constant intermittant activity from the "antimalware services executab

noted repeating activity on drive monitor and looked into task manager to check it out. The windows processes "antimalware service executable", "services" and "microsoft windows search indexer" keeping cpu activity in the low 20's percent range.

Any help or explanation for this?

Thanks for the tip; still have a lot to learn about win10. One question, do you think malwarebytes anti-malware is better than defender or could the two work together?

Thanks again. I have turned MBAM on and Defender off. Past experience leads me to believe MBAM is the better bet.

dalchina said:

Malwarebytes Free is an on demand scanner while Malwarebytes Paid version provides real time scanning. You don't want two real-time scanners. See
anti virus - Is running windows defender with malwarebytes safe? - Super User

But Malwarebytes attempts to address different threats to general AV programs.

It's compatible
https://www.malwarebytes.org/pdf/rev...tingReport.pdf

After that it depends rather on your risk behaviour. What sites you go to, where you download things from.

Just to clarify, MBAM Premium is a specialized, anti-malware program specifically designed to be run alongside a robust, real-time AV.
MBAM is NOT an AV and does not replace an AV.
It targets certain types of non-viral, zero-hour and zero-day malware often missed by your AV.
It is part of a layered approach to security.
(There are other layers, such as anti-exploit, anti-ransomware, custom hosts files, etc.)

So, there should be no need to disable MBAM Premium realtime protection modules if you are running WD under Win10.
To the contrary, MBAM Premium would help to bolster your realtime protection alongside WD.
Running MBAM Premium alongside an AV is NOT the same thing as the ill-advised practice of running 2 realtime AVs.

MBAM Free, as pointed out, is just a manual, on-demand scanner to help detect/remove malware that has already made it past your AV onto the system.
If you disable MBAM Premium's realtime protection or revert to the Free version, you will only be able to clean up, not help PREVENT infection.

If you need help installing, configuring or running MBAM, we'd be happy to assist you.:)

HTH,
MM

trbodden said:

Thanks again. I have turned MBAM on and Defender off. Past experience leads me to believe MBAM is the better bet.

You won't be getting much protection then - as pointed out already MBAM is not a replacement AV

You're right. MBAM is not a sub and I've turned defender back on. Activity is apparently related to the indexing function and has calmed down for now.