What are Msmpeng.exe and Antimalware Service Executable in Windows 10

Lots of Windows 10 users may have seen a process in task manager, Msmpeng.exe and Antimalware Service Executable. Both of this service sometimes start misbehaving and slows down your machine. Msmpeng.exe and Antimalware Service Executable both actually process name of Windows Defender. Whenever Windows defender starts scanning your computer or sometimes scans external storage drives like PenDrive, Portable HardDrive it may consume the high amount of memory and this results to slow PC. You can easily solve this problem without any extra effort and reduce resources usage by Antimalware Service Executable.

What is Msmpeng.exe and Antimalware Service Executable?

Here at TheGeekInfo we already have one article explaining What is Msmpeng.exe and How to fix its high usage issues. But lots of Windows 10 users are getting confused because of new UI of task manager. It combines process differently, so it shows Antimalware Service Executable as a parent process for Msmpeng.exe. Both are related to Windows Defender.

What is Msmpeng.exe & Fixing its High Usage Problem

"Msmpeng.exe" is an antimalware service which is part of Windows Defender formally known as Microsoft security essential in Windows 7. Many Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 users have faced "Msmpeng.exe" eating up their CPU process, Ram and sometimes hard drive resources and usage reaching more than 80%.

Why Msmpeng.exe and Antimalware Service Executable Slow Downs your Windows 10 PC

There could be three main reasons, Why Msmpeng.exe might slow down your Windows 10.
Lets checkout problems and possible solutions:-

Windows Defender might be scanning Its own directory:-  

While scanning Windows defender starts scanning its directory and files are scanned twice. This results in high usage of ram and hard drive. It can be solved by adding a directory exclusion in Windows defender's setting. Once Windows defender's program folder are added to exclusion list, it will stop scanning itself and all issues with 'Antimalware Serice Executable' will be solved and 'Msmpeng.exe' will prevent high resource usage.

How to Stop Windows Defender From Scanning Its Own Directory

• Open Windows Defender.
• Click on Tools.
• Navigate to 'Exclude files and folder'.
• Click on Add.
• Now Navigate and add Windows Defender's directory.

 If this option does not solve Msmpeng.exe and Antimalware Service Executable high usage issue, then try below methods.

Malware and Virus Issues:-

Malware and Virus also slow down your system and sometimes Virus and Malware like 'malcrypt.indus' can cause high disk and ram usage through some malicious processes and msmpeng.exe is one of them.
If you have recently visited some malicious websites or tried cracked and pirated software or by chance got infected by some malware or virus through external storage then Windows Defender might having issues in removing it. This can cause high usage issue by Msmpeng.exe, and you will need to use third-party malware cleaners. There are lots of option to remove virus and malware from your Windows PC. You can use a free or trial version of Antiviruses.