MsMpEng.exe is using about 50% of my CPU cycles so how do I kill it?

G I March 9, 2014

MsMpEng.exe is using about 50% of my CPU cycles. I tried to kill it with Task Manger, but the system said I was not authorized although I am running as administrator.

How do I kill and then disable this process? I will use Malwarebytes as my malware protection.

  1. G I
    March 9, 2014 at 6:58 pm

    Thanks for the solution upon which all of you agree. Since this appears to be a problem that MS did not adjust with both Essentials and Defender, I am going to follow Oron J's suggestion and, and return to Avira.

  2. Dalsan M
    March 9, 2014 at 12:26 pm

    Try the suggestions here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/fixing_the_high_cpu_usage_perfomance_of_microsoft_security_essentials_and_windows_defender.html.

  3. Oron J
    March 9, 2014 at 10:58 am

    As Hovsep points out, this is one of the main components of Microsoft Security Essentials, and this is a fairly common problem with it (see for example http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/mse-protect_scanning/msmpengexe-running-at-95-cpu-usage/4b079063-e93a-4e80-935b-c1d7ee02a672).
    Since MS Security Essentials is one of the least effective antivirus products available at the moment, I suggest you uninstall it and install a better program, such as Avast, AVIRA or BitDefender (free versions are available for each of them).

  4. Hovsep A
    March 9, 2014 at 7:50 am

    maybe you have Microsoft Security Essentials on your pc? you can uninstall and reinstall

    add the following in exclusion list within Mcrosoft Security Essentials
    c:program filesmicrosoft security essentialsMsMpEng.exe
    C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoftMicrosoft Antimalware
    C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoftMicrosoft Security Essentials
    C:Program FilesMicrosoft Security Essentials
    so you have to Open Microsoft Security Essentials, click the Settings tab and select Excluded files & locations, and then use the Add button to select files, folders, or drives.