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Runtime Broker Process


Periodically I notice a lot of LAN traffic from my PC and looking at Task Mgr I see it is from Runtime Broker that uses 30% CPU. I've looked at what it is for (intermediary between apps and their use of permissions) but the mystery is that it is accessing my NAS device and goes on for ages as the NAS has a lot of files on it.

Anyone else seen this behaviour? I find it hard to see why it has to hammer my NAS periodically but maybe this is normal??

As you can see from this article:

What is RuntimeBroker.exe and Why is it Running?

Runtime broker is part of the security subsystem of Universal Apps (then called Metro apps). Essentially, all access to files and other resources goes through the Runtime broker.. so what this means is that it's only accessing files on the behalf of another Universal app. This is probably something like the Photos app or something that searches through indexed files and catalogs them, or indexes them.

You should use something like FileMonitor to see what it's actually accessing if you're interested.

OK, it will be accessing thousands of photos.

Thanks for the explaining the link between an app and the files it has access to.

Runtime Broker kept thrashing my system, usually using 40% of my CPU although memory use wasn't much, according to the Task Manager. I'm currently using Windows 10 Pro x64 version 10240.

Runtime Broker is a service called Time Broker, which can be disabled through editing the registry.
Right-click on the Start Menu Icon. Go to RUN and type regedit.exe and select OK.

Find the following entry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTimeBroker] "Start"=dword:00000003

Change the 3 to a 4.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTimeBroker] "Start"=dword:00000004

4 is Disabled, 3 is Manual and 2 is Automatic startup.

Before editing, the original value was 3. Set to 4 to disable. Just change the 3 to a 4 through the MODIFY menu selection, exit regedit and reboot your system.

After this edit, Runtime Broker no longer runs and the CPU at idle is now only 0 to 1 or 2 percent.

No adverse affects after disabling Runtime Broker on my system. (ADDITIONAL NOTE: Disabling Runtime Broker will prevent apps from the Microsoft Store from running.)

It is not like setting it to Disabled will prevent it from running.

Runtime Broker was also causing heaps of eventid 10016 DCOM errors in my four comps. Problem was a Trusted Installer permissions one in the Registry. Got a fix for this, though, so these have disappeared.

i am having problems with runtime broker on windows 10 , keeps eating up more and more memory

I created this account so I can share the answer to the riddle.


  1. Search for “Check for updates” in the Start menu.
  2. Under “Windows Update” choose “Advanced options.”
  3. Under “Choose how updates are installed” click “Choose how updates are delivered.”
  4. Disable the toggle under “Updated from more than one place.”


It's been sharing updates with the world, using a lot of resources. It was using 40%+ on my brand new dell xps 13 i7.

Switched it off and bam.

Edit: It worked initially for me then I launched a twitch app and it went back.

Runtime broker no longer an issue, any ideas about getting live tiles to work? they stopped working when i upgraded and i have tried getting help from microsoft but they are useless

Runtime Broker kept thrashing my system, usually using 40% of my CPU although memory use wasn't much, according to the Task Manager. I'm currently using Windows 10 Pro x64 version 10240.

Runtime Broker is a service called Time Broker, which can be disabled through editing the registry.
Right-click on the Start Menu Icon. Go to RUN and type regedit.exe and select OK.

Find the following entry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTimeBroker] "Start"=dword:00000003

Change the 3 to a 4.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTimeBroker] "Start"=dword:00000004

4 is Disabled, 3 is Manual and 2 is Automatic startup.

Before editing, the original value was 3. Set to 4 to disable. Just change the 3 to a 4 through the MODIFY menu selection, exit regedit and reboot your system.

After this edit, Runtime Broker no longer runs and the CPU at idle is now only 0 to 1 or 2 percent.

No adverse affects after disabling Runtime Broker on my system.
This worked for me too. I noticed that the process was getting a lot of activity but wasn't sure if it was the culprit. Thanks!

Runtime Broker Process