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

omega3

omega3

Senior member
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?

Hope people here can help! Thanks in advance.
 
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My Googling didn't return much info on "OsfInstaller.exe", which is rather interesting if it is actually part of Microsoft Office. I figured there would be quite a few threads on Answers.Microsoft.com, but there wasn't much on it anywhere (mostly on sketchy looking sites).

I don't use Office anymore on my PC, so I'll let someone who does chime in if that is a legit process and not some type of PUP / malware.
 
It is a Microsoft file that is part of Office 2016. I believe it is because that version of Office is partly on line.
 
corkyg said:
It is a Microsoft file that is part of Office 2016. I believe it is because that version of Office is partly on line.
Click to expand...
Not sure if I understand you. What do you mean with that last sentence and would that be the reason this file spikes my CPU load, see my question above? Thanks.
 
I mean that this version is designed to work online with others, and is always subject to program updates, etc. That file is the tool that gets it done.
 
corkyg said:
I mean that this version is designed to work online with others, and is always subject to program updates, etc. That file is the tool that gets it done.
Click to expand...
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
 
If you delete it, it will most likely rewrite itself as long as Office16 is installed.
 
corkyg said:
If you delete it, it will most likely rewrite itself as long as Office16 is installed.
Click to expand...
What's the best way to ask MS about this and getting a reply? Do they have a support email address for Office and do they ever reply?
 
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