[alozcarney]

SvcHost and MsMpEng programs are running at random times and on many occasions are using 100% of my CPU - At times running PaintShopProx8 that usage surges into the 60% range - I am running Win 7 64bit with 8GB of ram - My system is almost useless until I either stop the processes or wait them out - There were articles on this topic of how to overcome this on here but I can't find them all - Any help very much appreciated -

[Marilynchildress]

msmpeng.exe is a service of Windows defender, it may be doing a scheduled system scan.
It will be better to check if there is no malware in the PC.
Follow these steps for high CPU usage By Antimalware Service Executable (MsMpEng)
https://appuals.com/how-to-fix-high-...table-msmpeng/

[peterjane]

SvcHost and MsMpEng programs are running at random times and on many occasions are using 100% of my CPU - At times running PaintShopProx8 that usage surges into the 60% range - I am running Win 7 64bit with 8GB of ram - My system is almost useless until I either stop the processes or wait them out - There were articles on this topic of how to overcome this on here but I can't find them all - Any help very much appreciated -

Originally Posted by alozcarney

Ive had this once and it almost killed my PC as well.
you can disable it by the following process which worked for me hope it works for you!

Fixing your PC for slow down issues due to ‘Real-Time Protection’ feature
Go to your computers ‘Settings’ and then to ‘Update and Security’
Turn off the ‘Real-Time Protection’ feature
Turn off the ‘Cloud based Protection’ feature
Once you have done the above changes, reboot your computer and check the Task Manager for the Antimalware Service Executable process or the msmpeng.exe file. See the CPU and memory occupancy and if you see that now the antimalware service executable high disk is not occupying so much of the CPU hard disk or the memory, then your problem stands fixed.

Also you can check out this blog which I read if this step does not work out you.