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MsMpEng.exe uses alot of memory. How do I stop this?

By kitten20486 ·
I am not an IT Prof. Just a homeuser who needs help with this issue. I have Microsoft working on this as well, with no fix in sight.
I have: Windows XP SP3, 2002
I don't know what other info I need regarding this matter.

I will go on with issue:
I am using Microsoft Security Essentials only, nothing else. In the past though I have used Norton Antivirus 2009, and something else from them, umm Norton Internet Security, I think it was. I also have used Microsoft Defender. But I went into Add/Remove and removed all of these. So, supposedly, MSSE is the only thing in the form of Virus protection I have..unless the others are hiding in a place that I dont know of.
Anyways, I looked into Task Manager one day for something else and I noticed this exe file or program or whatever it is using up so much of my memory, which was depleting as it was because this puter is 8 yrs old!! It only has 512MB of RAM!! Well, until yesterday that is, I went to Best Buy and bought 1GB and had them install it. I would of bought more, but that 1GB was 81.00 + 39. to install. There went a hundred bucks. But now I have like 1.5 GB, but still I cant afford to waste what this program is eating up. Oh yea, how much? LOL sorry.
Its like this..under the
Process Tab ->
Image Name: MsMpEng.exe ->
User Name : System ->
Mem Usage: 72,540KB ->
Peak Mem Usage: 223,424 ->
VM Size: 155,604
Base Priority: Normal.
I don't know if you need any info under the Performance Tab such as the Commit Charge and Physcial and Kernel Memory.
When I research this issue there is a problem with this exe file but with the CPU usage of it not with how memory it uses.
Like I said before I've contacted Microsoft and they had me do various stuff Disk Cleaning, pssst, um Temp,%Temp% and Prefetch clean up, Clean Boot and had me go into Microsoft Security Essensials and exclude the MsMpEng.exe and also msseces.exe. None of these things worked. Maybe someone here will know what to do.
Thanks in advance and so sorry for the long *** post
Sincerely
At My Wits End
~~Denise

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MsMpEng.exe is the "engine" for MSE

by wizard57m-cnet Moderator In reply to MsMpEng.exe uses alot of ...

It is the primary executable of Microsoft Security Essentials, as well as Windows Defender. As long as it isn't using more RAM than what you listed and not tying up the CPU, you should be good. The only thing I can thnink to check and make sure Windows Defender isn't running also (which probably isn't since when MSE is installed the setup program disables Windows Defender). As far as Norton goes...I'd lay odds you have some bits and pieces hanging around, usually nothing to worry about, unless your network starts misbehaving...Norton/Symantec just loves to add API hooks into your network adapters...the "uninstall" leaves them behind, but if you want you can edit the registry and get rid of the references. After uninstalling Norton AV or Internet Security, it leaves a key pointing to a non-existant device, the one removed by uninstall. Not really an issue unless you go to debug your startup log, it shows up as a device failing to load.

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I googled MsMpEng.exe

by TobiF In reply to MsMpEng.exe uses alot of ...

And got a page full of comments that this antispyware function in MSSD eats a lot of memory.
Perhaps you'd better use competing freeware?

Oh, Many programs leave traces in the system after they have been uninstalled. Norton is believed to be one of them. I'm not saying this would fix the problem, but your computer might be a good candidate fore a careful dose of ccleaner? (But do a backup first).

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