Have you encountered Dwm.exe? Do you know what it is? We people are using Windows laptops for such a long period but still, some of its components are either hiding or we are not able to understand them. Keeping this in mind, I am going to share another most commonly used term Dwm.exe. We will also discuss the methods to remove this from your Windows 10.
Before proceeding ahead let’s understand a bit of windows manager because then only you would be able to understand Dwm.exe.
What Is A Window Manager?
There are many ways of visualizing a computing space, broadly categorized into two groups: CLI and GUI. A window manager is an essential tool for the windowing system in a GUI. It draws virtual windows. Basically rectangular shapes where different applications can display their content. Such boxes or windows are what people use to distinguish one program from others. A single program can have multiple windows too, like Windows file explorer.
What Is Dwm.exe?
Dwm.exe refers to the desktop window manager executable found in windows installation. Dwm.exe is responsible for the use of hardware acceleration to render Windows GUI. Dwm.exe is a composite window manager, meaning that it creates a composite from multiple buffers (small chunks of memory) from different applications into an image which is then used up and sent to the display. Earlier versions of Windows prior to Windows 7 used the stacking window manager. The famous transparency effects on the Windows frame of Windows 7, called aero transparency and fluent design in Windows 10 are possible due to the dwm.exe.
Why Does It Eat Up Majority Of System Resources And Can I Turn It Off?
Well, since it is responsible for rendering the GUI of the operating system, you can also turn it off. On windows vista, it was used only to render the visual effects so disabling a service that also disabled Dwm and thus disables the effects. Since Vista, dwm has taken on more responsibility and now handles the full GUI, so it’s natural to allocate more memory, GPU, and CPU cycles. Depending on the resolution, the allotment of resources will be greater. Hence it’s not possible to stop it or delete the file without damaging the installation.
Dwm is an internal component of the windows operating system. Thus it is a genuine program that runs continuously in the background. But, there is some malware spreading around through the internet, which have the same executable name and process name, but actually are malicious program which can cause harm to the computer and even be used to hack a computer remotely. They easily spread from computer to computer via email attachments or via embedded programs in other software. Apart from this desktop window manager high CPU usage problems occur due to this malicious program. So, let’s understand how to check and remove it.
How To Check If There Is A Malware Pretending To Be Dwm?
Here are steps to check to see if this is the case.
- The original file is present in C:\Windows\System32\.
- Search for dwm.exe in the root of C: drive. Any file with the same name but in a path other than that mentioned in step 1 is a fake executable. Delete all of them.
- Right-click on the taskbar and select Task Manager from the list. Go to the startup tab and confirm there is no entry pointing towards a dwm.exe in there. If there is one, disable the entry, manually navigate to that location in your computer and delete the file.
- Run a trusted anti-virus program to ensure no more infected files are left on the system instead.
Some tips to prevent the accidental download of malicious programs like some dwm trojans malware:
- Never open email attachments or files from unknown origin unless you’re absolutely sure that they are safe.
- Scan newly connected storage devices or downloaded files with good anti-malware programs.
My Computer Shows A Dwm Process Error Instead, Or My Windows Explorer Crashes, What Could Be Wrong?
Dwm is tightly integrated with explorer.exe. There can be many causes for this issue, so there are multiple ways to check if a specific step solves a particular issue:
- Try restarting the explorer process. Open the task manager as described above, find explorer in the program list, right-click explorer.exe and select restart.
- Try restarting the computer. Sometimes apps can hook onto resources, but when you terminate them, another program who wants to use those resources crashes instead.
- Try updating the graphics drivers. These drivers play a vital role in rendering the images made by DRM, thus anywhere from a recent hardware change to a windows update might have broken dwm. Windows update usually serves the latest available drivers nowadays, assuming the hardware isn’t very old.
- Sometimes, the windows installation becomes corrupted due to a variety of reasons, resulting in unexpected crashes.
- Launch a command window by entering CMD on the search box. Don’t forget to run it as an administrator.
- Now type in SFC /scan now; (without quotes and space between sfc and /).
It will start a system integrity check and repair any modified/corrupted system file. Reboot once finished.
Final Words
Hopefully, these tips would help you to check your system for fake dwm malware as well as repairing the system in case dwm crashes constantly.
