Two queries about Windows 10 oddities.

[vefatica]

I'm curious about two things. First, how many instances of fontdrvhost.exe show up in Windows TaskMgr? I see one.

TASKLIST reports two (so does WMI and ProcessExplorer).

v:\> tasklist | findstr font
 1180  fontdrvhost
 6056  fontdrvhost

Second, what's the state of your PushToInstall service? Since the Tuesday update (4/11) mine will not get past the "Start pending" state.

v:\> echo %@wmi[.,"Select State from Win32_Service where Name='PushToInstall'"]
Start Pending

Thanks!

 

[Charles Dye]

C:\>ver /r

TCC  29.00.17 x64   Windows 10 [Version 10.0.19044.2846]
TCC Build 17   Windows 10 Build 19044
Registered to COE-LN00061392

C:\>tasklist font*
 1684  fontdrvhost
13880  fontdrvhost

   Total of 2 processes

C:\>services push*
PushToInstall  (Windows PushToInstall Service)  Stopped

C:\>

I'm not sure what that service is, or whether I've ever used it.

 

[vefatica]

How many fontdrvhost.exes show in the Windows TaskMgr?

What state does PustToInstall reach if you start it? If, like here, it gets stuck in "Start pending" you won't be able to stop it with services.msc or sc.exe. But you can stop it with this (possibly 3 times).

taskend /f %@wmi[.,"Select ProcessId from Win32_service where Name='PushToInstall'"]

 

[Charles Dye]

I only see one fontdrvhost.exe in Task Manager. So I'm guessing that what you see there is normal behavior.

I can start PushToInstall using either the SERVICES command or the Windows Services console. Either way, it runs for three or four seconds, then stops again.

 

[vefatica]

I only see one fontdrvhost.exe in Task Manager. So I'm guessing that what you see there is normal behavior.

Hmmm! Other tools see two. So do EnumProcesses() and CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(). I wonder what's normal about TaskMgr's behavior.

I have the same Windows as you, Charles. PushToInstall stays in "Start pending" here. Any ideas?

 

[Charles Dye]

One fontdrvhost.exe is started by wininit.exe, and the other is started by winlogon.exe. So... system vs. user? And this is odd:

C:\>tasklist /u font*
 1684  UMFD-0            fontdrvhost
13880  UMFD-3            fontdrvhost

   Total of 2 processes

C:\>

No local users with such names on my system. Google finds this: What is fontdrvhost.exe and Why is it Running?

 

[vefatica]

I knew about the users (same here) and I've seen that article.

 

[TEA-Time]

On my 2 Win10 machines, Task Manager shows 1 fontdrvhost. But tasklist and SysInternals' Process Explorer both show 2. Interestingly, Process Explorer shows Font Driver Host\UMFD-0 and Font Driver Host\UMFD-1 as the users, as if Font Driver Host has its own users..?

On my 2 Win11 machines, Task Manager show 2 fontdrvhosts. The rest is the same as the Win10 machines.

None of them have a PushToInstall service.