Images MsMpEng.exe causes high CPU usage on Windows 8 - Fix it

CPU usage goes up to 50% with Windows 8 PC sitting idle. Many Windows 8 users out there have come with a problem that even though the system is sitting idle, the task manager shows that MsMpEng.exe takes up high CPU resource. This may be surprising as out of nowhere the CPU usage rises up. Here is the tutorial how you can fix this issue on Windows 8.

Even though the system is not running any kind of process, but still CPU usage is high. There can be several reasons behind this issue. On opening the task manager, you get to see that MsMpEng.exe process running with high (50-60%) CPU usage. In this tutorial we will be discussing about some possible ways to fix this issue.

MsMpEng.exe is nothing but a core process of Windows Defender. We all know that Windows 8 comes with default Anti-virus i.e. Windows Defender. This is Microsoft’s antispyware utility program. This scans downloaded files for malware and removes or quarantine’s the malware on detecting them. This is useful in preventing malware infections by searching the complete system for known Virus or worms and Trojan programs.

However, Defender is disabled if you have any other Anti-virus installed on your system Or disable it if you have any other AV running on the system as running more than one Av can cause conflicts on the system. Many users Terminate or End this process but this might compromise with system security.

If you find high CPU usage on the system even though you don’t have any programs running actively on the system this might be the Windows Defender or MSMPENG.EXE that is causing the CPU usage to rise. Defender might start scanning your system and actively utilize the CPU resource when the system is sitting idle.

At times other conflicts arise due to high CPU usage as MSMPENG.EXE might consume much memory. So set a schedule scan when you are not going to use for certain hours.

If high CPU usage is not due to Windows Defender, then you can follow this post to fix the problem.

MSMPENG.EXE doesn’t cause any harm but a novice might be surprised by what is taking up much CPU resources while the system is sitting Idle.
Hope the tutorial helped you to fix the issues with high CPU usage on Windows 8.