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High CPU from scanning full scan (Antimalware Service Executable) in windows security. Normal?

Anonymous
2025-05-27T05:21:42+00:00

Hello, just recently, a full scan increases the cpu load to 100%. I don't know why. System info is ryzen 9 9900x, gpu 4080s, 32 gigs ram ddr5. Is this normal? Or is this a problem?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Ramesh Srinivasan 81,075 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-05-28T03:54:29+00:00

    Hi Michael,

    You're welcome.

    Full scans need not be done frequently. A quick scan should be enough unless a severe malware infection is suspected. It's a good idea to enable CPU throttling (set it to 50% or so) for full scans, anyway.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-28T03:50:46+00:00

    Ok thank you for the response. Just wasn't sure if this was normal, as I never paid any attention to the usage or the noise of the fans before. Hopefully this won't affect me too much if I decide to do something else while the scan is running.

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  3. Ramesh Srinivasan 81,075 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-05-27T05:56:18+00:00

    Hi Michael,

    High CPU usage during a full scan is normal. This is because the CPU is not throttled during the full scan when it is launched manually.

    There is a way to throttle the CPU usage while scanning with Defender, for manual as well as scheduled scans. Please check out my post in the following thread.

    My Windows Defender crashes my pc due to high CPU usage. - Microsoft Community:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

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