Many Windows 10/11 Pro and Server 2012 R2 systems are encountering repeated mssense.exe crashes. It’s the service executable for the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Service (“Sense”), found on Pro and higher editions.
When mssense.exe crashes, WerFaultSecure.exe creates a report and a crash dump every time. This can happen every 5-10 minutes and thus impacts your device’s performance negatively to a great extent. Here is a sample mssense.exe event log entry retrieved via the Reliability Monitor:
Source Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Service Executable Summary Stopped working Description Faulting Application Path: C:\Program Files\Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection\MsSense.exe Problem signature Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: MsSense.exe Application Version: 10.8210.19041.2006 Application Timestamp: 3f017b42 Fault Module Name: MsSense.dll Fault Module Version: 10.8210.19041.2130 Fault Module Timestamp: b2119acf Exception Code: c0000005 Exception Offset: 00000000003edaf5 OS Version: 10.0.19045.2.0.0.256.48 Locale ID: 1033 Additional Information 1: 0000 Additional Information 2: 00000000000000000000000000000000 Additional Information 3: 0000 Additional Information 4: 00000000000000000000000000000000
Here’s a screenshot from the System Information tool MSInfo32.exe:
I deleted the service!
As my Windows 10 Pro is a standalone unit, I deleted the service. It’s been five days since I deleted the service, and things are good. Here’s how I deleted the service.
First, I backed up the service by exporting the service registry key to a REG file, using this command:
reg export "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Sense" d:\sense.reg
Then, I deleted the service using this command:
SC.EXE DELETE SENSE
(Alternatively, disabling the service by setting the Start registry value to 4 might also work. But there are chances that the Microsoft Defender Antivirus engine will revert the value.)
That’s it! No more mssense.exe crashes. I decided to leave it that way until Microsoft addresses this issue in a future update.
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The command doesn’t work for me. When using the cmd (as admin) and running that command to delete the service, I get an “access denied” prompt.
Please try the same from Safe mode.
Thanks for the quick reply. Already tried command in safe mode long ago. Still didn’t work. Tried again today again.
I again ran cmd as admin, in safe mode “sc.exe delete sense” which results in this error:
” [sc] open service failed 5: Access is denied “.
@Rich: Please try via TrustedInstaller Command Prompt.