What is WSAPPX and How to Fix its High CPU Usage

Wondering about the WSAPPX process in Windows 8 and 10? Does it cause high disk or CPU usage? We are here to show you what WSAPPX is and how to fix its resource usage.

Even while running a few applications at a time, both Windows 10 and 8 users have noticed their computers turning incredibly slow.

Imagine you are in this situation, open your Task Manager to check what’s causing the problem, Just to face with a mysterious process called WSAPPX. This approach will hog upwards of % of your CPU usage, causing your computer to slow down devastatingly.

The first question that comes to mind is “What is WSAPPX?” and “How can I fix the high disk usage of WSAPPX?” which are both valid things to worry about in this scenario.

What is WSAPPX

The WSAPPX process is a critical part of your Windows operating system, despite hogging up your resources. In particular, there are two services, the Windows Store and the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), that rely on this process.

The Windows Store is its primary purpose and focus. It is responsible for handling, installing, deleting, and updating applications via the Windows Store that you buy and use.

However, unless you are installing or updating Windows Store apps, there is no need for the process to continuously run on your device.

When expanding the WSAPPX category, you’ll see two sub-entries displayed: AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC) and Client License Service.

These are part of the service, providing infrastructure support for the Microsoft Store and Store application.

To sum it up, WSAPPX is a necessary process that runs on your device in order to make the Windows Store and Store apps run. It’s not dangerous, however, it may cause slow-downs due to errors in the process.

How to Fix High CPU Usage Caused by WSAPPX

1. Increase Virtual Memory

The virtual memory size may need to be expanded. You can do it as follows:

1. Type the word “performance” in the search bar and select the option “Adjust Appearance vs. Performance in Windows.”
2. Select the ‘Advanced’ tab among the tabs on the top.
3. Go to ‘Virtual Memory’ and click on ‘Change’.
4. Uncheck the ‘Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox.
5. Select the drive where the OS is installed and click on ‘Custom size’.
6. Set the ‘Initial size’ equivalent to the size of your RAM but in MB and the ‘Maximum size’ to double of the Initial size.
7. Click ‘Set’ and then ‘OK’ and then restart your device.

Then see if this helps.

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2. Disable Windows Store

You can do this by two methods. First, with the Group Policy Editor. Second, with the Registry Editor. Here are the steps for both methods.

Using Group Policy Editor

1. Type ‘gpedit.msc’ in Start Search and press Enter. It opens the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Go to ‘Computer Configuration’ and select ‘Administrative Templates’.
3. Then go to ‘Windows Components’ and select ‘Store’.
4. Find the ‘Turn Off Store application’ setting in the right pane.
5.  Select ‘Enable’ and ‘Apply’.

Using Registry Editor

Some versions of Windows do not have the Group Policy Editor option. So, here is the other way to do it. But before you begin, create a backup of your data first.

Type ‘regedit’ in Start Search and hit ‘Enter’. This opens the Registry Editor.

Navigate to:

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore key

Here you need to create new DWORD value within the Windows Store key and name it RemoveWindowsStore and give it the value of ‘1’. If the WindowsStore key does not exist itself, you will have to create it.

Now restart your Windows device.

When you disable Windows Store, third-party Windows Store apps cannot be installed or updated. If anybody tries to open the Windows Store app now, the screen will display the message:

Windows Store isn’t available on this PC. Contact your system administrator for more information.

Apps like Mail, Movies & TV, Photos, Calculator, and OneNote need this app for automatic updates so if you need those frequent updates, disabling this feature is not recommended.

3. Change the Value of AppXSvc in Registry

Jerry Shelton adds below in the comments:

Open Registry Editor and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\AppXSvc

In the right panel, change the value of Start to 4.

Restart the computer.

4. Troubleshoot in Clean Boot State

If nothing helps, you may need to perform a Clean Boot in order to make Windows run only on a few essential driver sets and startup programs. This will help you manually isolate the issue in case it is because of startup programs.

 

WSAPPX is a process that was introduced in Windows 8.1 by Microsoft. Although it is clear that it is related to the store, it is unclear why the process was not stopped after the system disabled the store.

For now, it seems as though there is no solution in Windows to address the high usage of the wsappx process. As far as high CPU usage goes, it is unclear why it is driving CPU up by that much at times.

In the future, if you ever run into any issues with the process, make sure to return to our page and try to apply a different solution.

We hope we have been able to cover everything you need to know about in this article, and we are hopeful that it serves its purpose of meeting your search intent.