Windows 10: Defender Antivirus Service is using a lot of CPU and slowing my computer down severely. How

Defender Antivirus Service is using a lot of CPU and slowing my computer down severely. How can CPU use be cut back?

:)

 

Antimalware Service Executable taking up high CPU for several hours!

No, it usually did not for me either, until today.

Posting system specs is a little off-topic, because my problem is that even though I do this step:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...nder-antivirus

- The Antimalware Service Executable still runs high. I have a pretty good CPU and this has never been a problem until today.

My computer is neither new or old. It was installed 1½ years ago. I never had any problems until today.

I did this step:

That "note" is my problem... it still scans, and it is still scanning while I am writing this.

I already set the Exclusions to the Windows Defender path. Did not work either.

 

Defender AntiVirus

There are 4 options under Defender. Two refer to AntiVirus; AntiVirus Network Inspection Service & AntiVirus Services. Under Startup Type these two are listed as manual and the Status column said Inspection Service is running. When I clicked on the Start
button in Properties, I got an immediate message: "Win.. Def.. Anti.. Serv.. on local comp.. started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs."

 

Defender AntiVirus

Hello,

Thank you for sharing this to Microsoft Community. Let's try to start Windows Defender services and see if it helps. Follow these steps:

• Press Windows + R key and type
  
  Services.msc and press Enter.
• Search for the service "Windows Defender".
• Right click on "Windows Defender" and click Properties.
• Click Start button.
• Click Apply and Ok to save changes.
• Restart the computer and check.

Let us know how it goes.