My current fix for the Conexant-Flow.Exe-Firefox issue
The problem for users of Windows laptops using the Conexant audio driver that makes Conexant’s Flow.exe program eat large amounts of CPU when the Firefox web browser is running has not been solved by “conventional” means.
And in order to be part of the “solution,” should one ever come, I filed a bug with Mozilla on the issue.
There have been many fixes proposed for this problem, which only seems to manifest itself on my HP Envy laptop while running Firefox. You hear the fan rev up almost immediately and then can see both Firefox and Flow.exe climb in the amount of CPU they are taking, combining for a total of about 60% on my laptop.
This has been going on for many months, and a couple of days ago I got tired of being forced to run Chrome. It’s not right that I can’t use the privacy-loving Firefox on my Windows 10 laptop.
So I went back to one of the “fixes” that works:
To keep Flow.exe from running constantly and stealing excessive CPU while you are using Firefox or any other program, just change the name Flow.exe to something like _Flow.exe (I just added an underscore) so the Conexant audio system can no longer “find” it. Trust me, sound works fine without it. Why it’s there at all is a mystery.
You can find Flow.exe in this folder: C:\Program Files\CONEXANT\Flow. Just rename Flow.exe as _Flow.exe (or whatever you want; changing its name is enough to keep it from running). I’m not sure whether or not you need to reboot after this, but it couldn’t hurt.
Once you rename Flow.exe, You will get a popup every time you restart the PC warning you that you need to reinstall your Conexant audio software because Flow.exe is missing. Ignore this nagging box. I’d like to send Conexant a few popups, or maybe I should send my good wishes to Logitech, the company that bought Conexant a few years ago. Both are garbage. They’re certainly not seeing what I’m saying about them on Twitter and consequently falling all over me to fix anything. No, it’s radio silence. F&^% ’em.