What is mac process "Wi-Fi"

I am running Mac OS X Yosemite. Today I ran across a process named "Wi-Fi" in Activity Monitor.

enter image description here

The name catches my attention so I google around, but found little info about what the process does.

Even more weird, the corresponding app of the process seems to have TWO names:

/System/Library/CoreServices/WiFiAgent.app

In Finder, it shows a different name Wi-Fi.app enter image description here

So what is this process? Is it legit?

Philip007

Posted 2015-02-19T03:30:36.173

Reputation: 273

Answers

WiFiAgent.app is part of OS X and is the agent responsible for all things Wi-Fi in the GUI.

This includes everything from managing the menu bar item to showing dialogs for entering the wireless key of the network. The agent runs in the background on all Macs with a wireless service.

Here's a converted version of the WiFiAgent.app Localizable.strings which shows some of the features of the agent through the messages that can be localised.

The reason why WiFiAgent.app is shown in Finder as "Wi-Fi.app" is because of CFBundleDisplayName:

{   CFBundleDisplayName = "Wi-Fi";
    CFBundleName = "WiFiAgent";
}

^{Contents/Resources/InfoPlist.strings}

grg

Posted 2015-02-19T03:30:36.173

Reputation: 1 499

I can see CFBundleName key has value of WiFiAgent in Info.plist. Yet CFBundleDisplayName key is NOT displayed in my Info.plist. Could you verify that? – Philip007 – 2015-03-02T03:05:22.487

@Philip Yes, this is correct. As noted under the code block, the file I am referring to is the InfoPlist.strings file in the Resources folder, not the Info.plist itself. – grg – 2015-03-02T06:17:41.277

Yea I got it. Thanks for put me on the right track. – Philip007 – 2015-03-02T11:10:49.687

2my wi-fi rapidly hitting 1GB of ram, guess apple is in a mission to causes us to upgrade our machine, but i will abandon apple for good soon. – James Tan – 2018-11-13T03:15:45.470

Anyone know why this process could be taking up 99.5% of my CPU (According to Activity Monitor) and what to do about it? – workless – 2019-05-05T19:39:03.540

@grgarside points the way. I want to note the steps of solving problems like this.

Double click the process name in Activiy Monitor, then select "Open Files and Ports" tab, identify the related file path of the process
Locate the file in Finder (cmd-shift-G) > right click the file > Show Package Contents
View Info.plist in any text editor
To view *.strings (eg. InfoPlist.strings or Localizable.strings), use this web service

Philip007

Posted 2015-02-19T03:30:36.173

Reputation: 273