220-1102 Software Troubleshooting Practice Question
A user reports that their Windows 10 workstation is running slowly. The technician opens Task Manager and notices that CPU usage is consistently at 90-100%, with multiple instances of the 'svchost.exe' process consuming the most CPU. Which built-in tool should the technician use to identify the specific services responsible for the high CPU usage?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume Task Manager is sufficient because it shows high CPU usage, but they overlook that svchost.exe hosts multiple services and Task Manager cannot break down which specific service is the cause, making Resource Monitor the correct choice.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Resource Monitor
Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) provides a detailed view of CPU, memory, disk, and network usage, and critically, it allows you to expand the svchost.exe process to see which specific Windows services (e.g., wuauserv, BITS) are running under each host process. This directly addresses the need to identify the exact service causing the high CPU load, which Task Manager cannot do for grouped svchost instances.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Task Manager
Why it's wrong here
Task Manager's Processes tab aggregates all svchost.exe instances into a single entry, showing combined CPU usage without revealing which services are hosted inside each process. Even if you switch to the Details tab and see each svchost.exe PID, you cannot directly view the list of services or their individual CPU consumption from that interface. You would need to use the command line or the Services snap-in to correlate PIDs to services, making Task Manager insufficient for this specific diagnosis.
- ✓
Resource Monitor
Why this is correct
Resource Monitor's Overview tab, specifically the CPU section, allows you to expand any svchost.exe process by clicking the process entry, which reveals the list of services running under that process and their respective CPU usage in real time. This drill-down capability directly identifies the specific service that is consuming an abnormally high amount of CPU, making it the appropriate tool for troubleshooting a slow Windows 10 workstation. You can immediately see percentages and thread counts for each service without any extra configuration.
- ✗
Performance Monitor
Why it's wrong here
Performance Monitor is designed for tracking performance counters over time, such as % Processor Time for individual processes, but it does not provide a built-in way to expand a svchost.exe process to view its hosted services. To get service-level data, you would need to manually configure counters for each service (e.g., Process\% Processor Time with appropriate instances) and collect data over a period, which is not a quick, interactive method for on-the-spot diagnosis. It is better suited for historical analysis and trend monitoring rather than immediate identification of a CPU-hogging service.
- ✗
Event Viewer
Why it's wrong here
Event Viewer displays system, security, and application logs, including errors and warnings, but it does not show real-time CPU usage or service-level performance information. While it might contain event entries related to resource problems, those entries are generated after the fact and are often not correlated to specific services within svchost.exe. For a live performance issue, Event Viewer is not the tool to use because it lacks the interactive, per-process and per-service CPU breakdown needed to pinpoint the culprit service.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Windows Task Manager
Key term
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a personal computer operating system developed by Microsoft that combines the familiarity of Windows 7 with the modern features of Windows 8, designed to run on a wide range of devices from desktops to tablets.
Key term
High CPU usage
A network device condition where processor utilisation reaches levels that degrade performance or cause service interruptions.
About these practice questions
One of 925 original 220-1102 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on 220-1102
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A user reports that their Windows 10 workstation is running very slowly, especially when opening applications. The technician opens Task Manager and notices that the disk usage is consistently at 100%. Which built-in Windows tool should the technician use to diagnose the cause of high disk usage?
easy- ✓ A.Resource Monitor
- B.Event Viewer
- C.Performance Monitor
- D.System Configuration
Why A: Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) is the correct tool because it provides a detailed, real-time view of disk activity, including which specific processes are performing read/write operations, the associated file handles, and the disk queue length. This granularity allows the technician to pinpoint the exact process or service causing the sustained 100% disk usage, which Task Manager alone cannot identify.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.