Why does Store Broker (wshost.exe) keep killing my CPU?

Anonymous
2014-01-24T23:58:25+00:00

I've got a new Windows 8 machine and, for some reason, the Store Broker keeps pegging my CPU. It seems to pop up every time I do anything with the Windows Store (makes sense) or use some Metro apps (also makes sense). However, for some reason, this process takes up 33% of my CPU and never lets go of it once it starts. This causes the machine to get hot which causes the fan to come on and the combination drastically reduces my battery life (from 11hrs to 3).

Aside from frequently checking for and killing this app, is there anything else I can do about this? Is anyone else having this problem? Is it a misconfiguration on my end? I'm running this on a new Surface Pro 2.

Thanks!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2014-03-19T01:17:01+00:00

I SOLVED this. At least for myself. It's been a 3-day journey. Argh!

The upshot is this:

Kill Store and Store Broker from task list.

Rename the Cache folder to CacheOld at:

C:\Users(Your User Account)\AppData\Local\Packages\WinStore_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

(Your WinStore_gobblygook might be a different bunch of gobbblygook)

Create an empty folder called Cache.

Solved! For me anyway.

Enjoy,

Ron

PS

I have been at this for days. I've read every article and post everywhere. I have updated graphics drivers, set date and time, run wsreset, sfc /scannnow, created new user account (store did work for new account), app troubleshooter, etc, etc, etc...

Today I just started digging around and looking at dates. I don't have log files to back this up but I believe I broke Store with CCleaner. I'm not sure exactly when the Store broke so this is a best guess but it makes some sense since Ccleaner does clean Store cache.

I also recently installed Tor Browser but my gut is that that was totally unrelated.

I might create a sandbox user and try to break Store with Ccleaner to confirm. But honestly I am tired of this little adventure.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-03-22T13:49:04+00:00

    Kill Store and Store Broker from task list.

    Rename the Cache folder to CacheOld at:

    C:\Users(Your User Account)\AppData\Local\Packages\WinStore_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

    (Your WinStore_gobblygook might be a different bunch of gobbblygook)

    Create an empty folder called Cache.

    I tried this using Process Explorer but saw only Store Broker.  However, killing only Store Broker results in a permission error when trying to rename Cache.  I then went into Task Manager and saw Store and killed that too.  Then renaming worked.

    I presume that one of the Process Explorer entries is Store, but it was not obvious which one.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-03-22T10:36:07+00:00

    No.  Make the new cache folder while it's still disabled.  Then enable it and reboot.  All fixed. :)

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-22T10:29:09+00:00

    Hello fellow veterans of Store Broke.

    Question: Do I have to undo the patch disabling store before trying this new cache-fix?

    Cheers

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-03-22T07:03:37+00:00

    There must be a huge number of people who are having this problem and don't know how to navigate from high power use to searching the web for Store Broker.  It would be good to have some way of helping these people other than a fix just showing up silently in a Windows Update after a few months.

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