F-Secure plugin hosting service using mass amounts of CPU when I use Microsoft Edge

gwinegarden

When I open some sites e.g. androidauthority.com, "F-Secure plugin hosting service" kicks in and runs my CPU usage up near 100%. Task Manager showed it using over 80% alone. It does not go down unless I closes Edge.

"Browsing Protection by F-Secure" extension is installed in Edge.

Amirul

Hi @gwinegarden

Thank you for reaching out to F-Secure Community.

There could be many factors that can contribute to the F-Secure plugin hosting issue for example a bad hard drive or it could be the F-Secure SAFE itself was not updating properly. The simplest solution will be to uninstall (Using the F-Secure Uninstallation Tool) and reinstall the F-Secure SAFE which could fix whatever was wrong with the previous installation. Have you tried the reinstallation steps due to this issue?

They are several discussions from previous posts with regard to the issue of F-Secure plugin hosting on the below link article. You may read the article and you can also try the troubleshooting steps provided that may help solve the issue:

https://community.f-secure.com/en/discussion/124929/f-secure-hoarding-processes

https://community.f-secure.com/en/discussion/123918/high-cpu-load

https://community.f-secure.com/en/discussion/124000/high-disk-usage

Looking forward to your update.

gwinegarden

I have done the troubleshooting steps without success.

The software was just recently updated.

This is a new PC with fully functional drives.

Ukko

Hello,

When I open some sites e.g. androidauthority.com, "F-Secure plugin hosting service" kicks in and runs my CPU usage up near 100%. Task Manager showed it using over 80% alone. It does not go down unless I closes Edge. "Browsing Protection by F-Secure" extension is installed in Edge.

Sorry for my reply. I am also only an F-Secure user.

Is it still possible to reproduce trouble by visiting mentioned web site? Also, could you confirm that trouble is pinned to Browsing Protection extension (by temporarily disabling it, or by using Microsoft Edge with InPrivate mode where extension is not active by default set up - and checking that CPU usage normal with that way).

Thanks!

gwinegarden

Went to androidauthority and "F-Secure plugin hosting service" fired up and went up to about 50% CPU. It then went up and down. Even after I closed the tab, it stayed active at over 30% (only this page was open)

In order to keep this page open, I tried to kill the task, in Task Manager but it would not terminate. It, finally shut down after several minutes.

Turned off Browsing Protection

Went back to the site but the results were the same.

gwinegarden

Not sure why I did not think of this before (!!). I went to the site using FireFox (browsing protection on) and there was no excess CPU usage.

Seems to be strictly related to Edge

Ukko

Hello,

Thanks for your follow-ups and responses.

Actually, I tried with one laptop (and today with another). Always with Microsoft Edge (107.0.* latest stable)

But I could not reach any noticeable CPU increases (or in the second case, long ones when opening many tabs). Note: my experience is about beta F-Secure SAFE build and its F-Secure BP extension for Microsoft EDGE.

Not sure why I did not think of this before (!!). I went to the site using FireFox (browsing protection on) and there was no excess CPU usage. Seems to be strictly related to Edge

Perhaps, with some specific setting or option. Or maybe (if you did not try to repeat it with "InPrivate" mode or one tab) any other additional pages there.

My Edge browser with most of hardened tweaks (in addition to system's ones) - but I did not try with default state (yet). It is possible that there are many settings here, that may produce the extra (and other additional, suspicious) network requests after opening website (like pre-load, security checks by SmartScreen, and a lot of other stuff). What should be checked/reacted.

Although I don't know what exactly this "F-Secure plugin hosting service" is responsible for (in your situation).

Thanks!

// one point to add: current Firefox addon / extension (F-Secure BP) is differed with Chrome / Edge extension. In your doublecheck with Microsoft Edge and disabled entire Browsing Protection module -it's not entirely clear (to me) whether this removed the possible influence factor of the installed extension (but that would be logical, though). Because, otherwise, I am not sure why F-Secure process responded to only Edge activities (unless in response to some problems and "overload" of the browser itself).

gwinegarden

Well, this may remain a mystery.

Did some more tests. Turned off all extensions, in Edge. Turned on "efficiency mode" no difference.

It, definitely, is a combination of Edge and F-Secure. Edge, itself, can go up to 50-60% CPU on that site and F-Secure goes wild at the same time.

Firefox and Brave have no issues. Neither goes above 15% CPU and F-secure seems to almost not exist even though both have the extension enabled and were reloaded.

So, whenever this issue pops up, I will switch browsers.

Thanks for your input.

Firmy

Hi @gwinegarden

Did some more tests. Turned off all extensions, in Edge. Turned on "efficiency mode" no difference.

It seems the issue is caused by Microsoft Edge itself. And you also mentioned that with Microsoft Edge alone, it goes to 50%-60%. Have you ensured that there are no pending updates on Microsoft Edge or updates for your Windows OS?

Thank you and stay safe.

gwinegarden

PC is 100% up to date.

Yes, Edge is a big part of the issue but, when this happens, F-Secure and Edge tend to switch places as to which is using more CPU. F-Secure, at times, will go above 60% while Edge drops, and vice versa, much of the time totalling 100%.

As it only occurs on a few sites, I can live with it. I just wanted to know if this was a known issue. Apparently not.

Cheers.