MsMpEng.exe slowing down the opening of folders

[Paul Randall]

Hi,
I recently reinstalled the OS on my 2005 Compaq from their disk set for
making the laptop look like it just came out of the box. I had previously
downloaded the install package for microsoft security essentials, and before
going online, I used the Norton removal package to remove all traces of
that, then installed MSE, then went online. The system has generally worked
well since then.

Occasionally, a folder is very slow to display its contents after a reboot.
Looking at the task manager process list, I see MsMpEng.exe has a high CPU
usage. Googleing MsMpEng.exe returns a lot of hits that talk about
MsMpEng.exe being a remnant of Windows Defender, for which microsoft claims:
Windows Defender detects and removes spyware. I do not remember installing
Windows Defender, but perhaps it is something that is part of Compaq's OS
installation, or maybe it is a part of MSE? I see no entry in add/remove
software for Windows Defender. Many of the Google hits for MsMpEng.exe say
that it is the cause for my symptoms and recommend removing it.

I'm hoping someone has experience with this and will comment on whether I
should remove MsMpEng.exe, and can point me to a URL with instructions for
removal that work well.

Thanks
-Paul Randall

 

[Paul]

Hi,
I recently reinstalled the OS on my 2005 Compaq from their disk set for
making the laptop look like it just came out of the box. I had previously
downloaded the install package for microsoft security essentials, and before
going online, I used the Norton removal package to remove all traces of
that, then installed MSE, then went online. The system has generally worked
well since then.

Occasionally, a folder is very slow to display its contents after a reboot.
Looking at the task manager process list, I see MsMpEng.exe has a high CPU
usage. Googleing MsMpEng.exe returns a lot of hits that talk about
MsMpEng.exe being a remnant of Windows Defender, for which microsoft claims:
Windows Defender detects and removes spyware. I do not remember installing
Windows Defender, but perhaps it is something that is part of Compaq's OS
installation, or maybe it is a part of MSE? I see no entry in add/remove
software for Windows Defender. Many of the Google hits for MsMpEng.exe say
that it is the cause for my symptoms and recommend removing it.

I'm hoping someone has experience with this and will comment on whether I
should remove MsMpEng.exe, and can point me to a URL with instructions for
removal that work well.

Thanks
-Paul Randall

And if you upload your copy of "MsMpEng.exe" to virustotal.com, what does it show ?
Is it infected ? Is it real ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virustotal

Paul