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.

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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...

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-05-24T00:08:02+00:00

    STOP THREAD DRIFT!  

    1) This thread is about WaasMedicAgent and its spawned / associated "helpers that steal resources at such an egregious level that it makes (at leas my machine) unusable for up to 75 minutes after boot-up.

    2) The player and browser (s) plug-in (coded and maintained by Adobe) was not what was removed;  The entire Flash runtime infrastructure was removed.  So, third party APPLICATIONS (not the Flash Player) were disabled.  EXAMPLE: the primary user interface to multiple ranges of AIO printers from more than one manufacturers.  The replacement "APPS (Microsoft Store) DO NOT WORK AT ALL FOR SOME INSTALLATIONS AND IN OTHERS DO NOT PROVIDE THE FULL SET OF CONTROLS FOR THOSE AIOs - like duplex scanning, auto-straightening, contrast setting before save,  OCR during scan etc. etc etc.  Therefore, since these APPLICATIONS were coded to use underlying Flash runtime libraries AND WERE NOT DESIGNED WITH WWW CONNECTIVITY OR SERVICES BUILT IN their security risk was no more significant than Windows Fax and Scan which, of course, MS did not delete from our machines.

    MODERATORS: PLEASE MOVE ALL THIS FLASH REMOVAL DISCUSSION FROM THIS THREAD, MAINTAINING ONLY MESSAGES ABOUT BOOT-TIME RESOURCE HOGGING BY MICROSOFT SPYWARE.

    "Plagued by security issues – malicious data injection, exploit problems, cross scripting attacks and other vulnerabilities, Adobe announced in 2017 that it will discontinue support for the Flash Player plugin in 2020".

    https://www.locklizard.com/adobe-flash-security/

    "A search of the National Vulnerability Database returns 1,122 records for Flash Player, with the first published in 2002. The most recent vulnerability was disclosed in June 2020, receiving the highest possible rating of 10.0 given that successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution".

    https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/finally-end-adobe-flash/

    "Why Flash Player Removal Should Be a Priority As Adobe Phases Out Support, Player Poses Even Greater Risks".

    https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/flash-player-removal-should-be-priority-a-14743

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-05-24T01:31:07+00:00

    Excuse me ? What are you the THREAD POLICE ? You're the one that has gone off on a Flash tangent and you have absolutely no proof that is what's causing the Waas problems. You're just guessing like everyone else.  I only posted those links to point out that removing the Flash Player was good since it's a SECURITY RISK. Now CALM DOWN. You don't own this thread we're all in this together. 

    Today for WaasDay I had very different results for the four computers I booted. On this one Waas ran but was over so quickly that I couldn't even open the Task Manager in time to see it run. It ran for mere seconds. This system has an SSD. Now on my laptop it ran for over 25 minutes. On my studio computer I let it run for 11 minutes until it started reading my personal files then I manually shut it down. Those systems both have HDDs.

    I think that might be a clue as it appears the issue affects HDD far more than SSD at least here. For some reason the HHD gets scanned while the SSD does not.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-05-24T06:06:00+00:00

    Had issue 2nd May (Sunday) - mouse/keyboard/taskbar  totally unresponsive  (don't know if connected with WaasMedic) - Control/Delete allowed access to Task manager (only way in). WaasMedic running, managed to halt & then had to force shutdown by holding down On/Off button 5 seconds. Along with Sunday runs, 3rd, 10th & 17th May (Mondays), WaasMedic also ran. Yesterday's run lasted about 8 mins but hardly noticeable, expected to run on boot this morning but it did not. Also actual boot seemed quicker & 'cleaner'. Is this the first stage of a CURE'?

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-05-24T13:36:14+00:00

    Thank you , Abhishek1M and tooney(2)"). I have found your feedback entries and promoted them.

    Rick HB, it is ok if the Recreate my problem recording was not successful, just give me the Feedback URL from the submission.

    Paul...

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