Windows 10 - Window Driver Foundation running continuously in background

29 April 2016

When I originally upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 10, I encountered a really strange problem. There was this background task running continuously and taken control from the active window. I cannot even work in Excel because everytime I wanted to select something from a menu, the background would take control and took away from what I wanted to select. Very frustrating.

I search the web for solution but couldnt find much. So I could be one of the few that have been affected with my software and hardware setup.

I started the task Manager and tried to find what processes are running and taking over the whole machine. And that led me to this particular process - Service Host Local System (Network restricted). There are many Service Host but this particular one have the following subprocesses

The particular subprocess that is causing the problem is the second last one - Windows Driver Foundation.

Here is what you need to do.

Highlight the Service Host process in Task Manager and click "End Task".

When prompted "Do you want to end the process". Check the "Abandone unsaved data and shut down" and click "Shut Down".

Now you have successfully close down the problem process, Windows 10 will behave normally. But the problem process will restart soon so you will have to stop it from restarting.

Press the Window Key and "R" together. Type in "services.msc" in the box and press enter. In the list of services, double click on "Windows Driver Foundation". On the startup Type selection, change the type to "Disable" and click "Apply".

Now your problem will be fixed until next time some program install change the startup type for that process. If it ever does that again, just repeat this process to kill it.

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