Service TrustedInstaller.EXE permanently active taking up to 50% CPU resources

In my limited experience, I've seen svchost for a long time on core-2-duo and i3 cpus, associated with Windows Update, and sometimes I wonder if it's ever going to stop.

I think I'm repeating myself on this thread, but the svchost will finish whatever its doing, sometime, some day.  Don't give up.  Let it keep working while you're away from the computer.  Worse for people with "older" cpus and performing a lot of catch-up on their updates.

If it's a laptop, make sure the air inlets and outlets are unblocked, i.e., not laying on a rug with the cooling fan sucking up a lot of dust into the ducts; maybe install Core Temp to monitor the cpu temperature, and check Intel.com to see what the maximum temperature the cpu can tolerate, so you can quantify that the cooling system is working sufficiently as designed, especially since this situation may drive your computer harder than anything else you do.

You want to assure that your computer doesn't get fried by Windows Update, because then you'll really get angry.

svchost finishes on newer computers a lot faster, probably because of all the new instruction-sets that are added to the newer processors.  But when I did a fresh install of Win 7 on a modern i3 laptop with 8 GB of ram (more ram than I've ever had in one computer), there were a million windoze updates.  Telling windows to take care of it automatically was a mistake; it maxxed the cpu AND the ram usage, and the computer seemed to freeze for a couple of hours.  I don't know if it would have finished on its own, but finally I lost patience, and forced exit out of the offending process (windows update? svchost?).  I restarted the computer, and before it went back into its overload state, I switched the setting on Windows Update for it to "notify me, only," and I would download and install manually.  I re-sorted the updates by size, and for the bigger downloads, I only did a few at a time.  For the smaller downloads, I did up to a dozen at a time, or so.  I monitored the ram usage in Task Manager, and if the ram got up to 100% usage, I knew I was updating too much at one time.

I assume that i7 computers with 32 GB of ram are able to perform three years of windoze updates all at once.  One day, I hope to try it, out of curiosity.  Unless I'm so entrenched in Linux that I don't care anymore.

I have been on (benevolent) websites, like Crucial Technologies, that can scan the insides of a client computer and determine what CPU and memory the client computer has inside.  So, it seems obvious to me that Micro$oft's Windows Update could do the same thing, and take steps automatically to avoid grabbing 100% of the computer's resources, and especially avoid freezing the computer for an indeterminate period of time, by regulating how many updates it will perform at once. 

They could add some functionality to automatically regulate the barrage of windows updates.  But they don't.  And since Microsoft doesn't accept users' feedback on their domain, there's not really anyway to suggest it to them.  The only feedback at our disposal is either buying their product or getting something else.

I think, since every new MS operating system has started requiring a significant learning curve -- i.e., avoiding big learning curves are unavoidable anyway, then next time I might as well go for Linux.  I think I'll google for "love Linux Windows," to see which distribution has the most love among former Windows users.

I agree - this is total B.S. on MS part!   I have been fighting with laptop for a week now - 8-12 hours each day.

I upgraded from Win 7 Home to Win 7 Pro and cleared many network problems but this SVCHOST and/or TrustedInstaller eating CPU cycles constantly is ridiculous and sours one on Windows based PCs.  

We think we own and have control over our equipment when in fact MS can screw up OR do something on purpose to 'shake the tree' and nudge people to buy new equipment!

In my case, either SVCHOST or Trustedinstaller holds CPU @ 50% and Memory usage high as well and hits the drive a lot.

I did get many updates one day (must have had an open window) so all Important updates are installed.  When I tried one single Optional update (168 kb - a mouse driver update) I let it try to download and install for about 30 mins. - never got it even though this is 1/10 of a MB in size.  That should have completed in under 30 secs.

I stopped Windows Update PROCESS and the CPU returns to 2-7% at idle and memory drops to 27-34% which I consider normal and acceptable.  This return to normal was IMMEDIATE when I stopped Windows Update process!  This proves that WUpdate is the culprit. 

I changed Automatic update to Sunday at 3:00am only and doing those two things makes my laptop 'normal' once again!

At this point I am considering buying a Win 7 Pro Full Retail CD online and building this laptop from scratch (been working on this for one week solid) but I have some gut worries that the problem will return.

Yes this works, so does

going to :

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools\services

and find windows update service -  and set to manual.

have a look through the others services that are running and decide if you need these too.

I disable indexing for example, and take a delay when I want to find something, once in a blue moon.