Why does a nearly empty program use 4 threads?

[Codex]

I just noticed after adding the threads column in task manager to Win7 that a fresh new VS2005 project with single form and no code compiles and runs with 4 threads. Does anyone else notice this? Can anyone tell me why?

 

[jmcilhinney]

That's probably the default minimum number for the ThreadPool.

 

[Codex]

Ahh, so it is. a quick call to Threading.ThreadPool.GetMinThreads() yields a value of 4, so that explains why the program appears to be running 4 threads even though it's not executing anything. Thanks for helping me clear that up, it really annoyed me to see 4 threads running in Task Manager and not know why.

 

[cjard]

And to think, if TaskManager never even had an option to add a column for the number of threads.. You would never have got annoyed or even cared about it. Good job Microsoft don't put everything possible in the task manager eh?

ps; you'd be amazed how much a program that is "not doing anything" is doing