Author Topic: Avast Behavior Shield aswidsagenta.exe using 822 MB of RAM  (Read 2912 times)

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Avast Behavior Shield aswidsagenta.exe using 822 MB of RAM
« on: June 29, 2018, 07:47:38 PM »
I was noticing that my computer was a little sluggish, and looked at my Task Manager to see if anything was hogging the CPU or if I was running out of RAM and hitting the swap. Then I saw the aswidsagenta.exe process using 822 MB of RAM. I almost had a heart attack! What the heck is this process doing that it is using so much memory?

I tend to keep my computer on for days (sometimes even weeks) at a time and just let it sleep when I am not using it instead of rebooting. Rarely had any issues over the years, but occasionally I find processes like aswidsagenta.exe or websites like outlook.com that just keep consuming more and more memory over time unless you shutdown the browser / reboot.

Any suggestions on what to do? Of course, I could reboot, but I wanted to highlight this to avast, as it's probably some code that is causing a memory leak or not releasing memory periodically.



Offline Asyn

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Re: Avast Behavior Shield aswidsagenta.exe using 822 MB of RAM
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2018, 05:17:53 PM »
- Which Avast..? (Free/Pro/IS/Premier)
- Which version..?
- OS..? (32/64 Bit..? - which SP/Build..?)
- Other security related software installed..?
- Which AV(s) did you use before Avast..?
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Avast-Tools: Secure Browser 109.0 - Cleanup 23.1 - SecureLine 5.18 - DriverUpdater 23.1 - CCleaner 6.01
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Offline alanb

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Re: Avast Behavior Shield aswidsagenta.exe using 822 MB of RAM
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2018, 06:27:12 PM »
I wasn't going to reply to this, but...

Firstly, please reply to Asyn's request - all valuable (and important) info.

Now my 2 cents:

Aswidsagenta.exe is the Avast Behaviour Shield process.  Your Task Manager screenshot also shows thinkorswim.exe using over twice as much memory as aswidsagenta.exe.  This suggests a lot of activity and resource use, causing aswidsagenta.exe to have to work harder.

As for
Quote
I tend to keep my computer on for days (sometimes even weeks) at a time
it may be time to Read The Fine Manual for M$ operating systems.

NTFS is a journaling file system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system) and NEEDS to be rebooted regularly (at least weekly - ideally daily, IMHO). Why...?

  caches fill up
  page swapping occurs more regularly
  databases used by Windoze (there are hundreds of them) need to be consolidated or compacted
  background updates (to the OS or user-installed software) need to update files that are in use by the OS
  the Journal needs to be flushed to disk and its memory reclaimed
  etc., etc.

At a minimum in this case, please reboot (NOT restart or just logout) and re-evaluate the memory usage.  By all means report back :)

Rant over!  But the advice to reboot is not just an IT Guy's get-out: it will keep your OS (and its resource use) in better shape, as well as improving interaction between processes running on the machine.


Offline schmidthouse

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Re: Avast Behavior Shield aswidsagenta.exe using 822 MB of RAM
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2018, 06:40:01 PM »
I wasn't going to reply to this, but...

Firstly, please reply to Asyn's request - all valuable (and important) info.

Now my 2 cents:

Aswidsagenta.exe is the Avast Behaviour Shield process.  Your Task Manager screenshot also shows thinkorswim.exe using over twice as much memory as aswidsagenta.exe.  This suggests a lot of activity and resource use, causing aswidsagenta.exe to have to work harder.

As for
Quote
I tend to keep my computer on for days (sometimes even weeks) at a time
it may be time to Read The Fine Manual for M$ operating systems.

NTFS is a journaling file system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system) and NEEDS to be rebooted regularly (at least weekly - ideally daily, IMHO). Why...?

  caches fill up
  page swapping occurs more regularly
  databases used by Windoze (there are hundreds of them) need to be consolidated or compacted
  background updates (to the OS or user-installed software) need to update files that are in use by the OS
  the Journal needs to be flushed to disk and its memory reclaimed
  etc., etc.

At a minimum in this case, please reboot (NOT restart or just logout) and re-evaluate the memory usage.  By all means report back :)

Rant over!  But the advice to reboot is not just an IT Guy's get-out: it will keep your OS (and its resource use) in better shape, as well as improving interaction between processes running on the machine.

Good points imo.

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Offline alanb

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Re: Avast Behavior Shield aswidsagenta.exe using 822 MB of RAM
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2018, 07:36:33 PM »
And you are so right, sir Bob :)

Offline DavidR

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