Is there a location that shows what processes that the sccm 2012 R2 client uses for things like software inventory on a local computer?

A service for sccm activities ,SMS agent host which is running all the time (ccmexec service) and you can trace the logs C:\windows\ccm\logs for any sccm client activities. For each activity like hardware,software,metering,you have logs to trace what is happening.what are you expecting from this ?

I have a supporter that is trying to blame SCCM for 15 minute startups and slow running of some laptops. I think he is climbing up the wrong tree. Below is part of the email conversation.

Him - "Doesnt sccm performs an inventory of installed software? If so, how often?"

Me - "Once every seven days."

Him - "Do you know what process runs to perform that?"

Him - "On the computers including mine that have issues one of the processes that uses the svchost hogs up to 800meg of memory and makes the computer crawl."

Just a thought. . .there was a recent update made available for the Windows Update Agent.  The previous version of the agent had an issue that would degrade system performance.

It's worth a look.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3050265

Jeff

Note that ,you cannot directly install this hotfix on the target computers,have a look at this post for couple of prereq before deploying the hotfix http://blogs.technet.com/b/sus/archive/2015/06/09/a-few-notes-on-the-recent-fix-for-the-configuration-manager-update-scan-failure-issue.aspx

@Eswar: Huh? Do you mean you can't deploy it via Software Updates because that's a chicken-egg issue?

@jason : i didn't mean that, it can be deployed via Software updates but Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) servers servicing these clients must have the hardening patch installed (KB 2938066) as described in technet blog.  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2938066?wa=wsignin1.

OK, true. Although if you dion't have that patch by now you've got bigger issues.