What is igfxtray.exe and Can it be Disabled?

If you have been seeing the “igfxTray.exe” process inside the task manager and are wondering as to what that process is and why it is consuming your system’s resources, we suggest that you follow this article to completely understand this process and how it works.

What is igfxtray.exe?

igfxTray.exe or as it is known commonly “Graphics Accelerator Helper Module” comes directly from Intel. It is included along with Nvidia and Intel (Integrated) Graphics cards and will be installed automatically with “Graphics Media Accelerator Driver“.

Although officially, the module comes from Intel it can sometimes hamper the operation of your computer which leads to High CPU Usage or other resource usage spikes on the computer. Therefore, we have also included some methods and steps that you can follow below to fix the issue.

Is your igfxtray.exe Process a Virus?

1. Press “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” and click on the “Task Manager” option to launch into it.

   

2. In the “Processes” tab, look for the “igfxTray.exe” process and right-click on it.
3. Select the “Properties” option and in the “General” tab, note down the “Location” of this file
4. Ensure that the location is the same as “C:\Windows\System32” if it is not then this process running in the background probably a virus or malware.
5. Now, move on to the “Digital Signatures” tab and have a look at the “Signature list”, make sure that both the Microsoft and Intel Entries are present here to verify the validity of the process.
6. If you found the location to be the System32 folder and the digital signatures present, the process is safe and isn’t affected by malware.

Fixing the igfxtray.exe High CPU Usage and Popups Issue:

Method 1: Make an Exception for igfxtray.exe

1. Press “Window + S”, type in “Windows Security” and press Enter on your keyboard.
2. Select “Virus & threat protection” and click “Manage settings” below “Virus & threat protection settings”.

   

3. Under the Exclusions tab, select the “Add or remove exclusions” tab and click on the “Add an exclusion” tab.
4. Select the “Process” tab and from there, note down the location that we discovered in the previous step.
5. Restart your PC afterwards and see if the igfxtray.exe High CPU Usage is fixed.

Method 2: Disable igfxtray.exe Process

1. Press “Window + R”, type in “MSConfig” and press Enter on your keyboard.

   

2. Go to the “Startup” tab and look for “IgfxTray”.
3. Uncheck it and click “Apply” and “OK”.
4. Restart your PC and see if the igfxtray.exe issue is resolved now.

Method 3: Reconfigure Registry Settings

1. Press “Window + R”, type in “Regedit” and press Enter on your keyboard.

   

2. Navigate to the following path.

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

3. Now, delete the Entry with Data “C:\WINDOWS\system32\igfxpers.exe” from the left bar
4. Restart your PC and see if the igfxtray.exe High CPU Usage issue is resolved now

Method 4: Performing System Scan

1. Press “Window + S”, type in “Windows Security” and press Enter on your keyboard.
2. Click “Virus & threat protection”, select “Scan options” under the “Quick scan” button.

   

3. Choose “Full scan” and click “Scan now” to begin the process.

   

4. Once it is done scanning and checking for malware, the igfxtray.exe high CPU usage might be fixed.

Method 5: Update Intel GPU Drivers

1. Press “Window + R”, type in “devmgmt.msc” and press Enter on your keyboard.

   

2. Double-click “Display adapters” and right-click your graphics device.
3. Click “Update driver” and choose “Search automatically for drivers”.
4. If any updates are available they will automatically be downloaded and installed.
5. Restart your PC afterwards and see if the issue is resolved now.

Or you can also update your intel video drivers by downloading the latest drivers directly from here Dell Support Page and from the “Drivers & Downloads” page you can download the latest drivers. Install them and your issue should be resolved

Method 6: Uninstalling Software

1. Press “Window + S”, type in “Apps & features” and press Enter on your keyboard.

   

2. Look for programs with “Intel” in its name except for “Graphics Drivers” and other important drivers.
3. Click on them one by one and select the “Uninstall” button.
4. Restart your PC afterwards and see if the igfxtray.exe High CPU Usage issue is resolved

Method 7: Check for Windows Updates

1. Press “Window + S”, type in “Check for updates” and press Enter on your keyboard.
2. Click “Check for updates” and windows will automatically download and install the latest updates available OR select “Download and install”.

   

3. Restart your PC and see if the issue is resolved now.

Method 8: Running SFC and DISM Scans

1. Press “Window + R”, type in “cmd” and press “Ctrl + Shift + Enter” on your keyboard.

   

2. Type in the following commands and press Enter after entering each.

   sfc /scannow
   
   DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
   
   DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
   
   DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

3. Restart your PC afterwards and see if the issue is resolved now

Method 9: Clearing Temporary Files using Disk Cleanup

1. Press “Window + S”, type in “Disk Cleanup” and press Enter on your keyboard.
2. Select the partition on which Windows has been installed and click on the “OK” button.
3. Now, choose the files that you want to clear up and press “Clean up system files”.
4. Wait for the process to complete, restart your PC and check to see if the igfxtray.exe high CPU Usage issue is fixed.

Method 10: Restore PC

1. Press “Window + R”, type in “rstrui.exe” and press Enter on your keyboard.

   

2. Click on the “Choose a Different Restore Point” option and select the “Next” button.
3. From here, choose a restore point where the issue wasn’t there and click on the “Next” button.
4. Restart your PC afterwards and see if the igfxtray.exe High CPU Usage issue is fixed.

Method 11. Using an Official Intel’s Driver

There have been some reports that the issue is mostly triggered when the official driver isn’t there. Therefore, we suggest that you try to download the Official Intel Driver from here. After downloading, install it on your computer by running the executable.

Method 12: Use Script

1. Press “Window + E” and head over to the “C” partition on your computer.
2. Make a new notepad file and paste the following text.

   [Version]
   
   signature="$CHICAGO$"
   
   [DefaultInstall]
   
   DelReg = Intel.DelReg
   
   [Intel.DelReg]
   HKLM,SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{280A8F40-E382-11D2-B561-00A0C92E6848}\shellex\PropertyPageHandlers\igfxcfg\diagHandler,,,
   HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run,IgfxTray,,
   HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run,HotKeysCmds,,

3. Select “Save as” and save the file as “fixreg.inf”.
4. Now, right-click it and select the “Install” button.
5. Restart your PC and see if the igfxtray.exe High CPU usage issue is resolved

If the issue still occurs on your computer, contact us for further troubleshooting.