How to remove an MsMpEng error

The free file information forum can help you determine if MsMpEng.exe is a virus, trojan, spyware, or adware that you can remove, or a file belonging to a Windows system or an application you can trust.

Click to Run a Free Scan for MsMpEng.exe related errors

MsMpEng.exe file information

The process known as Service Executable or Antimalware Service Executable or AntiMalware Service Executable or Microsoft Antimalware

belongs to software Windows Defender or Microsoft Malware Protection or Microsoft Security Essentials or Windows Defender Service or Microsoft Antimalware Service or Microsoft Antimalware or Microsoft Windows Operating System

by Microsoft (www.microsoft.com).

Description: MsMpEng.exe is located in a subfolder of "C:\Program Files" or sometimes in a subfolder of C:\ or in a subfolder of Windows Temp folder. Known file sizes on Windows 7/XP are 13,592 bytes (40% of all occurrences), 14,032 bytes and 20 more variants.
The program has no visible window. MsMpEng.exe is certified by a trustworthy company. MsMpEng.exe is not a Windows system file. You can uninstall this program in the control panel. Therefore the technical security rating is 22% dangerous, however also read the users reviews.
In case of problems with MsMpEng.exe, you may also do the following:

go to the support area of the Microsoft website
uninstall the program using the Control Panel ⇒ Add/Remove programs ⇒ Windows Defender or Microsoft Antimalware

Recommended: Identify MsMpEng.exe related errors

Important: Some malware camouflages itself as MsMpEng.exe, particularly when located in the c:\windows or c:\windows\system32 folder. Therefore, you should check the MsMpEng.exe process on your PC to see if it is a threat. We recommend Security Task Manager for verifying your computer's security. This was one of the Top Download Picks of The Washington Post and PC World.

Score

User Comments

too much CPU usage.. :/

It is more dangerous that more of the virus that it found, it slow down your computer tooooo muchhhhhh.
bob70

Eats 99% of my RAM and I have 10GB ram. I'm uninstalling MSE
Yurippe

in safe mode, this rating is high

Microsoft Security Essential and eating periodically RAM memory up to 90% and everything stopped and freezing computer to work for 10-20 minutes depends of what is hungry (Takes you your time). Uninstall it.
More FREE Time

Horrible. Eats up CPU and Memory usage.
Sid

This is the working party of MS's Defender. You can set it to how much of your Proc's time to use, however, note that it runs on one thread only, at least on Windows XP-3 so that it will use 100% of your Proc if you set it for '50'. It is very easy to program how much, what to scan or not, how often and when. If you suspect malware, first update the definitions even if they are only 4 days old, then run a quick scan. If that doesn't find anything and something still seems wrong with your PC, depending on the suspectected severity, you can immediately do a Full scan and go take a shower or make lunch, or wait 'till bedtime and let it do a full scan for as long as it needs. It will quarentine any malware it finds, and in the morning you can do what it recommends to do; ie. remove it. This got two severe viri that I got when I was suckered into while looking at photos of Selena. The first full scan didn't get them. I updated the definitions that were 4-5 days old, ran a full scan again and successfully unfroze the PC.
Boss Oldman.

Windows Defender Service, may not be needed if running Microsoft Security Essentials, which is supposed to disable it according to this:
Bilbo Baggins (further information)

More comments can be found here:
(further information)

Summary: Average user rating of MsMpEng.exe: based on 151 votes with 9 reviews.

93 users think MsMpEng.exe is essential for Windows or an installed application. 11 users think it's probably harmless. 19 users think it's neither essential nor dangerous. 9 users suspect danger. 19 users think MsMpEng.exe is dangerous and recommend removing it. 15 users doesn't grade MsMpEng.exe ("not sure about it").

MsMpEng scanner

Security Task Manager shows all running Windows tasks including embedded hidden functions (e.g. keyboard or browser monitoring, autostart entry). A unique security risk rating indicates the likelihood of the process being potential spyware, malware, keylogger or a Trojan.

Spyware Doctor detects and removes sleeping spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, malware and tracking threats from your hard disk. Ideal supplement to Security Task Manager.

SpeedUpMyPC scans, cleans, repairs and optimizes your computer.

Other processes