What is WerFault.exe?

WerFault.exe is the Windows Problem Reporting service.

This file is part of Microsoft® Windows® Operating System. WerFault.exe is developed by Microsoft Corporation. It’s a system and hidden file. WerFault.exe is usually located in the %SYSTEM% folder and its usual size is 356,864 bytes.

The WerFault.exe process is a part of the Windows Error Reporting feature in Windows Vista. With the help of this process Microsoft monitors your system and find solutions to various problems. WerFault.exe makes it possible for users to send error data to Microsoft and get updates that are designed to solve the detected problems. In addition to that, WerFault.exe allows developers to detect errors and improve the quality of their products.

How to Stop WerFault.exe Using 99% CPU

WerFault.exe is notorious for hogging computers by using 80-99% of CPU. Contrary to the common misconception, this happens not because of the service itself, but because of an error with a Windows feature or a third party application. This means that to solve the WerFault.exe high CPU usage problem you’ll need to detect and fix the error that’s causing WerFault.exe to run all the time and consume a lot of system resources. Here is how you can find out which applications are causing errors:

1. Click on Start, type cmd.exe in the Search box and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open the Command Prompt. If you get a UAC warning, prompt it to accept the action.
2. In the Command Prompt, type SFC /SCANNOW and hit Enter.
3. Wait until the scan is complete. Windows will tell you that it found a certain number of errors and fixed most of them.
4. See if this helped to stop WerFault.exe using up your CPU.

If this didn’t help, you can find the source of the error by launching the Event Viewer:

1. Click on Start, type EVENTVWR.MSC in the Search bar and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
2. Under Windows logs, look in the Application and System folders for errors that occurred at the same time as the high CPU usage. You will get the error number, source and details.
3. If a third party application is causing the problem, update it and see if that helps. If nothing helps, uninstall the application. And if a Windows feature is responsible for the errors, update Windows via Microsoft’s website.

How to Disable WerFault.exe

Disabling WerFault.exe isn’t really a good idea, but it can be done if you don’t think you need this feature or can’t be bothered to go through the troubleshooting routine. It’s also possible to customize WerFault.exe to suit your needs, so that only certain files and programs send error reports. Here is how you can customize the WerFault.exe feature.

1. Open the Control Panel and go to System and Maintenance.
2. Then click on Problem Reports and Solutions and click on Change Settings on the left-hand side.
3. Select an option to configure how Windows looks for solutions to problems – automatically or asks you every time it wants to check your system.
4. Now click the Advanced settings link.
5. Select Off to disable Error Reporting.
6. If you decide to keep the service enabled, you can click on Change settings to configure how Error Reporting works on your PC.

If disabling WerFault.exe via the Control Panel doesn’t work for some reason, you can disable the WerFault.exe service. Here is how:

1. Click on Start, type services.msc in the Search box and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter
2. In the new window, locate the Windows Error Reporting Service.
3. If the service is running, stop it.
4. Then right-click on it, go to Properties and change the startup type to Disabled.
5. Click OK and reboot your computer.

And here is how to fix WerFault.exe – Application Error on Windows 10?