Windows 11/10: Windows Defender should slow down Intel CPUs

Since 2012, Microsoft’s Defender has become a full-fledged antivirus program that warns users about viruses and other malware. Meanwhile, the free Windows Defender does well in various tests with the established competition and offers respectable protection. Since 20.06. Microsoft Defender is also available on Android as well as on iOS and macOS. Now the software developer Kevin Glynn reports that the Windows version suffers from a bug. Intel processors from the ninth generation of the Core i chips under Windows 10 and 11 should be slowed down.

This solution already exists

According to the Techpowerup report, there should be one Performance loss of six percent with an Intel Core i9-10850K in Cinebench. The background is that Windows Defender keeps starting randomly and changes the authorization level of the counters. Normally mode 3 is used, but Defender occasionally selects level 2, which can cause conflicts with other software. After all, these counters are shared resources, so several programs want to access them in parallel.

If another program changes the mode in question, Windows Defender withdraws and works in the background. To prevent the Defender from simply changing the mode, the software developer proposes Throttle Stop 9.5, which he developed and which contains Windows Defender Boost as a problem solution in the options. Alternatively, you could deactivate the real-time protection of the Defender, but this makes your PC potentially vulnerable.

On PCs with AMD Ryzen or other AMD CPUs, Glynn alias Uncle Webb could not observe any such behavior from Windows Defender. It could be that Microsoft can also stop the undesired behavior with a patch.

Also worth reading: Security: Microsoft Defender now also protects on Android & iOS/macOS

Collection for slowing down Intel CPUs by Windows Defender:

• According to the developer Kevin Glynn, there is a bug in Windows 10 and 11 in connection with Intel CPUs and Windows Defender. It is said that the performance in Cinebench is reduced by six percent.
• Windows Defender is said to be responsible for this, which occasionally changes the authorization level of the counters, so that conflicts with other programs can arise.
• As a solution, the software developer proposes Throttle Stop 9.5, which he developed. Alternatively, you could disable Defender’s real-time protection.
• There is no such behavior from Windows Defender on PCs with AMD processors.

Source: tech powerup