This is the seventh part of this series which started after un-installing SpyBot – Search & Destroy and installed Microsoft Security Essentials [MSSE] instead. For each succeeding day, familiarization of MSSE’s features, footprint, updates, and tweaks was discussed, including tweaking its real-time protection to curb its notoriety as a resource hog.
Prior to the activation of an exclusion list, a snapshot of the Task Manager revealed that Microsoft Antimalware Service, [MsMpEng.exe] could use as much as 256,068 K or more. Yesterday, activating a modified exclusion list, consisting of process and path exclusions for MSSE to ignore during real-time protection scan, it is not a surprise to find that the memory used by the Microsoft Antimalware Service, [MsMpEng.exe], was much less than without it.
Note: It takes good timing to take a snapshot of the Task Manager during the peak of [MsMpEng.exe] memory usage. Thus, although the image shown right displayed that the Microsoft Antimalware Service used that much memory, I have personally seen much higher number but was not able to be as fast as taking the snapshot as the peak occurred. Yet, the snapshot taken could suffice for the purpose of this post.
With MSSE’s exclusion list activated, the snapshot of the Task Manager, taken a few minutes after reboot, shows a remarkable decrease in memory usage of its Real-Time protection. This time, only 14,568 K compared to Avira Guard’s (real-time protection) of 19,412 K! Maybe, I should also apply a similar exclusion list to Avira Guard? Amazingly, with the exclusion list in MSSE, Firefox seemed to have refrained itself from not responding episodes. This is definitely a good thing!
If the suggested exclusion list had been discussed in the Microsoft Forums from Aug to Nov 2009, should not the most recent update included such improvement? The question now is why was the default configuration of the installed MSSE was still using as much as memory prior to the activation of the exclusion list in my vintage 519-MHz mobile AMD Athlon Compaq Presario notebook with 448 MB of RAM running Windows XP SP3? Is Microsoft really bothering to listen to its various users clamoring for answers why the default MSSE installation is a resource hog?
Reboot. I wanted to see whether there was a noticeable improvement of MSSE’s memory usage during start-up with the exclusion list activated. The snapshot shown right was taken one (1) minute after start-up, and observing the memory usage of MSSE fluctuating from an initially high of about 44,772 K it remarkably settled at 8,804K after a minute! It is therefore safe to conclude that the activation of an exclusion list effectively lowered the memory usage of Microsoft Antimalware Service, [MsMpEng.exe]. If this is really the case, Microsoft should program an exclusion list into the service instead of users manually encoding and activating the same.
Ever wonder why Microsoft is not doing this? With millions of Microsoft users still learning the ropes of how Microsoft software handles computer memory with those big-is-better applications or suites (a group of applications bundled into one big installation with some applications users will never ever or opt not to use) it would not make good business sense to listen to a «few» rants, such as this blog or a group of forum posters, versus a «silent» already-paid-Microsoft-software-owning majority!
Some would say, why bother? MSSE is free anyway! It is free, but only to owners of genuine Microsoft Windows operating systems! MSSE is basically an add-on to an operating systems already PAID FOR!
Notes:
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The Grey Chronicles
Goodbye Spybot, Hello MSSE? Part VII
Tags: AMD, Application, Athlon, Avira Guard, Big-is-Better, Business, Compaq, Computer, Configuration, Customer, Default, Exclusion List, Feature, Firefox, Footprint, Forum, Improvement, Installation, Memory, Microsoft Antimalware Service, Microsoft Forums, Microsoft Security Essentials, microsoft., Mobile, MsMPEng.exe, MSSE, Notebook, Operating System, Path, Presario, Process, Protection, Ram, Rant, Real-Time Protection, Reboot, Resource Hog, Scan, Sense, Series, Snapshot, SP3, spybot, SpyBot - Search & Destroy, Suite, Task Manager, Tweak, Update, Windows, XP
This is the seventh part of this series which started after un-installing SpyBot – Search & Destroy and installed Microsoft Security Essentials [MSSE] instead. For each succeeding day, familiarization of MSSE’s features, footprint, updates, and tweaks was discussed, including tweaking its real-time protection to curb its notoriety as a resource hog.
Note: It takes good timing to take a snapshot of the Task Manager during the peak of [MsMpEng.exe] memory usage. Thus, although the image shown right displayed that the Microsoft Antimalware Service used that much memory, I have personally seen much higher number but was not able to be as fast as taking the snapshot as the peak occurred. Yet, the snapshot taken could suffice for the purpose of this post.
If the suggested exclusion list had been discussed in the Microsoft Forums from Aug to Nov 2009, should not the most recent update included such improvement? The question now is why was the default configuration of the installed MSSE was still using as much as memory prior to the activation of the exclusion list in my vintage 519-MHz mobile AMD Athlon Compaq Presario notebook with 448 MB of RAM running Windows XP SP3? Is Microsoft really bothering to listen to its various users clamoring for answers why the default MSSE installation is a resource hog?
Ever wonder why Microsoft is not doing this? With millions of Microsoft users still learning the ropes of how Microsoft software handles computer memory with those big-is-better applications or suites (a group of applications bundled into one big installation with some applications users will never ever or opt not to use) it would not make good business sense to listen to a «few» rants, such as this blog or a group of forum posters, versus a «silent» already-paid-Microsoft-software-owning majority!
Some would say, why bother? MSSE is free anyway! It is free, but only to owners of genuine Microsoft Windows operating systems! MSSE is basically an add-on to an operating systems already PAID FOR!
Notes:
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