mspaint running CPU just sitting there idle in the background

I noticed my laptop fan going constantly for a while, and while I have a lot going on (it's probably just some webpage in Chrome running ads or something like that), but when I checked CPU usage in Task Manager, I noticed mspaint.exe is at or near the top of the list consistently, like 3-8%, and I'm not seeing why.



It's literally been just sitting there unused since last night when I pasted an image copy to it... I haven't actually gotten to editing the image yet

So, uh, I'm sort of new to Windows 11 (I'm using Pro version 24H2), and I use Paint here and there, but I've never seen it using a lot of CPU just sitting there for hours untouched on any version of Windows.

Any explanation for this? I can't imagine what it's doing in the background. Running AI?! Memory leak? This is weird.

It is not the first time I see it, not with MS Paint, but with other programs. The other day I was using Subtitle Edit, and after closing it I noticed the same as you, the computer fans were more active than normal. When I opened the Task Manager I saw that the program had not closed completely and was consuming 3-8% of CPU, the same as you have seen.

I have had this exact same issue happen now numerous times, in each case with a pasted screenshot left in an unsaved Paint window that was opened earlier specifically to paste that screenshot from my clipboard. I've noticed that each time it happens, the only instance of mspaint.exe with high CPU utilization among multiple open is the one I had most recently pasted in too. I first fixed by saving and closing, however the past two times I've noticed that the paste selection was still "highlighted" within Paint. Clicking outside of this selection around what I pasted removes the animated selection lines and also the CPU usage every time.


I left this mspaint window up overnight after pasting this image and not un-selecting it and was able to cause the problem to happen. Clicking in the gray area outside of the image fixed it. I noticed that generally when something is selected in any window of Paint it uses a small amount of CPU but in some cases if left seems to use much more over time.


CPU usage before unselecting:
top Paint was left overnight bottom Paint had something selected just before this screenshot


CPU usage of both after unselecting in each of them:

Interesting. In both your case with MS Paint and mine with SubtitleEdit, it seems that the problem is related to having copied content from a site to paste it into these programs. It may be that the fault is in the clipboard. In fact, one of the last updates they made modifications to the clipboard.

If I experience this problem again, I will empty the clipboard to see if it fixes it.

I actually think the issue is related to the highlighting animation that occurs inside of Paint. I tested again and after provoking the issue even upon clearing my clipboard the CPU utilization doesn't go down, however when de-selecting within Paint it does so immediately. If I immediately de-select something once pasting the issue does not ever develop in the first place.