I'm trying to do a little experiment around resource consumption. I recall a time a long time ago where my system idle would use about 1.2GB of RAM, and even that was a lot for me, but I lived with it. Now, my system is idling around 2.1GB, which is just obnoxious, I have a suspicion that Microsoft Security Essentials is the culprit behind the excessive resource consumption. I've turned off just about everything non-essential to me. The programs I have running are Process Hacker 2, MSI Afterburner/Riva Tuner and... that's about it. The rest in my task bar are just system notifications (MSE, Security Center, Safe Hardware removal, Network status, and Bluetooth management).
I currently have about 68 active processes, which is about what I had when my system would idle at about 1.2GB. Short of uninstalling MSE, I can't think of a way to actually close it. I've turned off Real Time Protection, but that didn't dent resource consumption at all. I'd rather not uninstall MSE, but if that is the culprit, I will change my AV, but I'd rather confirm that it is before uninstalling. Tips? Suggestions?
UPDATE: Now I really close everything, just in case, and RAM consumption was still at 2GB.
which operating system? the solution is different for windows 7 from windows 8. mse shouldnt really be using more than 100mb though. mines currently using 80mb. the purpose of it is to be a light and free alternative to all the bloated av programs out there.
also, windows 8 uses some available memory as cache, so you probably actually have a lot less being used than what task manager tells you.
just force disable its service and then go into programs and features.. say turn windows features on and off... uncheck windows defender.. boom.. works for both... How do I know.. I have done it ;)
Two gigs is really not that bad. For greater efficiency, try linux. :) For idle resource use, i always check the startup or scan for malware. Other than that you will have to go through every active process and figure what it is and decide if you need or want it. If your unsure? Leave it alone.
Windows 7 Home x64. I notice a few discrepancies; the reported usage and actual usage don't seem to add up. I've realized that modern OSes use RAM as caching, but monitoring software also displays such RAM usage as free. You can confirm this in resource monitor. I have 4GB in "Standby" (<- caching goes on there) and 1.5GB as "Free" (<- not utilized at all), along with my 2.5GB or so in use (not idling). Also besides the point since I'm not using Task Manager - I always Process Hacker 2
As a baseline, I started Windows in Safemode with networking and RAM usage was about 700MB or so. Still digging around.
I also just realized I could cop and paste readings to a spreadsheet so I could quickly double check the math and really figure out whats eating RAM.
My main rig is gaming mostly, along with YouTube and Netflix, both of which heavily utilize proprietary technologies that work better on Windows. I think I stumbled on something. I could copy data displayed in Process Hacker onto a spreadsheet, which would allow me to track down processes easier.
No Malware. I'm fairly paranoid, so I use script blockers, routine set of sites, and a seperate browser for sites I don't trust, with all sorts of security plug-ins. Also weekly scans.
The whole point is I've noticed system RAM usage was creeping to 7GB when running GTA V, and it does worry me that GTA V would be utilizing 6GB, but then I realized idling RAM usage was a lot. Just trying to free up resources for gaming.
Switching to linux is also a good way to disable mse and almost all other microsoft features. #Protip/just_the_tip
if process hacker doesn't show you what's using all that ram, then maybe a piece of hardware is using it. it would definitely tell you if MSE was using it though. maybe something on your motherboard or the integrated gpu is using it. have you dug through all of the bios settings? it probably wouldnt be in the motherboard if booting to safemode fixes it but its worth a try. maybe its a bad driver. or maybe a program that youre using has a memory leak.
I think it's just the sheer amount of small processes. MSE was definitely high on the usage at about 150MB, and so was Windows Defender as well (50MB or so), but they weren't the sole source of my ridiculous ram usage. I've ultimately just come the conclusion that I have too many small processes running (20MB of RAM or less). Any way, I ended up switching to ClamWin, which uses about 20MB of RAM.