Powershell using almost RAM in background

Question

My laptop has 8GB or RAM. Sometime when I notice it is painfully slow and I check task manager, I find a powershell process using so much ram (around 3 GB) .

Is there a way to find what triggers this powershell? Can it be a Virus or Malware?

Answer 1

Hi thisisjaymehta,

I am Dave, I will help you with this.

PowerShell should not be running in the background, it should only run if you have opened the application.

Download the free version of Malwarebytes and run a full scan with that, when that completes, run an Offline Scan with Defender, your PC will restart to perform that scan.

Then check if PowerShell is still running in the background.

I resetted the PC and problem got solved. (I was quite reluctant running 3rd party malware removal tool, I have not used any of such tools in past, I only have Windows Security)

Answer 2

What anti-virus/security program do you run? a 3rd party one may be responsible perhaps....my Mum's laptop used to have one and it regularly slowed to a crawl...no idea if it had Power Shell running like that though.

What else is showing in task manager for processes?

No 3rd party antivirus. Just Windows Security. Eventually I ended reseting the PC.

Answer 3

What anti-virus/security program do you run? a 3rd party one may be responsible perhaps....my Mum's laptop used to have one and it regularly slowed to a crawl...no idea if it had Power Shell running like that though.

What else is showing in task manager for processes?

Answer 4

Hi thisisjaymehta,

I am Dave, I will help you with this.

PowerShell should not be running in the background, it should only run if you have opened the application.

Download the free version of Malwarebytes and run a full scan with that, when that completes, run an Offline Scan with Defender, your PC will restart to perform that scan.

Then check if PowerShell is still running in the background.