[anothermacguy]

Hello all,

It's been a while since I've been on OSX. Anyways, I work in the terminal quite often, and when I do a ps aux, to see the processes, I get a user called "windowse" running a process (CoreGraphics.framework). Just wondering if its normal, and why it doesn't run under root.

[Chuckit]

Actually, the process is the WindowServer, and I'm guessing "windowse" is short for that. I assume it doesn't run as root for security reasons.

[veryniceguy2002]

Can someone tells me what does windowsserver process actually do? I use the Activity Monitor (located within the Utilities sub-folder in the Applications folder), and I can see at times it uses good 40% of my CPU... and it can cause a few problems as I watch digital TV on my under-powered G4 upgraded B&W G3... is there a way to reduce the CPU load from that (I read renice been suggested in some other threads...)

[JKT]

The high CPU usage reflects that you have moving images on screen - due to the way windows are rendered in OS X (and I believe that it is the WindowServer process which controls this), the more windows you have open and in view, and the more that have any motion in them, will cause higher CPU activity from the WindowServer process. This is probably doubly true if you are on a Mac that doesn't support Quartz Extreme (which, given the age of your Mac, it may not).

You can demonstrate this to yourself by keeping Activity Monitor in view while shaking e.g. a Quicktime window containing playback from side to side, or by moving your mouse back and forth over a magnifying Dock.

In other words, high CPU usage by WindowServer is normal during playback of movies. You can reduce the amount of CPU usage by hiding all other windows (e.g. select Hide Others) so that the only window layers on screen are your TV playback and the desktop.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by anothermacguy

Hello all,

It's been a while since I've been on OSX. Anyways, I work in the terminal quite often, and when I do a ps aux, to see the processes, I get a user called "windowse" running a process (CoreGraphics.framework). Just wondering if its normal, and why it doesn't run under root.

I suggest using Activity Monitor for process monitoring, since both top and ps tend to truncate long names, the likes of which are rare in UNIX but very common in OS X.

tooki

[analogika]

The user name is in fact "windowserver", and if you simply increase the width of the "user" column in the Activity Viewer (by dragging the divider between the column titles), it will show more letters (mine says "windowser").

[jasong]

You mean it doesn't mean that a Windows User has hacked into your machine?

[©öñFü$íóÑ]

a Windows user? hacking into Mac OS X? hahahaha!