WaasMedic Agent Exe stopping me from working

Anonymous
2021-01-02T19:26:13+00:00

My computer slowed to a crawl. I cannot work. I checked task manager and saw a process waas Medic agent exe is the culprit. It is using 2.8 mb of memory and 1.2 mbs of disk usage.

I understand this is a Microsoft process. What I don't understand is what give Microsoft the right to take over my computer whenever it wants to and stop me from working.

How do I stop this?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Settings

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.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2021-03-16T19:13:13+00:00

Update (5/5/21) - Editing with some additional details.

Can some of you reporting high CPU or high disk usage of the WaasMedic agent create a Feedback Hub entry for me and share the Feedback URL on this thread?

The most important part would be the 'Recreate my Problem' recording while you see the high resource usage in Task Manager.

Image

I want to promote some of these Feedback entries for investigation.

Updates:

Thank you for those who have been trying to file feedback. In some cases the system performance has prevented the use of Recreate my problem.

The Feedback is still useful without the recording, I will still raise those entries.

It is also useful if the Feedback is done shortly after the system is no longer experiencing the high disk usage, I will be calling out those entries as well.

Finally, I was not clear about the best Category and Sub Category selections. Please use Category: Install and update Sub Category: Downloading, installing, and configuring Windows Updates

Thanks,

Paul...

Was this answer helpful?

70+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

552 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2021-05-02T22:19:16+00:00

    MichaelIrons,

    >>Had Compattelerunner running again this morning, no real noticeable performance issues. MS description reads as being used for 'Fixing major Bugs or Security Issues'. <<

    That is a different bit of MS "snoopware" that scours your HDs for applications you have installed and sends the info back to MS.  Some have speculated it is used to target apps MS does not want running on Windows due to marketing / royalty wars or to find ways to force you into paid updates for some apps you use regularly by tweaking the OS to  not support existing, long running apps you don't see the need to update.  True or not, in hoovering up the contents of your HDs it can bog down your machine on startup.

    Regardless, you can exercise some control over this: "Task Scheduler->Task Scheduler Library->Microsoft->Windows->Application Experience" will list 3 to 4 tasks to be done on varying schedules. The names, "Micorosoft Compatibility Appraiser", "PcaPatchDbTask" (the newest entry to this list), "ProgramDataUpdater", and "StartupAppTask" can all be disabled by rigth-clicking and selecting "Disable" from the context menu.  Alternatively you can right-click each task, select "Properties" then in the "Tiggers" tab select each trigger, click the "Edit" button and uncheck "Enable" in the "Edit Trigger" pane.

    NOTE: PcaPatchDbTask, scheduled to run every 12 hours, will re-enable itself at every reboot.  It is possible to delete this task but I have not seen enough convincing info from people who know more about Windows internals than I  that it is safe to do so.  The other tasks will remain disabled until certain major Windows Update pushes, so you have to check them periodically to make sure these snooping tasks remain off.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2021-05-02T22:09:23+00:00

    Yes Waas is scheduled to run every Sunday here so happy WaasDay. You can check the Task Scheduler to see if it's the same there. I notice that WaasMedic which is a "Windows Update component that is run in the background for the purpose of repairing Windows Update should it get damaged or corrupted" was reading all the files on one of my systems even files that have nothing to do with Windows. It ran for 13 minutes and 30 seconds on the system where the screenshot below was taken. 90% of the time reading files and not writing anything. Certainly that's the textbook definition of Spyware.  Windows is not "fixing" anything it is the problem not the solution. 

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2021-05-02T16:00:44+00:00

    I noticed Waasmedic's high disk usage at the same time an Office update seems to be in progress. Damn both products...
    Updates are nice, but please please please please, let the use CHOOSE when to do them.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2021-05-02T15:35:11+00:00

    Had nothing else to do for half hour, starting looking at other non MS forums - they are all reporting the same issue with WAASMEDIC taking excessive disc usage with no apparent motive (backed up by postings here), this is forced on us by MS- looks as though the monster is out of control - full marks to Microsoft.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments