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My CPU load is high, up to 100% a lot of the time, because of a two tasks called "VBoxVirtualHeadless" and "VirtualBox", which have a high CPU usage up to 60% even if VirtualBox isn't installed on my laptop.

Screenshot of Task Manager

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    Why not just end the tasks and unisntall?
    – Eugen Rieck
    Commented Mar 23, 2020 at 12:04
  • I agree with uninstall. Also open MSCONGIF, Boot tab, Minimal boot, and then restart. CPU % should be low. Add back processes / services in small groups and see if there are other processes causing the issue.
    – anon
    Commented Mar 23, 2020 at 12:09

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Reset to default
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Open services.msc from the Run box (press Windows-R to display it), find all the services with the name "VirtualBox" or "Vbox", double-click on each one, disable them from the dropdown menu on Start mode, then stop them, and press OK.

Reboot your PC to check if they're gone.

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  • Can't do it because I'm blocked by a windows application called "MMC.exe"
    – Oussa Ber
    Commented Mar 23, 2020 at 12:52
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You may not have installed VirtualBox yourself, but that doesn't mean it isn't there.
It can be installed as part of other software.
Possible culprits (I'm sure I'm forgetting some) are:

  • Android phone emulator or Android development environment.
  • Emulators for classic games-consoles.
  • FPGA developments tools (especially various Xilinx tools).

So first investigate how you ended up with VirtualBox in the first place. If you don't need that software uninstall it. That should also kill VirtualBox.

If you want to keep that software see if you can make VirtualBox behave better.
Download the latest version of VirtualBox from www.virtualbox.org and install it. That should upgrade all VirtualBox components to the latest version.
Start the VirtualBox software. If it asks you to install/update the "Extention Pack" please do that as well.
Now, with a little bit of luck in the VirtualBox manager you can see the definitions of the Virtual Machines known to VirtualBox. You can check their settings and restrict the amount of RAM and the amount of CPU power they are allowed to use. Here you can fine-tune those settings. Reduce them a bit and see if that still lets the application work, but causes less strain on your PC.
If the Virtual Machines don't show in the VirtualBox Manager application you will have to manually add them to the manager. You should search your harddisk for files with an extension .vbox

If you want to get rid of VirtualBox altogether and the components of VirtualBox on your system can not be uninstalled normally (via Add/Remove Programs) then install the full package first to get the uninstaller installed on your computer.
Then reboot and after the reboot do an uninstall. That should get rid of all the loose ends.

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  • Actually, I don't have any emulator installed . I already deleted it.
    – Oussa Ber
    Commented Mar 23, 2020 at 12:31
  • @OussaBer See the paragraph I just added. I accidentally saved the answer prematurely before I had completely finished what I wanted to write.
    – Tonny
    Commented Mar 23, 2020 at 12:49
  • I will try that thank you ! 🙏
    – Oussa Ber
    Commented Mar 23, 2020 at 12:54

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