fssm32.exe taking 100% CPU

Can someone explain to me what fssm32.exe is? My computer has been running very slow lately and when i go to my processes, this is just taking up all the CPU usage.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hello asapien,

F-Secure AntiVirus:
fssm32.exe file information

http://www.f-secure.com/

Depending upon settings and/or task it may be doing such as updating, high cpu wouldn't necessarily be unusual. The real-time scanning engine (which the FSSM32 process runs) may take 100% of your cpu for a few seconds or minutes at a time. This is not a problem, this is simply normal scanning behavior. If however 100% cpu use stalls for minutes or longer I would seek the cause starting with a search of the support site.

 

See here: http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/supportissue/is2004/usage/usage-issue-2004012000.shtml

mickzer.

 

I am shaking my head. mickzer's link seems to (fairly ) accurate

What is the solution? Turn off one of Windows functions. Huh? They can't seem to get their product to work harmoniously with Windows. Cripple part of Windows so that their product can run? Windows wants to run scans that are going to conflict with other programs wanting to do their scans?

It all sounds crazy to me, but I see it all the time, in fact, often I just sit there for ages waiting until the activity (fighting?) subsides.

Startup is still in the dark ages. Vista (future versions) might be going to overcome the stupidity with the "sleep" function. Mmph, maybe!

Sorry I can't add a positive suggestion, it seems to be out of our hands

Matt

 

I will get off my soapbox for a minute (maybe less ).

I started wondering about changing the program's "priority ". I read about doing it in Task Manager, but I am not much the wiser You can set a priority, but when the program is restarted, the priority returns to it's default setting.

I came across this:
http://www.prnwatch.com/prio.html
It allows you to save a priority setting (which in this case would be less than default).

Would anyone like to make a comment?

Matt

 

Sorry Matt,
I have taken away my comment. I am unsure of what your thinking the use of priority would be good for here which should have been my clue to keep my comment to myself.

 

You've removed the comment Ann, but I thought it was a good one.

The link talks about another file scanning program running at the same. Expecting that the antivirus should have priority, maybe look at setting the conflicting process to a low priority.

Any indexing service can be turned off. They are meant to make file searches faster, but what do you gain if your startups are slow as molasses.

Maybe running a full System File Checker occasionally may stop Windows File Manager from running checks frequently at startup. Running a full system antivirus scan occasionally may also reduce the number of files it wants to check at startup.

Like Windows has a selection "Install updates and shut down" it would be good to see "Run antivirus scan and shut down ", I wonder if that could make startup faster?

One method that has worked for me several times, when startup gets very slow, is to uninstall the antivirus, find any updated version from the manufacturer and reinstall that. Their updating/patching systems are often questionable in my opinion.

Matt