Antimalware Service Executable High Disk, memory and CPU usage after 2018-03 updates

Question

Just did update yesterday 2018-03 updates and suddenly antimalware service executable takes all my disk, memory and CPU too high up to 100% every minute until now and Virus threat protection keeps coming out eventhough i'm not doing a scanning. This just happen AFTER the updates. Any idea ? tyvm

Answer 1

Hi Louis,

Antimalware Service Executable is one of the background-running services in Windows Defender. Antimalware Service Executable is running to scan the malware and spyware when you access them. It will detect if there’s anything harmful on your PC Aside from that, it also takes a background scan of your system for any viruses or worms. Its scanning relies heavily on your computer’s CPU, that’s why you find it’s eating the CPU usage on your Windows 10. To get this sorted, I suggest to follow the steps below:

Method 1: Change Windows Defender’s schedule

The error is mainly due to its real-time protection feature. Kindly follow the steps to  change Windows Defender’s schedule to fix it.****

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to invoke the Run box. Type taskschd.msc and press Enter.
2. Double-click on Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows.
3. Double-click Windows Defender in Windows. Then double-click Windows Defender Scheduled Scan.
4. Uncheck Run with highest privileges**.**
5. Uncheck all the items in the Conditions section. Then click OK.

Method 2: Add Antimalware Service Executable to Windows Defender exclusion list

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and I at the same time to open the Settings window.
2. Click Update & security.
3. Click Windows Defender. Then click Add an exclusion in Exclusions.
4. Click Exclude a .exe, .com or .scr process
5. Type MsMpEng.exe. Then click OK.

Restart your PC and see if the issue persists.

Feel free to post back should you have further concerns.

Answer 2

This is slightly different now with the May 2018 update on the Home version.

From Update & Security in Settings use now Windows Security then from there Open Windows Defender Security Centre.

In Windows Defender Security Centrechoose Virus & threat protectionand from there Virus & threat protection settings. Scroll down to find Exclusions and click on Add or remove exclusions.

Then continue similar to before:

• Click Add an exclusion in Exclusions.
• Choose process
• Type MsMpEng.exe. Then click OK.

Answer 3

Hello,

I am having the same issue with Antimalware Service Executable taking up significant disk space, and have noticed considerably slower performance from my system over the last 3 days in particular.

I have attempted the suggested actions of changing Windows Defender's Schedule, and adding an exclusion.

I have also attempted to modify the conditions such that the service only runs when inactive and halts when active again.

However, after a restart the issue persists.

The process climbs to between 50mb/s and around 80mb/s - maxing out disk use at around 100% when combined with other processes.

I noticed this even after restart, with only task manager open, though it did drop back down until I began to launch applications.

Further help would be much appreciated.

Answer 4

Hi,

It doesn't bother me to scan for threats, but the memory usage is too high.

Is there a way just to limit the amount of ran it will use? (here its sucking around 600mb)

Best regards,

Rafael Girotto

Answer 5

I have the exact same problem. The only thing that currently solves it is to turn off real time protection in the Windows Defender Security Center (under Virus & threat protection settings), which doesn't feel like a very good solution.