Highlights

Thursday, September 20, 2012

SOLVED! - High CPU Usage of Microsoft Security Essentials

I've at least two laptops, after installing Microsoft Security Essentials, the CPU usage jumps up. Stopping or uninstalling it resolved the problem, which isolated the source to be Microsoft Security Essentials itself. After some research, this works for me as a workaround this problem.


  1. Run Task Manager, find the process with high CPU usage. (Sorting by CPU may help you find it)
  2. Likely you will find "MsMpEng.exe" has taken much of your CPU time
  3. Now go to  your Microsoft Security Essentials, click on the "Settings" tab. Select "Excluded files and locations"
  4. Browse to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\MsMpEng.exe", Ok and press Add button to add the file to your list of excluded files and locations. Press Save changes button.

Same method applies to other trusted files. You should see the CPU usage drops down dramatically.

80 comments:

  1. thank you jack. youre a lifesaver.

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  2. LOL! It's busy scanning itself.

    Thank you for the fix, it worked a treat

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    Replies
    1. absolutely; playing loop-d-loop! So glad you found this..... a fix for eternity.

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  3. UnBloodyBelievable! Literally choking on itself!!

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  4. Just fixed my problem, thank you!

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  5. A million thanks, I had been struggling with this issue for a while (laptop was almost unusable)

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  6. Legend! There must be millions with this issue, what a joke.

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  7. same problem windows 8.1 fixed now thanks heaps

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  8. Wow. I wondered what was causing my system to go into a regular tailspin with nothing visibly going on. Grrrr. Thanks for the tip!

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  9. AMAZING! Restarted after doing so and 100% to 2!!!

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  10. Thanks so much. This was great on a server of ours that was running very slow.

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  11. thanks that worked :)

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  12. you should be in charge of MS.

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  13. Thank you so much !
    Wonder if Papa MS knows about it ??

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  14. Wow!, worth millions!!
    Apply.
    Thnx.

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  15. Gracias, gracias, gracias!!!

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  16. very nice, mate.
    I opened MSE and clicked on its options.. the cpu usage at task manager was showing 12, 16...
    after this procedure, it stays on 2 or 3 only!
    excelent, thanks a lot

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  17. Mine was 55 now 5 :D such a great solution, you deserve a medal or something :)
    anyway, thanks a bunch man!

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  18. A real solution! Thanks a lot!!!

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  19. This solution WORKS ! ! ! So why can't Microsoft 1) just say so and 2) do a proper update to resolve this problem ? ? ?

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  20. @Anonymous
    1) They will never
    2) Now they will.

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  21. Thank you! This was dragging down my Citrix servers horribly!

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  22. Thanks. In Windows 8, I found the file under Program Files\Windows Defender

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  23. Awesome! Thank you!!

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  24. Thank you very much, works perfect. Couldn't emagine scanning itself. what a bug!

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  25. Been driving me mad for months thanks very much for that!

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  26. Vy nice post ... thanks...

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  27. WAY TO GO!!!!
    The classic feedback loop.

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  28. Dear God. This has been pissing me off for years on several WinXP & Win7 installs. Always ended up in forums (including microsoft professional coders who worked on MSE & related projects) that discussed it to death without ever realizing it was recursively scanning itself. The idiocy of microsoft knows no depth; clearly it's turtles all the way down.

    Thank you!

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  29. In my case MsMpEng.exe was hogging the disk i/o keeping other programs from accessing the drives in a timely manor. 100,000(s) picture files. Disabling this process seems to have vastly increase overall performance.

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  30. Thanks indeed. Refreshing to be given a solution that works for once.

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  31. an actual solution rather than a thousand noob suggestions...thank you!

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  32. Thank you to the OP!! This gave me the info needed to do the same for Windows 8.1. Incase people are on Windows 8/8.1, click Start and Search for Defender (Name of Windows Security Essentials). Then follow the instructions but add the following path instead:

    C:\Windows\WinSxS

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  33. Wonderful! Worked immediately. Thank you very much.

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  34. Great job. What exactly happens when this antimalware service executable, aka msmpeng.exe, when it is put on an exclusionary list within it's own program? AVG resident shield service is using slightly more than this anyways. And Firefox seems to be my most notable resource drain. 15 years later, and I'm finally getting tired of this nonsense. I'm moving back to pen, paper, and rotary phones. LOL! Yes, I am serious. / Thanks again for having a comment board without requiring logins. Comments boards which require logins are a waste of friggin time.

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  35. Cheers Fella! Works for me...

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  36. As a university student... I cannot express my gratitude. Now, I don't need to beat my against the computer!

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  37. Just added this to my SCCM 2012R2 antimalware policies. What a effen joke! I had plain jane file/print servers sitting at 90~100% CPU with 4 cores. Adding this line made all difference and made me wonder. Who in the hell is running this at Microsoft? It's the most simple programming mistake I've seen!

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  38. *bows to you* i'm wondering how many people's systems have died over this. what a simple fix!

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  39. Thank you so much!!! his was driving me absolutely crazy. After checking several other sites i decided to go with your idea first since it seemed more plausible. I did have to re-install the Microsoft security essentials but the rest worked like a charm!!
    Kudos!!

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  40. you are my life saver...love u.

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  41. thanks for getting my laptop back for me.. its amazing.. how ridiculous ms doesnt fix this..

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  42. Fscking unbelievable. Really. I have this T420s for 3 years now, and got it to barely tolerable noise levels with tpfancontrol... Then replaced the fan (again), put win10 preview on it and got high CPU bursts. "High" is one core full load for a few seconds or so. But enough to force the fan to full speed... even a spanking new one is annoyingly loud then. Got the Resource monitor out... bingo. Now with your fix, the damned thing is silent for most of the day . Thank you. :)

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  43. Thanks so much for this fix. Works like a charm.

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  44. Thanks. Seems like this should never even happen. Fixed my problem.

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  45. Merci !!! tu fais des heureux dans le monde entier - jusqu'en France :)

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  46. Thank you! Worked great!

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  47. I have had this issue for 6 or more months listening to my cpu fans roar all the time! Great Job and thanks for the post. !

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  48. thank you ! it's work !

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  49. Great tip. Works !!

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  50. Thanks for the heads-up! I had a client whose Laptop was a complete brick because of this. I personally steer clear of MS updates unless I know they work. I find it amazing that a multi-billion dollar corporate won't fix things, because they know that there are people like you who will find their mistakes for free, so they can continue charging...

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  51. Great. A big frustration and time saver. Thank you!

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  52. thank you! :) Solved my windows 8.1 problem!

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  53. Think of all the electricity you just saved.

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  54. Thanks, works like a charm. Somebody give that genius some Oral or something!

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  55. Windows XP - worked for me too! Many thanks

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  56. Unbelievable Windows.

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  57. Great, it actually works! Thanks!!

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  58. Thank you for this excellent information - it fixed my problem with your clear and accurate advice !
    Richard

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  59. Thank you, you are a lifesaver. May god bless you

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  60. Thank you! if only Microsoft support gave such quick- straightforward answers!

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  61. winxp sp3, works fine now... tnx!

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  62. Thanks a million jack.. Works on windows 10 too

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