Cubase + Windows Defender

Hello :slight_smile:

I’ve run into some issues regarding Cubase 9.5 + Windows Defender (Windows 10)
Somehow Windows Defender frequently turns Cubase into a suttery mess, even the UI is lagging and stutterging during playback.
Each time this happens the Task Manager tells me that Windows Defender currently uses around 20% CPU usage and when I turn off “realtime protection” it’s all smooth again.

I recently upgraded from Cubase 8.0 to 9.5 and never had this issue with 8.0, but of course a windows update could have also caused this.

I tried adding everything DAW related to the Windows Defender exception settings, including all my sample library folders, VST folders, Native Instrument Installation/content folders, Cubase folders etc. but it still happens.

Turning on and off realtime protection each time when using Cubase is a bit frustrating :frowning:
Do you guys have any clue how to avoid this?

+1

Just a guess. But did you try to add Cubase to Defenders exception list? Never noticed a problem on my system but will experiment. .

You could schedule background scanning to a time when you are not using the computer, or even set it to scan before a shutdown or after a startup.
I have set exceptions on Cubase folder and audio file-types like wav, aiff, mp3, flac …
Never have a problem with it interfering with audio.

The infamous msmpeng.exe will keep trying to interfere with file loading operations even with windows defender switched off (windows 7). I’ve read posts where people suffer badly from it hogging resources and slowing file loads. Never found a way to stop it - if you switch off the process it just comes back.