Curious about the random paired suspended tasks and runtime broker in Background Process (trivial)

I was curious about these little pairs of App (always suspended) and Runtime Broker that keep appearing in Background Process. Some examples (this was all at the same time when I checked to take some screen shots for this):


...

...


Background Tasks will just show these things pop up randomly: one app (always suspended) paired with a Runtime Broker. It looks like it can be any app, but usually the app has to actually be running. There are a few Apps that don't have to be running that can pop up in these pairs, for example: Microsoft Store, "work or school account", clock, as well as one or two others. Besides those, for other apps when closed, not only do these little pairs not pop up for them but if one closes the app after one of these pairs pops up for it, the pair will hang around for a while and then it will change the app associated with it after a little while, but not go away. I.e. the "Runtime Broker" will just find or create a new suspended "buddy" app to pair with among those apps that are opened or from the short list of apps that don't even need to be opened to form these little pairs.

This isn't an issue, its just a curious behavior that caught my eye. I am sure it has perfectly reasonable explanation, but as I can't figure it out it has just further exacerbated my curiosity and so I was wondering if anyone had a relatively simple explanation to sate my curiosity.

Thanks

This is normal. Every running UWP process runs inside an app container, with a dedicated Runtime Broker thread to manage how the app accesses system data and files. UWP has a specific security model, and Runtime Broker is there to enforce apps following it.

Interesting. Out of curiosity, why do some apps run in these containers when they are not actually open or running? Why do some of these apps sometimes run with one of these containers and most other times not (e.g. Libreoffice, is not UWP process and won't usually appear like this, but every once in a while it does.)

They're in suspended mode, because those processes are not running in the desktop's foreground.

UWP (Universal Windows Platform) originated on Windows Mobile, but was brought to W8 and later as a bid to allow app devs to write the same program that ran on smartphones, tablets, laptops, Xbox and desktops. Because of the mobile element, it tries to preserve device battery life by minimizng CPU consumption whenever possible.

While an UWP app isn't onscreen, it's put into suspended mode. You can enter Settings, and change this default behavior.

Windows like to pre-launch certain apps into the background, where they're naturally suspended. This allows for quick app switching, because the app's been hiding in memory for some time. Obviously this consumes some RAM.

Edge browser is a classic example. It's pre-launched into memory and immediately suspended. When you click on Edge, Windows immediately un-suspends the app and makes it visible. This creates the illusion of fast loading, when the browser was actually launched back when you first logged on, and you didn't notice except for this delay before Windows allowed you to touch anything.

Not sure what you're seeing with Libreoffice, as Runtime Broker was specifically written for UWP apps.