IME high CPU usage issue now flagged as “resolved”

Sep 20, 2019 09:29 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has recently flagged the latest high CPU usage bug hitting Windows 10 as “resolved,” pointing users to a manual workaround should they experience similar problems on their devices.

Earlier this month, Microsoft acknowledged an issue hitting the Input Method Editor (IME) and possible causing it to become unresponsive or generate high CPU usage.

The problem was originally believed to be caused by the latest cumulative updates shipped to Windows 10 on the September 10 Patch Tuesday. All Windows 10 versions were impacted, Microsoft originally said.

“Some Input Method Editor (IME) may become unresponsive or may have high CPU usage. Affected IMEs include Chinese Simplified (ChsIME.EXE) and Chinese Traditional (ChtIME.EXE) with Changjie/Quick keyboard,” a post on the Windows update dashboard reads.

Bug now fixed

On September 19, however, Microsoft flagged this bug as resolved, explaining that it’s all caused by security-related changes made in the latest cumulative updates. While the problem is fixed now, there’s no patch that could address it on your device, and Microsoft points users to a manual workaround in this regard.

“Due to security related changes in KB4515384, this issue may occur when Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service is not configured to its default startup type of Manual,” the software giant explains.

The workaround pretty much comes down to setting the service to the manual startup type using the following steps:


Start > Services > Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service > Properties > Startup Type > Manual
It remains to be seen if this indeed fixes the issue for everyone, especially because a full patch isn’t available and users need to take care of the whole thing on their own.

New cumulative updates for Windows 10 are projected to go live in the coming days with non-security improvements.