{"id":15253,"date":"2019-10-28T14:06:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T14:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/?p=15253"},"modified":"2019-10-28T14:07:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T14:07:51","slug":"limit-windows-defender-cpu-usage-in-windows-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/limit-windows-defender-cpu-usage-in-windows-10\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways to Limit Windows Defender CPU Usage in Windows 10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Windows Defender service is using high CPU all the time? If you have real-time protection enabled, Windows Defender will do the scan in the background and this can cause high CPU usage. To prevent Windows Defender from using the CPU too much, you can use the following methods to limit Windows Defender CPU usage in Windows 10.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Method 1: Limit Windows Defender CPU Usage via PowerShell<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/5-ways-to-run-powershell-as-administrator-in-windows-10\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Open Windows PowerShell as admin<\/a> and execute the following command. It will display the current maximum CPU usage limit for Windows Defender.<br \/>\n<code>Get-MpPreference | select ScanAvgCPULoadFactor<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/query-cpu-limit-for-windows-defender.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"579\" height=\"219\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/query-cpu-limit-for-windows-defender.png 579w, https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/query-cpu-limit-for-windows-defender-300x113.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 579px) 100vw, 579px\" \/><br \/>\n<\/code>\n<\/li>\n<li>When you need to reduce CPU usage, type the following command and hit Enter. Windows Defender will not use up more than 30% of your CPU.<br \/>\n<code>Set-MpPreference -ScanAvgCPULoadFactor 30<\/code><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/reduce-cpu-usage-for-windows-defender.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"90\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/reduce-cpu-usage-for-windows-defender.png 560w, https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/reduce-cpu-usage-for-windows-defender-300x48.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Method 2: Limit Windows Defender CPU Usage via Group Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/open-local-group-policy-editor-in-windows-10\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Open the Local Group Policy Editor<\/a> and browse to: <code>Computer Configuration -&gt; Administrative Templates -&gt; Windows Components -&gt; Microsoft Defender Antivirus -&gt; Scan<\/code>. On the right pane, double-click on the &#8220;<strong>Specify the maximum percentage of CPU utilization during a scan<\/strong>&#8221; policy.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/limit-windows-defender-cpu-percentage.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"601\" height=\"347\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/limit-windows-defender-cpu-percentage.png 601w, https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/limit-windows-defender-cpu-percentage-300x173.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>Select the <strong>Enabled<\/strong> option and you limit the CPU usage of Windows Defender to 30% or any percentage you like, Click <strong>Apply<\/strong> and then <strong>OK<\/strong>.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/max-cpu-usage-during-scan.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"498\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/max-cpu-usage-during-scan.png 600w, https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/max-cpu-usage-during-scan-300x249.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>Restart your computer to apply the changes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Method 3: Limit Windows Defender CPU Usage via Registry Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/6-ways-to-open-registry-editor-in-windows-10\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Open Registry Editor<\/a> and navigate to: <code>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender<\/code>. Right-click on the &#8220;<strong>Windows Defender<\/strong>&#8221; key and select <strong>New<\/strong> -&gt; <strong>Key<\/strong>. Name it <strong>Scan<\/strong>.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/create-scan-key.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"343\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/create-scan-key.png 580w, https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/create-scan-key-300x177.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>Next, right-click on the newly-created <strong>Scan<\/strong> subkey and select <strong>New<\/strong> -&gt; <strong>DWORD (32-bit) Value<\/strong>.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/create-dword-value.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"357\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/create-dword-value.png 580w, https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/create-dword-value-300x185.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>Name the DWORD <strong>AvgCPULoadFactor<\/strong>, and then double-click it to specify the maximum CPU percentage for Windows Defender.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/AvgCPULoadFactor.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"348\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/AvgCPULoadFactor.png 580w, https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/AvgCPULoadFactor-300x180.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>Close Registry Editor. Reboot your computer and check if Windows Defender still has high CPU usage.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Windows Defender service is using high CPU all the time? If you have real-time protection enabled, Windows Defender will do the scan in the background and this can cause high CPU usage. To prevent Windows Defender from using the CPU too much, you can use the following methods to limit Windows Defender CPU usage in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,1894],"tags":[4368,4367],"class_list":["post-15253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-others","category-tips-tricks","category-windows-10","tag-reduce-windows-defender-cpu-usage","tag-windows-defender-high-cpu-usage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15253"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15269,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253\/revisions\/15269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}