PresentationFontCache.exe uses 50%+ of my CPU

Hi, the service PresentationFontCache.exe is only usefull if you use WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) applications. If not, start services.msc and disable the service. André "A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/

The other solution to remove the cache works fine in Windows 7, but I thought I would mention, the service cannot be stopped if it IS in use. Turned out the service using my WPF was Norton360, so I had little choice but to keep it running unless I wanted to go through process management **** to stop Norton.

I wanted to add that deleting the .dat files in the (Hidden, people!) folder worked for me. Please note the actively-in-use temporary files, starting with ~ will not be deletable while the process is running.  In my case, I could not stop the process because it was in use by Norton 360, which just adds to the complexity of trying to stop it.

In Windows XP, the folder you're looking for is probably one of the following:

C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data

C:\Documents and Settings<USERNAME>\Application Data

In the last item in that list, you have to substitute <USERNAME> for your Windows logon username.

For those who are having trouble finding the last AppData folder in that list on their PC, Press <Win>+<R> (That means press & hold the Windows key, and press R then release both keys.) and enter %AppData% then push OK.

Using this approach, I found a file called

C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\FontCache3.0.0.0.dat

and deleted it. That seems to have taken care of it.

Another approach to finding the file to delete (that might or might not work) would be to use Windows's Search for files function to search for Font*.dat (Use caution though, because this approach may turn up other results that may NOT be relevant, in addition to the files you ARE looking for.)