Why is waasmedic service overhead so extreme?

Question

Why is waasmedic service overhead so extreme?

Robert Scardapane 1

I have observed it reading and writing every file in %APPDATA%. When you have a media server application such as PLEX the amount of data in %APPDATA% can become quite large depending on the number of files you are serving. Can someone explain why windows as a service medic is re-writing every file in %APPDATA% (or reading every file in %APPDATA%). How does that repair windows update? Shouldn't there be a supported mechanism to disable this function?

Rita Hu -MSFT 9,661 Reputation points

2021-05-24T02:24:26.517+00:00
@Robert Scardapane
It seems that the issue is not related with WSUS. But I researched many articles and please refer to the below scripts to disable the waasmedic service:

echo Windows Update Medic Service sc stop WaasMedicSvc REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WaasMedicSvc /v Start /f /t REG_DWORD /d 4 echo.

Hope the above will be helpful. Please consider reposting the issue into windows forum if you need the further support. Note that add the widows-10-general tag with the new thread if you want to reopen a new case in windows forum.

Thanks for your time and have a nice day.
Rita Hu -MSFT 9,661 Reputation points

2021-05-28T09:28:11.293+00:00

@Robert Scardapane
It seems there is no update for a couple of days. May we know the current status of the problem? Is there any other assistance we can provide?

If the issue is resolved, share your solution or find the helpful response "Mark as Answer" to help other community members find the answer.

Thanks for your time and have a good weekend.
Robert Scardapane 1 Reputation point

2021-05-28T11:58:12.247+00:00

Okay thank you. I disabled the service using the registry and the overhead went away. My question really was a bit different:

Why is there so much overhead? I would rather not disable the service. But the medic seems to be processing thousands of files that have nothing to do with windows update.