Step 1. Press the Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys to open the Task Manager window.

Step 2. Navigate to the Details tab, and then right-click the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe from the list of processes and select Open file location.

Step 3. Now check if the file is located in the C:WindowsSystemAppsMicrosoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost folder. If the file is located in a different location, then it could be a virus or malware and you can remove it from your computer.

How to Fix the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe High CPU Usage Issue

Although this program improves the performance of the Start Menu, it causes some new problems. Many Windows users complain that StartMenuExperienceHost.exe stops working or crashes. Sometimes it even eats up almost all CPU and memory resources.

There are 3 simple methods to fix the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe high CPU and memory usage problem.

Method 1. Disable StartMenuExperienceHost.exe in Task Manager

The first and fastest method to fix the high CPU and memory usage problem is to restart StartMenuExperienceHost in Task Manager. To do so, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Open the Task Manager by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys.

Step 2. Go to the Details tab, and then right-click the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe from the list of processes and select End task.

Step 3. Click on the End Process button to confirm this operation. Then the process will end automatically and you can see restart it.

Computer Goes to Sleep too Fast – Here Are 3 Tested Solutions

A great many users report that their computer goes to sleep too fast. Have you come across this issue? There are several tested and effective methods to fix it.

Read More

Method 2. Revert Your Windows 10 to an Earlier Date

As mentioned above, the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe was released on Windows 10 1903 version. If you don’t want to use this program anymore, you can try performing a system restore. By doing so, your Windows 10 will be reverted to an earlier date when you haven’t installed the program.

Here you can read this post “How to Perform a System Restore from Command Prompt Windows 10” to learn detailed steps.

Method 2. Re-Register Start Menu via PowerShell

To solve the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe high CPU and memory usage problem, you can try to re-register the Start menu. Here are the steps:

Step 1. Right-click the Start button and select Terminal (Admin) or PowerShell (Admin).

Step 2. Type or paste the following command and press Enter to stop the service:
Stop-Process -Name “StartMenuExperienceHost” -Force

Step 3. Paste this command to re-register the package and press Enter:
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

Step 4. Restart your computer.

Should you disable StartMenuExperienceHost.exe? No. Do not permanently disable StartMenuExperienceHost.exe. It is a core Windows component required for Start menu functionality.

Disabling it may cause:

• Start menu failure
• Search problems
• Windows Shell instability

Bottom Line

This guide explains what StartMenuExperienceHost.exe does and how to fix high CPU usage issues caused by it.