Can one prevent Antimalware Executable to start hogging CPU for extended periods each time some network adapter gets active?

Anonymous
2013-03-15T20:00:20+00:00

One of the most annoying habits in Windows 8 is, that the built-in "Antimalware Service Executable" (part of "Windows Defender") starts hogging my device's CPU with 60-70% (and 100% disk) for extended periods EACH AND EVERY time after I wake it up.

I wouldn't mind if it starts doing its business IN THE BACKGROUND but when I wake my device up from standby it's usually to get something done NOW and thus I find it increasingly unacceptable, that the system is always taken over by Window's defender exactly then and for up to several minutes! If I don't find a solution soon to throttle this beast, then I will disable Defender altogether!

What I noticed is, that this process seems to be actually triggered not by the system waking up, but by the network adapter becoming active. And actually, this happens each and every time ANY network adapter gets active! E.g. if my system has NO network connection at all and I plugin the network cable the Antimalware Service Executable starts. When - after it has settled again - I additionally enable Bluetooth then the Antimalware Service Executable starts its hogging business again. And if I then additionally enable the WLAN a few minutes later, it will AGAIN start to consume CPU!

So: can one decouple this? Running a scan ONCE after (re-)starting it is definitely enough, especially if Defender hasn't downloaded any new signatures since the last run! And, second, can one make Defender convince to strictly run in the background ONLY?

Michael

[Moved from Windows]

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Security and privacy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-28T19:37:28+00:00

    I am facing the same issue. W8 is such a **** and cant believe this problem from 3 years ago still no fixed for it.. :(

    I fought this issue for several years, and I finally found the cure by accident.

    There was an Estate sale in my home town, they were selling off everything.

    There was a computer just like mine, HP Touchsmart with 23" screen.

    But it had i7 Intel 8 core processor @3400 GHz. With 16 GB Ram and 4 TB

    Hard Drives, and 64bit too boot.

    I HAVE NO MORE PROBLES WITH THIS ISSUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    It even indexes my NAS "Network Attached Storage" . And it 12 TB.

    Again NO MORE PROBLEMS!!!!!

    I guess Microsoft builds all their operating systems to work best with this setup.

    I now have Win 8.1pro 64bit and Win 10pro 64bit in the same computer with

    "NO ISSUES AT ALL" now!

    I hope this helps someone else.

    MUCHOFREEO.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-05-28T16:28:32+00:00

    I am facing the same issue. W8 is such a **** and cant believe this problem from 3 years ago still no fixed for it.. :(

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-16T07:23:40+00:00

    I have admin rights on my Win8 pc, and in the Task Scheduler **Library/Microsoft/Windows/Windows defender,**the condition "Power" has a checkmark but it is greyed out so I cannot remove the checkmark. how to "ungrey" this condition ?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-16T04:53:16+00:00

    Tadasha Mishra's answer is worthless, and should be redacted.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-05-10T02:12:28+00:00

    a simple solution is to uncheck the "high privileges" option of that specific task.

    cpu usage will go down

    try click to run that task and watch the cpu usage

    the effect is instant

    don't bother with other settings

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