J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
I just found Everything using most of one of my cores, after leaving the
machine unattended - but on - for some hours. It showed in task manager
as using 2x% of CPU (Task Manager thinks I have four cores), and when I
shut it down (via the tray icon, not from Task Manager), CPUsage went
back to idle.

I've just reopened Everything (once I have opened it, I normally leave
it open, as it's so useful), and (after initial peak) it's sitting there
down at near enough zero CPU usage again.

I've noticed this behaviour more than once recently. Anyone know what
it's doing? FWIW, it's "Version 1.4.1.895 (x86)".

(Hour or two later: it's still down in the 00 usage.)

Anything that "indexes" automatically, can get
into a loop.

Say, for example, MsMpEng keeps an etw file, keeping
track of what was scanned. It makes an update to the
file.

Everything checks the USN journal, and notes the .etw
file got larger. Everything.exe updates its index file for
C: .

MsMpEng sees Everything.exe writing to the index file.
It scans the index file. It adds information to the
..etw to note that it scanned the index file.

Etcetera.

What this means is, exceptions have to be added somewhere,
to stop such behavior.

The Windows Search indexer, obviously doesn't index the
1GB Windows.edb file that holds the inverted index. Because
it would get into a loop. As a result, you can never search
for "Windows.edb" and expect to find it. Unless the search
is in the mood to "poll" unindexed areas.

You might also set up Everything.exe to not use the USN
journal, and only index the disks once a day or something.
But this isn't ideal either, as your indexes won't be
up-to-date when you need them.

Anyway, that's an illustration. You could use Process Monitor,
the ReadFile and WriteFile events, to note which
programs are playing table tennis with which files. And
concoct a theory covering the behavior.

It could always be something entirely different. Like an
actual program bug of some sort. Maybe it's run out of
some resource. There are all sorts of other possibilities.
But "index looping" is something you have to consider for
stuff like this.

And Windows Search gets into loops too. Not CPU grinding
loops, but you can see "293,756 files indexed", then
"293,757 files indexed", then "293,756 files indexed".
And it would do that all day long.

One file that gets erroneously updated frequently, is
a stupid Logitech driver, that even when your webcam
isn't plugged in, it keeps writing entries in a log.
And of course, this leaves USN journal tracks for
the rest of the machine to marvel at. I'd fix
that... if I had source code.

Paul