ItsGeekToMe.co

Q: I am running Windows 7 on an HP Pavilion notebook and at times my processor and fan run like crazy. The task manager revealed that I was running at 100% CPU usage with half of that devoted to one program– something called “CLMLSvc.exe”. I did an internet search and saw a very vague explanation about what it does and many, many people complaining that it causes the same issues for them. I decided to roll the dice and “end process” and the CPU usage immediately dropped and the machine quieted down. I did not notice that any programs or functions were effected so I figured it was not performing a vital function. However, whenever I shut the device down it starts again at restart.

My question: Is there any way to remove the CLMLSvc.exe program and do you advise doing so?

– Mark B.
Fort Walton Beach, Florida

A: CLMLSvc is neither a device, nor an application.  Rather it is a service that is part of almost all products created by CyberLink. In this case, it CyberLink’s Media Library Service, which is automatically launched at system startup to support products such as CyberLink’s PowerDVD software, PowerDirector, and Power2Go.  These applications often come bundled on new PCs as a 3^rd-party means of playing DVDs and streaming media, and may even be disguised within other applications such as HP TouchSmart.  As you said, this seems to be a troublesome piece of software, with many reports on the books of it wildly consuming system resources.  One wonders why CyberLink hasn’t fixed it, and why PC vendors keep bundling it, considering all the problems it can cause.

Knowing all that isn’t nearly as important as knowing what a Windows service is, and how it operates. A service is software that runs in the background on a Windows system, providing on-demand functionality to support other programs, often marshalling requests to access system assets, such as the DVD drive in this case.  Understanding what a service is and isn’t will help you to understand that CLMLSvc cannot simply be removed, as you asked.  For more information on Windows services, refer to this article on Wikipedia: tinyurl.com/IGTM-0443.

While you can’t remove just the service itself, you can remove the application or applications that installed it, which will cause the service to be removed as well. Bear in mind this will permanently remove whatever abilities the software provided, such as viewing DVDs.  An alternative would be to tell Windows not to automatically launch the service.  Then if you need to run the application, you can enable it on demand.  Services are controlled via the Computer Management snap-in, which you can access by right-clicking on the Computer icon on the desktop or within Windows Explorer and selecting “Manage” from the context menu.  In the navigation tree expand “Services and Application” then select “Services”.  An alphabetized list of services will appear in the main pane.  Find the one you’re for, which will probably be labeled by its longer name, rather than CLMLSvc.exe.  Select it with your mouse, right-click on it, and select “Properties”.  In the dialog that comes up, set “Startup type” to “Manual” and click “OK”.  Back out of everything, and you should be good to go.  Word of advice: No matter how tempting it might look, don’t go poking around in the Services to see what else you can turn off.  Nothing good can come of that!

• • •

 Geek Alert – Microsoft Declares End-of-Life for multiple products: Microsoft’s “Patch Tuesday” on January 12^th was a pretty interesting one.  Microsoft pulled the plug on primary support for some products that you might very well still be using.  These include Windows 8, and any version of Internet Explorer prior to IE 11.  Now, this doesn’t mean that the products will immediately stop working, but it does mean that Microsoft will no longer issue updates for them.  That means as new vulnerabilities or bugs are found, they will no longer be patched, leaving anyone running the obsoleted software at far greater risk than necessary.  With all the malware flying around, and cybercrime on the rise, it’s becoming more and more critical to keep your software up-to-date, so head over to Microsoft Update and make sure your PC has only the latest and greatest installed.