Windows 10: Windows Defender Smartscreen CPU Utilization & BSOD

A few months ago I began to notice that Windows Defender Smartscreen process would always run whenever I restart, launch a browser, or launch an app that connects to the internet (despite Smartscreen being disabled via Windows Security settings). The process runs for about 5-6 minutes every time it launches and consumes 15-17% of CPU per Task Manager.

In addition to Windows Security Settings I also used the group policy editor (in Admin Templates) to disable every setting for Smartscreen. Nevertheless, upon restart the process still runs.

Last week I had a BSOD (first time ever on this laptop) that I believe was due to Smartscreen competing for CPU resources with my stock market trading software that utilizes a high % of CPU.

I would like to figure out how to disable Smartscreen from running. Right now I have to manually right click on the process in the task manager every time it starts to run and manually end the task.

Windows Version: Windows 10 Pro 19041.804 (but the issue has been around for at least 2 prior versions)

:)

 

Microsoft Defender Smartscreen

Hi COLINGILBERT1,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue. I'm an Independent Advisor and consumer of Microsoft products just like you. Let me help you with your concern.

Microsoft Defender SmartScreen checks downloaded files against a list of reported malicious software sites and known unsafe programs and against list of files that are well known and downloaded by many Windows users. If the file you downloaded is on the malicious
list or is not commonly downloaded it will show a warning, advising caution. If you believe that the file is not malicious and you trust the source then you can ignore the warning by clicking "Run anyway".

Refer to the below link for the benefits of Microsoft Defender SmartScreen.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/securi...

 

Windows Defender SmartScreen won't let me download ANYTHING.

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

Please provide some additional information, so that we can assist you better.

1. Which browser you are using to download the application?
   
2. What is the complete error message appears on your computer screen when you click on download?
   
   

We can try and perform few steps and see if it helps.

Step 1: You can refer the Microsoft article related

Windows Defender SmartScreen under the section
how can I download files reported as unsafe by Windows Defender SmartScreen in Internet Explorer 10 or Microsoft Edge.

Step 2: Try to disable SmartScreen.

1. Press Windows + S on your keyboard.
   
2. Click on Internet Options.
   
3. When the Internet Properties window opens, go to the
   Security tab and click Custom level.
   
4. Locate the Miscellaneous section. Now, locate Use
   SmartScreen Filter option and set it to disable. Click OK to save changes.
   
5. You can disable SmartScreen by going to the
   advanced tab and unchecking the Enable SmartScreen Filter option. After doing that, click
   Apply and OK to save changes.
   
6. Restart your computer to effect the settings.
   

Hope it helps.

Let us know if you got the help you needed by clicking ‘Yes or No’.

Harish

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Windows Defender SmartScreen cpu usage

My computer has been running slow and I noticed that Windows Defender SmartScreen is using 45-55% of my cpu capacity. I have Windows 10 and Norton anti-virus on the computer. I looked in the forums and it sounds like this should be off when running another
anti-virus program. Should happen automatically according to one thread, but it is definitely running. Went into Security & Maintenance where it shows to turn it off manually, but the “Change Windows SmartScreen settings” option is not on the left side to
click. Using “End task” in Task Manager but it keeps coming back. Do I need this when I have Norton installed? If not, where can I turn it off?