It's probably the combination of Malwarebytes, Windows Updates and your other antivirus. Annoying that Malwarebytes free is now the full version as a trial for the first two weeks so it will scan or update regularly and slow things down. After two weeks when the trial runs out that should stop.
You don't have to opt in for the trial version of Malwarebytes, additionally, you can opt out (revert to free versions) on the GUI.
Nic
Anti Virus
I've uninstalled Malwarebytes (free version).
When I type "Anti-Virus" into the search box I get a Window which says "Windows did not find any anti-virus software on this computer".
However, when I type "Defender" into the search box I get the Defender Window which tells me that Defender is installed and active for real time protection and also scheduled system scans.
Isn't Defender an anti-virus program? Or is it just "anti-spyware"? Which anti-virus (preferably free) should I use?
Windows Update
Another question: Windows Update is now set to "Never check for updates". I assume that this poses a bit of a risk unless I remember to regularly do a manual check. Is that the recommended course of action, say, once a week?
Revised Autoruns
Autoruns: The revised Autoruns .arn file is attached (after disabling a number of items using CCLeaner>Startup) . Even if I hide the Microsoft items, there are a lot of others - most of which are not shown in CCleaner or MSconfig. Does this mean that they are being started by Registry entries? In which case, do they need attention? (Hoping that this doesn't involve excessively risky registry editing...)
PS Why does Microsoft make this all so hard and time-consuming?
Update: Sadly, even with the items disabled using CCleaner (and verified through msconfig) the problem is still present.
It may possibly be less frequent: I was watching a Youtube video for about 10 minutes with the CPU Usage in Task Manager below 50% and trhe video playing well. Then it suddenly jumped to 100% and stayed there for about 90 seconds. The video stuttered and then froze, but returned to normal play when the CPU usage dropped down again.
Unfortunately I didn't have TaskHacker running at the time and the system was so compromised that I couldn't launch it to see what was happening.
(BTW, is TaskHacker as good as the SysInternals programs? Which one is best to use to help diagnose this issue?)
I guess my next step is to disable some of the Win 7 Services that may not be needed.
After that, with guidance from someone more expert than me (please), to disable potential culprits which are started by Registry entries (as per previous screen shot).
Rgds
Paul
Did you set, under services, WU to manual?
Every month I install the security only update Update history
I run WU manually to see if there is any Office updates.
Go into Autoruns under the logon tab and uncheck 3xAV which is Myspeed.exe. Reboot and see if you have slow downs. What exactly is that anyway?
Chrome is auto starting, too. So you might want to fix that in Chrome. Turn off Ccleaner monitoring. It's still on.
A good replacement for Adobe is Foxit. I have found Adobe to be bloat.
Opera is scheduled to run as well. Turn that off. In fact, Opera is owned by the Chinese just so you know.
Go into Realdownloader and disable its automatic update check. Check for updates manually in everything.
Yes you can! On the Dashboard turn off the four options on the right and also go through the settings and turn off anything related to the premium version. Anyway you've uninstalled it now but if you reinstall that would be the thing to do - then it's just an on-demand scanner.
On Windows 7 - Defender isn't an antivirus program - it turns on when there is no antivirus program installed as a layer of protection. You could download Microsoft Security Essentials from the Microsoft website then Defender would turn itself off again. It's lightweight and better than no protection. On Windows 10, Defender is actually Microsoft Security Essentials (I believe) - so confusing.
Maybe try running ADW cleaner - in case some adware is causing the issue?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down...s.aspx?id=5201
AdwCleaner - Free Adware Cleaner & Removal Tool | Malwarebytes
Thanks for the suggestions and the explanation of Win Defender. It's amazing to me that Microsoft manages to create so much confusion with its product names (Windows Explorer vs Internet Explorer, Outlook vs Outlook.com, etc.)
I'll try the other programs / virus scanners etc. tomorrow.
I have disabled Windows Update in Services, and just about everything in Autostart via msconfig... and for some reason the problem is worse than ever, cranking up to 100% CPU for several minutes at a time.
Is it significant that I can't see the offending Process in Sysinternals process explorer or in Process Hacker? I would expect to see something obvious at the top of the list in the CPU column?
Thks
Paul
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