wscntfy.exe consuming 80 percent CPU

[Ivann]

Why is the wscntfy.exe consuming 80 percent CPU? I am using an assembled computer. It had Windows Vista installed. The processor of the computer is AMD Athlon. It is supported on a Gigabyte motherboard. Last week I tried to update my operating system from Windows Vista to Windows 7. But as my computer was running very slow in Windows 7 I again downgraded to Windows Vista. Now my computer is running slow even in Windows Vista. This was not happening earlier. When I checked the Task Manager it showed that the wscntfy.exe consuming 80 percent CPU. What exactly is this process ? Is it harmful? Should I cancel this process?

[jesse]

The Windows Security Center process is what you see as wscntfy.exe process in your Task manager. I am using Windows XP Service Pack 2 and the wscntfy.exe process is also present in Windows XP Service Pack 2. It is a crucial process to help protect your computer against network threats and related malicious programs. This process keeps a track of any available Windows Security Center updates and information. It is not a virus, trojan or spyware.

[Dr. V]

The wscntfy.exe can be a potential trojan named Rivarts. If the Windows Security Alerts are Turned Off and if you still get alerts regarding Windows Security then the process might be the Rivarts trojans. These trojans are intended on stealing user information, this also includes online banking details and many such sensitive data from user machine.

[Solomon]

This was also the case with my computer also running slow. I had turned the Windows Security Updates Off and still the process was executing and using about 60 to 90 % of my processor. Even the RAM usage was full. Due to this I was not able to surf the internet at all. I then realized that this is a Rivart Trojan which can be detected by the presence of following files:

• zsys.exewscntfy.exe
• zsys.exe
• wscntfy.exe

Locate the above process in your task manager and then right click on each of them and select the "End Process" option to kill these malicious processes.

[Calvin K]

In general the wscntfy.exe is a process of Windows Security Center. If the process is consuming alot of CPU usage it can be that the operating system was not properly installed. I am also using Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and I see hardly any CPU usage by wscntfy.exe process in the task manager. I would recommend you to re-install Windows Vista again.

[SalVatore]

The Wscntfy.exe is abbreviation of Windows Security Center Notification Application. Or to put in simple words it is a Microsoft Windows Security Center process. The default location where in this file is stored is C:\Windows\System32 folder. But in the wild it has be recoded the there are many Trojans and Viruses which disguise the wscntfy.exe process to fool the user and retrieve user data without any harm. As the process is a Windows registered process the anti virus also cannot detect the exact Trojan or Virus infection for this file.