What is OsfInstaller.exe? Causes high CPU load. OK to uninstall it?

[sortino99]

From time to time OsfInstaller.exe pops up in task manager as a running process, and causes high cpu load. I always know it loads cause than the fans of my Dell XPS 13 become very noisy. It's not a virus I think cause neither McAfee nor HitmanPro detect it as malware.

When I stop the proces, after a while it always comes back even the same day.

So what exactly is OsfInstaller.exe? The source path of the .exe is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\VFS\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16

So it seems having something to do with MS Office, which I have, but can I uninstall or delete this OsfInstaller.exe file even when using MS Office like Word etc? What can I do best to stop this from popping up all the time and do I really need this exe?

Hope people here can help! Thanks in advance.

[David H. Lipman]

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/what-is-osfinstaller-exe-causes-high-cpu-load.415948/#post-2822629

[sortino99]

14 hours ago, David H. Lipman said:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/what-is-osfinstaller-exe-causes-high-cpu-load.415948/#post-2822629

I asked there also but no replies so not helpful.

Back on topic, if I would delete Osfinstaller.exe, what would happen?

In the same folder I also see following files starting with "osf". I still have no clue what these are and if I can disable or delete them. Also weird that some start with capital "O" in their name and others with lowercase so those are no typo's of mine:

osfbgt.dll
OsfInstaller.exe
osfInstaller.exe.manifest
OsfInstallerBgt.exe
OsfInstallerConfig.xml
OsfInstallerConfigOnLogon.xml
OsfTaskengine.dll

Folder path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\VFS\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16

 

[exile360]

Obviously it's a component of Microsoft Office so I wouldn't recommend attempting to modify or delete it, however if it is causing performance issues on your PC I'd recommend contacting Microsoft about it and hopefully it's an issue they are familiar with and can assist you.  I doubt anyone could say with confidence one way or the other what deleting that file might do and how it would affect the functionality of Microsoft Office if you were to do so.

You've created 3 threads on 3 separate sites that I've been able to find so far and you're going to get the same kinds of responses from each obviously because only Microsoft knows what those files are and exactly what purpose they serve.  You could check your scheduled tasks and see if there's an entry for it as it may be some kind of maintenance process that runs from time to time, but otherwise you'll likely need to contact Microsoft Support to get any real answers on what it does and what you might do to fix the problem you're experiencing with it.  If you aren't willing to do that then I don't know what to tell you; you could try deleting it but it's very likely that doing so would break Office and you'd just end up having to reinstall it anyway and it's also possible that it would restore itself automatically when Office detects that it is missing the next time you run any MS Office application.  MS Office isn't open-source software so there is no way for anyone outside of Microsoft's own developers to know what each file is and what function it serves, but I would speculate based on your description that it is some kind of maintenance component like a performance optimizing tool for MS Office files or a telemetry utility to report back to Microsoft or some kind of sync component related to MS Office's online/cloud functionality, but again, there is no way of verifying any of that so it's just speculation.

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/what-is-osfinstaller-exe-causes-high-cpu-load-ok-to-uninstall-it.2564329/
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/what-is-osfinstaller-exe-causes-high-cpu-load.415948/

If you want help from someone that might actually know what that file is for then the people you need to talk to can be contacted here.  Unfortunately there just isn't enough information online about that file for anyone else to be able to help and Microsoft isn't exactly forthcoming with documentation about it since nothing comes up from their knowledgebase when searching for those files.  That tells me that it must be for some undocumented purpose which points me to either telemetry (i.e. harvesting usage data from users) or maintenance (some automated background task with no user-facing options/controls), but again, that's just pure speculation on my part.

Edited April 25, 2019 by exile360

[sortino99]

14 hours ago, exile360 said:

If you want help from someone that might actually know what that file is for then the people you need to talk to can be contacted here.  

Thanks for the link. If you fill in the form there, how can you do it that they give you a reply or do they never that?

Do you perhaps also know of a support email address MS has related to Office? Any chance to get a reply on that?

Thanks again. 

[exile360]

That is the support page for MS Office.  Once you put the details in and click on the 'Get Help' button it presents you with more options.  It also prompts you to sign in with your Microsoft account so they'll most likely contact you via email.  They might also have a live chat option but I'm not sure.

[exile360]

You can also post on the MS Office forums here if you prefer that, and hopefully someone from the Microsoft team who actually knows about what that process does will see it and respond.