How to Disable or Fix “Microsoft Software Protection Platform Service” Causing High CPU Usage?

PROBLEM SYMPTOM (SPPSvc.exe Causing High CPU Usage):

You are using Windows 10 in your computer and your computer is having frequent performance problems such as random freezes, hangs, slowdowns, app crashes, computer heats up and battery drains faster. If you are playing games in your PC, you face stuttering problem with FPS drops.

So basically your computer is lagging and you are facing frequent slow downs while working on your computer.

When you open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), you find a process “Microsoft Software Protection Platform Service” (sppsvc.exe) taking high CPU resources and RAM as shown in following screenshot:

You find out that this is the culprit behind your PC slow down problem. Microsoft Software Protection Platform Service is causing high CPU and memory usage.

PROBLEM REASON (What is SPPSvc.exe):

“Microsoft Software Protection Platform Service” is an executable called sppsvc.exe present in C:\Windows\System32 folder. It is an essential part of Windows 10 operating system which enables the download, installation and enforcement of digital licenses for Windows and Windows applications. It was implemented to target software piracy and tempering. It improves how Windows OS and other Microsoft software such as MS Office are activated. It helps in validating the licenses online and alerts when some problem in license activation is detected.

It regularly connects to Internet (that’s why your security software, firewall might show notification that sppsvc.exe is trying to connect to Internet) and verifies licenses and product activation.

Many times Windows 10 users have reported that Microsoft Software Protection Platform Service (sppsvc.exe) is causing high CPU and memory usage. It starts taking up to 30-70% CPU resources and computers start crawling.

PROBLEM SOLUTION (Fix High CPU Usage by SPPSvc.exe):

There are many solutions to fix this serious problem. We’ll discuss about them one by one:

SOLUTION 1: Upgrade to Latest Feature Update

Microsoft regularly releases new feature updates for Windows 10. You may consider feature updates as newer versions of Windows 10 or service packs for Windows 10. Feature updates come with bug fixes and improvements to security, performance, reliability, etc.

Every Windows 10 device should be upgraded to latest available feature update.

It might be possible that you are using an older version of Windows 10 which contains bugs and issues causing “Microsoft Software Protection Platform Service” taking high CPU resources.

You should first download and install the latest Windows 10 feature update in your computer.

Following article will help you in upgrading to the latest Windows 10 feature update:

How to Download and Upgrade to Windows 10 Feature Update

Once you install latest feature update, it should fix high CPU usage by sppsvc.exe process.

SOLUTION 2: Suspend SPPSVC.EXE Process Using Resource Monitor

If “Microsoft Software Protection Platform Service” (sppsvc.exe) is consuming high CPU and RAM usage and your computer is becoming unstable, you can immediately suspend the process using Resource Monitor program which comes built-in with Windows 10. Once you suspend sppsvc.exe process, your computer will become responsive again and it’ll fix the issue.

First of all open Resource Monitor. You can open it by typing Resource Monitor in Start Menu or Taskbar search box. Alternatively, you can direct launch it using perfmon.exe /res command in RUN dialog box.

Now look for sppsvc.exe process in Resource Monitor. Once you find it in the list, right-click on it and select “Suspend Process” option from context menu.

That’s it. It’ll immediately suspend the sppsvc.exe process from running in your computer and your problem will be fixed.

PS: You can also stop the sppsvc.exe process using Services Manager. Open services.msc and look for “Software Protection” service. Right-click on it and select Stop option.

SOLUTION 3: Delete or Disable Scheduled Task to Restart SPPSVC.EXE

Windows 10 creates a scheduled task to restart the sppsvc.exe process at regular intervals. You can delete or disable the task, so that Windows doesn’t automatically restarts the service.

Open Task Scheduler using taskschd.msc command in RUN dialog box and go to “Task Scheduler Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> SoftwareProtectionPlatform“.

In right-side pane, look for SvcRestartTask. Right-click on it and select Disable option.

Restart your computer and Windows will no longer automatically start the service. You may still need to suspend the service at every system reboot using SOLUTION 2. If you hibernate your PC, then you’ll not need to suspend the service regularly.

SOLUTION 4: Disable SPPSVC.EXE Permanently

That’s the last step to perform. If above mentioned steps don’t work for you and you still face high CPU usage problem caused by sppsvc.exe process, then you can try to disable the process completely.

Open Registry Editor using regedit command in RUN dialog box. Now go to following key:

In right-side pane, double-click on Start and change its value to 4

Restart your computer top take effect. Once the process is disabled, it’ll not be able to run and will not take high CPU and memory resources.

NOTE: Disabling sppsvc.exe process may cause activation problems in your computer. You may receive “Windows could not start the Software Protection service on Local Computer” error message and your Windows 10 may start showing Windows is not activated and Office products such as Outlook, Word, etc may stop working or opening. If this happens, you can reset the value of Start to 2 in Registry Editor and restart your computer to take effects.