My system is running Windows 8 x64. My BOINC is 8.0.4, and is not running as a service.

First quirk.
When I click the BOINC Manager icon I have on my desktop, a small box appears saying...

"Another instance of BOINC Manager is already running."

... but searching the list from the task manager, I can't find such an instance.

Second quirk.
Since BOINC started, I have had the habit of having the manager open in the upper left corner of the screen sorted by CPU percentage. It typically is showing the BOINC jobs clustered at the top of the list using 12...% CPU each. No surprise. Sometimes, however, I find BOINC Manager at the top of the list using 50+%. When I see that, I stop and restart the manager and things return to normal. I do not spend 24 hours a day watching the screen however, (my wife might disagree with that...).

I suspected a trojan/virus and did a deep scan with BitDefender which happily tells me, (eventually...), that my system is clean. I am holding off starting BOINC manager at the current time.

Comments or suggestions welcome.

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Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.

I also get the message that another instance of BOINC manager is running when it is not. I am running 8.0.4 in Tiny10 a cut down version of Win10 in a VM. I don't know if this is a quirk of 8.0.4 but suspect the message is due to a file not being deleted when BOINC exits. If in task manager I see BOINC manager using an excessive amount of CPU I click the > to expand the list of BOINC tasks.

In reply to Dave's message of 15 Nov 2024:

I also get the message that another instance of BOINC manager is running when it is not. I am running 8.0.4 in Tiny10 a cut down version of Win10 in a VM. I don't know if this is a quirk of 8.0.4 but suspect the message is due to a file not being deleted when BOINC exits. If in task manager I see BOINC manager using an excessive amount of CPU I click the > to expand the list of BOINC tasks.

When this happens to me I don’t get said message but the file is BOINC-xxxxx, a 5 byte file in root on windows or in user home on Linux.

When this happens to me I don’t get said message but the file is BOINC-xxxxx, a 5 byte file in root on windows or in user home on Linux.

I know about the Linux one and it stops the manager from opening up. This behaviour in Windows, the manager and client still open but the message about another instance appears.

I've started BOINC Manager again to see what it says if I get to the point where the quirk appears.

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Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.

I let the manager run for a while this morning to see what was happening. Sure enough, the task showed the manager using a high percentage, about 60%. Clicking the arrow, I could see the task "it was running" was a collection of some of the BOINC tasks that were running. This seems to be a new "feature", a feature that I do not like at all, but can see a point, when new CPU chips have many cores, (more than mine for example). Is there a simple way of turning it off?

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Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.

>>> Is there a simple way of turning it off?
I didn't get a reply to that question, so I'm asking it again.

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Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.

In reply to adrianxw's message of 17 Nov 2024:

I let the manager run for a while this morning to see what was happening. Sure enough, the task showed the manager using a high percentage, about 60%. Clicking the arrow, I could see the task "it was running" was a collection of some of the BOINC tasks that were running. This seems to be a new "feature", a feature that I do not like at all, but can see a point, when new CPU chips have many cores, (more than mine for example). Is there a simple way of turning it off?

Could you please explain this more in details?
Also, it would be nice if you attach screenshot with your settings in BOINC Manager together with some logs (at least when you see the increased CPU usage).
Thank you in advance.

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BOINC maintainer.
For any insight, check my BOINC Development Blog.

I let the manager run for a while this morning to see what was happening. Sure enough, the task showed the manager using a high percentage, about 60%. Clicking the arrow, I could see the task "it was running" was a collection of some of the BOINC tasks that were running. This seems to be a new "feature", a feature that I do not like at all

It's nothing new (as per my post on this issue in the Boinc Mgr and CPU Usage thread).
Under Windows, if the BOINC Manger is open (maximised or minimised), Tasks are randomly grouped under it in Task Manager- showing lots of CPU usage by the Manager, even though it's not the manager that's using the CPU- just the Tasks grouped under it. Close the manager, and the Tasks all go back to being individual items under Background Processes. Re-open the manager, and some of them will again be removed from the group under Background Processes, and come under the BOINC Manager again.

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Grant
Darwin NT.

>>>
>>> Is there a simple way of turning it off?
I didn't get a reply to that question, so I'm asking it again.
<<<

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Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.

This seems to be a new "feature"

Yes, but it's a new feature of the Task Manager introduced with either Windows 10 or Windows 11. NOT a new feature in BOINC.

One way round it would be to uninstall BOINC, and re-install it "as a service". That way, the running project tasks would be seen as system tasks, and not associated with BOINC Manager. But you would lose the ability to run GPU tasks.

Or you could simply stop opening Task Manager while BOINC is running, and stop worrying about it.

In reply to adrianxw's message of 30 Dec 2024:

>>>
>>> Is there a simple way of turning it off?
I didn't get a reply to that question, so I'm asking it again.<<<

You've had several answers to that question.
But i'll spell it out- It is a function of Task Manager. Since there is no way to configure how Task Manager displays things, then there is no way of changing the behaviour.
And yet again i will point out the fact that the BOINC Manger is not using the CPU, just the Tasks that are grouped under it.

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Grant
Darwin NT.

Another reply to your question.
This apparent increase in CPU usage is down to the way recent versions of Windows, and in particular Windows Task Manager, work.
If a program like BOINC has several other programs running under it then it a) adds up all the CPU activity for those running under it (BOINC in this case), presents this as a total. b) As separate lines it lists all those "sub" programs' CPU use.

There's nothing we can easily do about this action, just ignore it until Windows decides that Windows Task Manager shouldn't do this -just don't hold your breath as it's going to be a very long wait.

Yes Rob, I can see how it works. He actually did answer the question, which he says has been answered before, (I just read the thread looking for that...). I also have the task manager open and it clearly shows BOINC Manager using a little CPU, not very much though.

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Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.