Microsoft Defender - Optimization

[pbastiaans1]

I have read a bunch of articles on how to run Defender in a VDI environment, but, still cannot get Defender to run 'lean'.

Typically it is at 15-20% CPU, 350-400MB RAM, and 1000-3000 KB/s Disk IO. This appears to reduce when the device is in use

I have set exclusions for VMware paths and processes.

GPOs to control real-time scanning, CPU affinity, etc.

Has anyone experienced these high numbers? What did you do to remediate? Is this just the nature of this beast?

[Jubish-Jose]

From my experience (we are running Defender on Instant Clones), enabling Defender will add some CPU overhead. The issue we were seeing specifically was CPUs hitting 100% when the users login and it settles after 1-2 minutes. After several unsuccessful calls with MS, we ended up adding more CPUs to the VMs (we already had plans to upgrade the VMs, so the decision was easy).

[pbastiaans1]

From your reply, it sounds like "it's the nature of the beast"

Thank you.