What is Teatimer.exe? Is it a Malware?

If you are a windows user then there are times when you find some suspicious executable process in your task manager that is hogging your CPU memory. One such executable process is Teatimer.exe. When you come across such a process you may think of it as a malware, and your reaction is to delete the file immediately.

But actually Teatimer.exe is a part of Spybot Search and Destroy antispyware. It is not a virus or a malware; instead it is a useful component of an antispyware program. This executable process runs in the background as a listener to monitor any malicious programs that wants to execute itself. It terminates the malicious process by giving you some options in which you can specify how to deal with such instances in future.

What is teatimer.exe?

Location of the Teatimer.exe:

Generally the file is present at: C:\Program Files\Spybot – Search & Destroy\TeaTimer.exe

But if during the installation of the software you had chosen some different folder or volume then the location can be different.

Is it a dangerous program?

Though it is a very useful component of Spybot search and destroy but there are times when it starts consuming high system resources. There can be many probably reasons accounting for this:

  1. May be there is a software conflict between any of your existing softwares and SpyBot Search and Destroy.
  2. Or the other possibility is that your system is infected by some malware with the same name.

Possible Solution for Case 1:

There do exist some softwares that can conflict with Spybot Search and destroy, causing its components to consume high system resources.

Few of the softwares that conflict with Spybot S&D are:

  1. Norton Internet Security
  2. Kaspersky Internet Security
  3. Trend Micro
  4. Internet Explorer 8

You can find more details about the compatibility issues of teatimer.exe here.

For a solution you can uninstall the software that conflicts with the Spybot search and destroy.

Possible Solution for Case 2:

For the solution in the second case, you can try disabling the teatimer service of Spybot search and destroy. If even after disabling the teatimer service, you find a running instance of teatimer.exe, then you can come to the conclusion that your system is infected by some malware with the same name.

As a solution to this, I would suggest you to update your antivirus and scan your whole system with it. If your antivirus detects any malwares during the process of scanning, then it will take care of them itself.

How to disable the TeaTimer process?

  • First of all open Spybot serach & Destroy program. Click the “Mode” option present at the top left corner.
Spybot-Search-Destroy-advanced-mode
  • Now select the “Advanced Mode” from the drop down.
  • After the advance mode is open navigate to “Tools”>”Resident”.
Disable Teatimer.exe
  • Now uncheck the option that says “Resident Tea timer”, save the settings and exit the application.
  • Reboot the system for the changes to take effect.

This was all about it. Do drop us comments if you come across any other issues while dealing with it.

Tagged as: Windows

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Ankit is the founder of Geek Revealed. He is tech Geek who loves to sit in front of his square headed girlfriend all day long. :D   You can find Ankit on FaceBook or Google Plus

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