You are facing a performance glitch in your pc. You opened the task manager and suddenly discovered Runtime Broker. You are wondering what it is. Well, you can learn about it in this article.

What is Runtime Broker?

Runtime Broker is a process that handles the permissions of Microsoft store apps. You have probably heard a hundred times about permission management in various articles. Microsoft store apps use it to manage permissions of their apps.

Suppose, you opened whatsapp. You are trying to record a voice message.

Then, whatsapp will ask the Runtime Broker to allow it to access the microphone. Then, the runtime broker checks microphone permission status and allows whatsapp to access the microphone.

How much ram does the runtime broker use?

Usually, runtime brokers do not consume much ram. It may consume 20-40 MB of your ram when no microsoft store app is running.
However, when you use an app, the memory consumption may rise to 500-700 MB of your ram. I don’t think that makes much difference for performance issues but if you feel so, you can close the app. It will again come to 20-40 MB after closing them.

Why does the Runtime Broker Consume High Memory?

Though runtime broker does not consume much ram and cpu, it may sometimes consume a lot of memory or cpu for malfunctioning of other components or apps. Some of them are as follows:

• Windows sometimes shows tips of various features. It may cause a spike  in memory or cpu consumption of runtime brokers. You can disable tips from settings > system > notification and action and turn off “tips, tricks and suggestions as you use windows”.
• One of your microsoft store apps may have bugs that cause high usage resource consumption of Runtime Broker. You can try closing apps. You can also uninstall or reinstall the app.

Should you disable Runtime Broker?

You should never disable Runtime Broker. If you disable, your favourite microsoft store app may not open. So, never disable it.

If it causes high resource consumption, you may close it from the task manager. It will restart itself automatically within a few minutes. So, your apps will run normally again. However, never disable it.