Wmpivrse.exe, Windows Management Instrumentation, or simply WMI, is an executable file in Windows that provides you with information on the state of your Windows OS.
Reddit Explains It
According to Reddit, it is a system management/inventory interface.
It will gather inventory information about the system like BIOS version, CPU type, Hard disk vendor. As well, it provides information on network ports and how the system is functioning:
Unlike a lot of other pretty useless executable files that you may see on your computer, this one is quite handy to have around. The problem with this executable file is that it takes up a lot of CPU memory.
While it’s not exactly supposed to do that, it may drain your CPU because of an error that’s related to WMI.
If you’re experiencing some errors that are connected to this .exe file, then you have to fix it as soon as possible. There are a few simple fixes that can address the problem.
What Is Wmpivrse.exe
What exactly does Wmipvrse.exe do anyway? As mentioned above, it gives you a plethora of important information about your OS that you may need.
For instance, you’ll be able to know your serial number, motherboard model code, or even just the overall state of your hard drive.
However, wmpivrse.exe is just like a lot of default .exe files in windows like the ccapp.exe and the ctfmon.exe—they slow down the computer by using up too much power and are easily prone to errors.
So if you see an error related to wmpivrse.exe, then try out some of the fixes mentioned below.
Common Errors
- “Cannot find wmiprvse.exe.”
- “Wmiprvse.exe is not a valid Win32 application.”
- “Wmiprvse.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”
- “Wmiprvse.exe Application Error.”
- “Faulting Application Path: wmiprvse.exe.”
- “Error starting program: wmiprvse.exe.”
- “Wmiprvse.exe not found.”
- “Wmiprvse.exe is not running.”
- “Wmiprvse.exe failed.”
How to Fix Wmpivrse.exe
The easiest way to fix the wmpivrse.exe issues is to simply disable wmpivrse.exe as you would do with the ccapp.exe or the agrotray.exe. However, this .exe file is a bit more useful than most Windows executable files, which is why you’ll want to use that method as a last resort. Try these other fixes first.
1st Fix (Restart WMI)
The first method to try would be to just restart the Windows Management Instrumentation or the WMI so that you can refresh the wmpivrse.exe problem.
Here’s how you do it according to Windows Report:
- Run Services.msc and look for Services.
- Look for Windows Management Instrumentation services.
- Right click on it and click Restart.
After doing this, your problem should be fixed.
Video Tutorial: Troubleshooting A Windows Service With services.msc
2nd Fix (Use Event Viewer)
If the problem is a little more complex than that, then you can try to identify the root cause of the problem.
Windows Report says that the best way to do this is to use the Event Viewer which can be found in Windows 10 or Windows 8.
Search for Event Viewer in the search bar and run it. If you’re using Windows 7, run Eventvwr.msc. After that, follow these steps:
- Go to the Applications and Service in the left side.
- Look at the events and look for error events.
- If you see processes that have the same ID number, then the process is an error.
- Look for that process in the Task Manager and close it.
Diagnose Windows Problems Using the Event Viewer
3rd Fix (Run An Antivirus)
Another problem you might face is that there is a virus that disguises itself as a legit program like the wmpivrse.exe.
In order to check this, you have to scan your computer with antivirus. This will check if there are any possible threats that you’ll need to erase. Once you see the errors, then you can just delete or clean them from the computer.
4th Fix (Disabling It)
The last resort, if ever nothing works, is to disable WMI simply.
Disabling of the WMI also does shut down a lot of important processes which is why this method is always the last resort. WinHelpOnline suggests you do the following:
- Run the Task Manager and go to processes.
- Select the Wmpivrse.exe in the processes.
- Click on End Task, and it should end.
Forum Feedback
We browsed some popular forums to see what people were discussing regarding this file process.
We found that the most common inquiries were related to high CPU usage, people wondering what it was, wondering whether it was a virus, those experiencing application errors, and those wondering how to restart it on Windows 7 and Windows 10 computers.
Symantec
Over in the Symantec support forums, one person was complaining about overly High CPU utilization.
They said that 10 network computers were getting automatically turned off after waking up from the hibernated estate.
They were looking at the Wmpivrse.exe process as a possible culprit, potentially because it was actually malware.
The top rated response came from a user who said that it is not a malware or a virus. Instead, as we have already outlined above, this user said that the file process is responsible for managing information and providing control inside of an enterprise environment.
They said that high CPU usage problems are generally caused by bad startup programs And provided this link as a potential resource for fixing it.
Over on Reddit, one person posted inside of tech support that this particular process with eating up 30% of their CPU.
After doing extensive research, they said that they had determined that it is not a virus, a startup process or a program that automatically runs in the background.
He says that he has not terminated the process because, after doing some online research, he understands that too many other services depend on it.
He experimented with suspending the process using ProcessExplorer, But that ended up preventing other programs from launching, including some computer games that he was fond of.
One user suggested disabling the IP helper service, but the original poster said that that did not work. At the end of the day, what he discovered was that one of the applications at startup called the Browser Configuration Utility was ultimately responsible.
GroovyPost
Over on GroovyPost, inside the comment section, one user said that he had been experiencing issues with this file process and ended up blaming the Microsoft operating language.
He says that Macintosh operating systems aren’t plagued by these types of issues.
Two At The Same Time?
Another issue that cropped up was that users discovered two of these processes running simultaneously inside of their task manager I’ve been with one user saying that the CPU usage on one of them can go up to 4%.
Another user said that he was having the same problem and it ended up being a virus- it was written to mimic and resemble a normal and legitimate process, but clearly wasn’t.
Another person was somewhat confused- he said that his personal computer isn’t attached to a network or use for business purposes, so he was perplexed why is operating system needed as web-based enterprise management solution.
What he ended up doing, because he was pretty technically savvy, was switching to Linux and running Windows in a virtual machine environment.
Another computer user expressed a similar frustration and said that his standalone personal computer is plagued by high CPU usage on account of this particular file. He had attempted a fix that required him reinstalling Norton, but that had him fixed it.
Another frustrated Windows user says that he doesn’t understand why they don’t just let individuals select the supplementary services they want to install instead of having them automatically run and clog up resources.
Conclusion
As always mentioned, it’s important that you save the 4th fix for the last one because it’s going to disable a lot of things that you may need while you are using your computer. So always try the 1st to the 3rd methods first. It’s crucial to always know the main problem behind the actual issue. The first three methods do just that while the 4th one just shuts down everything right away.
Since the 4th method may damage some parts of the OS, it gives a temporary fix if ever things get too out of hand. In the end, you still have to find the root cause of the Wmpivrse.exe problem.
