webwallpaper32.exe uses extreme amounts of CPU even when no web backgrounds are playing

[OMGparticles]

I have had this issue for weeks now where I notice my CPU is being overloaded, and when I check task manager to find the issue it is always caused by webwallpaper32.exe

I usually would just kill the process and things would be fine for a couple days, but then I would inevitably notice it again. It happened so many times that I just went in and disabled all of the web-based wallpapers in my rotation. But even that apparently didn't resolve the issue, as I am still finding the process running and eating up CPU cycles like crazy (usually around 50% total usage by itself). I'm not sure if this is some rogue bit-mining process or just something getting stuck in an infinite loop, but it's getting pretty annoying to deal with at this point. I have now simply deleted the exe file and hope that will resolve the issue moving forward, but it's not the most ideal solution.

I have about 2 dozen mini crash dumps in the install folder which I assume were created when I killed the process. Let me know if those could be helpful in diagnosing the issue and I can zip them up.


EDIT: After deleting the exe I went through and tested all off my wallpapers and a few of the ones labeled as being type 'Video' were actually web-based, as they caused an error to pop up stating that the exe was missing when I tried to run them. Those were probably the wallpapers that were continuing to cause the issue to occur even after I had removed all wallpapers of type 'Web'.

[Tim]

Hey, usually when people report bad performance like that, it's either because their drivers are misconfigured or their screen(s) are plugged into the wrong graphics card (for instance, you have plugged your screen into the onboard graphics card but your dedicated Nvidia / AMD graphics card calculates the wallpaper - this kills CPU performance). Alternatively, screen scaling or background recording tools may mistakenly record Wallpaper Engine because they think the application is a running game.

Have a look at our FAQ:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/431960/discussions/2/1354868867716428911/

Also try our scan tool:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/431960/discussions/1/3307213006836797842/

[OMGparticles]

Hey thanks for the quick reply. This issue doesn't really have a noticable impact on performance and it's not even related the wallpaper that is currently running at the time. Even if I switch around to different wallpapers or close Wallpaper Engine completely, the executable (webwallpaper32) continues running and eating up around half of my CPU cycles.

Also I only have a single display connected and I just verified it is attached to my GPU. I have no issues running any games or using Wallpaper Engine in general. Everything is operating normally outside of the fact that I often notice my CPU is incredibly active even when I am doing nothing CPU intensive on my computer.

[Tim]

Hey, can you try running the scan tool and provide the debug log as described in the second link above?

The only reason why the performance could be bad is if some web wallpaper uses .webm since there is no hardware acceleration support for that combination, so it will all be calculated on the CPU. However, it should never continue affecting your CPU after you switch to another wallpaper, I can have a look at the logs if there is anything fishy and the scan tool may even tell you directly if it can determine something odd with your software setup.

[OMGparticles]

https://pastebin.com/egUQsSQC

[Tim]

It looks fine to me, you're likely in the same boat as this guy like I explained above, you're using .webm wallpapers which have no hardware acceleration:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/431960/discussions/1/1762482479183926701/

[OMGparticles]

It's possible that's part of it. I don't really mind if some wallpapers are CPU heavy, I was more concerned that it seemed to continue using CPU even after closing the wallpaper. I'll put things back to how they were and see if I can reproduce it again.

[OMGparticles]

Here's a video showing the issue: https://streamable.com/rk2ho

Sorry if it's a bit blurry as it's downscaled from 1440p. But if you can see, even after I change wallpapers or even close Wallpaper Engine completely, the rogue processes (there are two of them this time) continue heavily utilizing my CPU.

It's difficult for me to pin exactly which wallpapers this occurs with as it only seems to present itself when the application is changing my wallpapers itself (every 5 minutes). If I just click through all of my wallpapers manually they all seem to end their process properly. But going off the assumption that it is related to webm videos, here is a list of Video wallpapers I am subscribed to which depend on the webwallpaper32.exe process:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1192297369
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871557616
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=891080604

I also just realized I have a webm video on my local machine that I have been using as a wallpaper as well. I would guess it is the most likely candidate for what is causing the issue since most users probably don't create their own wallpapers and I started using this wallpaper around the same time I started noticing the issue.

Here's a 7z of that wallpaper if it helps in testing: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1X_CpjBPcJGvf-XE9siNKmXwnubQmJYQf