MsMpEng.exe - Microsoft Security Essentials: Can't disable

Hi,

So MsMpEng.exe has been eating a lot of my memory lately by using around 180,000k. So it's been sluggish, slow, and web browsing has since been delayed by a lot. So I tried to end process but an error would pop up saying "Access is denied". I tried disabling it on startup through msconfig and 'Microsoft Security Client' but to no avail, after reboot, MsMpEng.exe was still running. So then I also tried turning off 'Turn-on real time protection' on Microsoft Security Essentials and it did not budge. Lastly I went to services.msc to find 'Microsoft Antimalware Service' so I can disable it but all the options of 'stop' and 'pause' were greyed out. The status says 'started' which I guess because it's running at the moment, and the startup type says 'Automatic'. Right clicking to go on properties but the result is the same with the options being greyed out.

So the only option that I think I'm left with is by going to the directory pathway of where MsMpEng.exe is(which in my case is: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client) and delete the entity of its existence from my laptop.

I'm scared to go forward, is this all I can do to stop this tyrant?

Thanks in advance!

jumbovideo

Layback Bear said:

1.8 mb is a little higher that what MSE is using on my system. Is MSE doing anything like Updates or scanning.

I personally would not worry about that little bit of ram used.
I don't believe that MSE is causing you sluggish problem.

I disabled any kind of automatic updates or scanning, MSE is the highest task that's processing out of every task

180k memory usage is not high. I second Layback Bear about it not being the cause.

Did you try a clean startup yet? Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

Also open "Resource Monitor" and check tabs: CPU (sort both Processes and Services by CPU), Memory (sort by Working Set), Disk (try both read and write).

Scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware free (enable the free premium trial, and also enable rootkit scanning - settings - detection)

I would guess you just need to uninstall MSE if it comes to that instead of corrupting your OS with all those failed attempts Microsoft Security Essentials - Uninstall Completely

Also follow SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Is your Windows up to date? Is it set to automatic if so?

Installation of a third party AV will automatically Shut off MSE.
Depending upon which 1 you choose leave it running for a few days and compare the results.

I use bitdefender free av+malware currently running at just over 60K.

Roy

GokAy said:

180k memory usage is not high. I second Layback Bear about it not being the cause.

Did you try a clean startup yet? Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

Also open "Resource Monitor" and check tabs: CPU (sort both Processes and Services by CPU), Memory (sort by Working Set), Disk (try both read and write).

Scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware free (enable the free premium trial, and also enable rootkit scanning - settings - detection)

I would guess you just need to uninstall MSE if it comes to that instead of corrupting your OS with all those failed attempts Microsoft Security Essentials - Uninstall Completely

Also follow SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Is your Windows up to date? Is it set to automatic if so?

yes, my OS is up to date, and it's set to automatic. Upon checking the resource monitor, my cpu usage on average is 7-11%, physical memory 29%

okay so I tried troubleshooting the clean startup but same results so I believe it's something else to which I have found something interesting.

on msconfig.exe and startup:

There's 'Bluestacks Agent' that keeps on running on startup even though I have unticked the startup option for it. I then tried to search for it's location path but it was not found there... so how would I get rid of this when it's file path doesn't even exist?

and why can't I untick the other programs that I don't want to startup such as drop box and openoffice? it just keeps on starting up even though I tried to disable it by unticking the startup option for them

Samething for utorrent as i searched for it's file path and deleted its folder, it still shows up and it's running while 'minimized'

Randomly deleting stuff is not a good idea. You should either try to configure them (most apps have an option to start with Windows and keep running in the background) or uninstall if nothing works (check Control Panel - Programs and Features).

You can try with CCleaner too - install and run - Tools - Startup (check each tab) and disable unnecessary items.

GokAy said:

Randomly deleting stuff is not a good idea. You should either try to configure them (most apps have an option to start with Windows and keep running in the background) or uninstall if nothing works (check Control Panel - Programs and Features).

You can try with CCleaner too - install and run - Tools - Startup (check each tab) and disable unnecessary items.

i tried to remove the following programs mentioned above but it wasn't found, wasn't there.

I have CCleaner, malawarebytes and Adwcleaner. Nothing suspicious scanned

tried to remove the following programs mentioned above but it wasn't found, wasn't there.

Yeah because you deleted them the way you did