High CPU usage for vmmem

In trying to resolve this issue the wsl --shutdown command never completed. I had to reboot to temporarily resolve it. I have experienced this a couple times before and atm expect to have to reboot to resolve. Please help.

Windows 11; WSL2; Docker for Windows with WSL integration for use with VS Code

I have also been having this problem for weeks now. I also use Docker and WSL2. Everything everyone says here is exactly what I'm experiencing, and it only started fairly recently (last month or two, not exactly sure when but it's recent).

I've also been rebooting to resolve this, but I just tried to "End Task" the Windows Subsystem for Linux process as someone WFarmer suggested int he answers section, and it dropped the CPU from 100% down to about 5%, so I can at least confirm that workaround works without having to completely reboot. It's still very disruptive though since I regularly use WSL2 for development and this has caused some issues there more than once, including loss of active work.

Please fix this, Microsoft!

Just fyi, while I had several instances of this issue in the past, it doesn't happen anymore, haven't had it in the past months. Not sure what changed, my PC usage seems to be pretty much the same, so possibly some of the updates.

Hi there!

Guys, all of you have Intel CPU or Ryzen?
Please link your CPU in comments to understand is this CPU problem.
I have hybrid CPU intel 12500H.

I have the same issue.
Sometimes docker is running, sometimes not (So docker alone does not seem to be the only app causing this behaviour).
However, restarting the PC is not a solution.
Unfortunately, sometimes "wsl -shutdown" doesn't work (the command simply doesn't return, and the high mem/CPU usage of VMMEM is still there).
Any other ideas to workaround?

I am having this problem. I am not using Docker. WSL has become unusable for me. How about a fix?

Yes, this has gotten worse recently. More specifically this week which I'm not sure what's changed. Before I was safe if I hadn't had images copied to my clipboard or had Filezilla running but it seems there's now something else triggering it.

I believe this is related to stealth updates by MS. I have auto-updates turn off (I don't trust them, I prefer stable versions that have been out for 1 year), and this issue only started occurring 6 months ago, before an update. I too have noticed this occurring every day now over the last 1 week, whereas before it only used to occur once every week or so. Examining github, MS does not seem to care about this issue. At this stage is seems WSL2 is abandoned on W10. Make of that what you will.

I had the exact same problem on my laptop.
I solved it by removing the charger and now I can run wsl and docker as normal. I hope someone smarter finds a better solution.

I am having the same issue. AMD Ryzen 5900 series CPU, 32gbs DDR4, Windows 11 64bit. Running Docker. Only started occuring after this most recent Windows Update. :-. Anything to do with WSL, virtualization, etc. Has been a huge pain to deal with on Windows 11. I am not a happy customer at all.

I am getting this issue as well where VMmemwsl starts progressively using more and more CPU until it reaches 100% all while doing nothing in my WSL Ubuntu.

However, I noticed this only happens when I am connected to our corporate Citrix Secure Access VPN, in which case I cannot access the internet. As soon as I disconnect from the VPN, CPU usage drops back down to normal.

All of you who had the CPU spike issue, can you all please check if networking or internet access from WSL has anything to do with the spike?

I hope this helps.

I can't use WSL anymore because of this bug. If Windows 11 is the solution (is it?), it won't work for me on my corp laptop (which I can barely install WSL on; long story). I just use Cygwin now. Less than ideal, but the only game in town (my IT won't let us install VirtualBox, etc).

I disconected from VPN and it didn't help. If I run 'top' in the ubuntu, I see that 100% CPU is taken by the init process. Which is weird as I switched to systemd via a config change. wsl --shutdown helped.

you have to wait. Because it uses 100% of the CPU your pc needs time to shut it down.
for me usually its about 2 minutes but i got a workaround.
create a file in C:/Users/<yourUserName>/.wslconf
with

[wsl2]
memory=3GB
processor=4

to limit the available resources for wsl
depending on your pc / laptop i use 1/4 of my devices resources

Note: It's .wslconfig

Same problem in 2024. As I dont really need for work, Uninstalling WSL solved my random 100% CPU problem.