A while ago I’ve noticed Discord using 8-10% of my CPU every time I open Task Manager. This doesn’t really sound weird… Until you realize this is when my Discord client is NOT running (AKA after I fully exit out of it so it’s not even present in the tray area on the right side of the taskbar). From what I can tell, it’s using about 400MB of memory, no disk or network and about 8% of CPU (I have 6 cores/12 threads and that 8-10% seems to be distributed among all of them). It’s possible it uses disk and network in short bursts after a long period of inactivity, but I havent spotted it doing that so far). If I were to kill Discord.exe in the task manager - it would go away and not come back until I restarted my computer. At first, I didn’t think much of it - I thought maybe it’s doing some background update or something, but it is constant, it doesn’t go away unless I kill it. When I run Discord - another Discord entry appears in the task manager - the suspicious one seems unaffected. Both entries take me to the same file when I click “Open file location”. The file seems normal and signed by Discord. What is going on here? Do you guys also have this going on or is it just me? I’m getting some really sus vibes ngl. I suspect a discord bug/unoptimized code, 3rd party malware or Discord itself secretly doing some malicious thing.
UPDATE: Multiple clean reinstalls haven’t helped.
As you’ve ruled out it not being malware disguising as Discord, I recommend doing a clean installation (steps here) to see if it persists. If it does, maybe it would be good to file a bug report. Discord is supposed to fully close when you close it!
I’ve done a full reinstall (even deleted every single discord-related file I could find in multiple locations) and it’s still happening.
And that’s including the files mentioned in the guide?
Perhaps try the Public Test Build or Canary version (links) to see if it persists. It sounds more like your OS has an issue closing down programs, or more specifically, Discord.
Discord? Stealing your data?
It’s more likely than you think
A lot of viruses and other malware will disguise themselves as legitimate processes. Download malwarebytes and run it to see if it picks up anything.
Yeah, it didn’t detect anything. When I click “Open file location” it takes me to the legit Discord.exe it’s also not detected on VirusTotal and it’s signed by Discord the company. After multiple clean reinstalls (uninstalling + deleting all Discord files from %appdata% local and roaming) it still seems to be happening. Like… there is no way this isn’t some rare Discord bug or malware. And I would really like to know which one it is, haha. After talking with some friends and family - NONE of them have this thing happening on their machines.