What Is ISA.exe? A Virus Or Malware And Uninstall

What do you know about ISA.exe? A lot of users have the same confusion about ISA.exe, what it does, why it exists on their computers, how to uninstall this process from their computers and whether or not it’s safe to keep it there. Read below to find out the answers to all these questions and more.

What Is ISA.exe

Intel’s genuine isa.exe file is a security module by Intel. Intel Security Assist is an enterprise-level software installation feature, while isa.exe is part of Intel Security and should not pose a security threat.

Intel Security Assist (ISA) is a part of Intel’s Active Management Technology, a platform meant for business-level security solutions. Intel Security Assist offers notifications relating to hardware errors, and drivers, and enables remote diagnostics on compatible Intel devices.

Is isa.exe Safe To Run? Is It A Virus Or Malware?

ISA.exe is not a virus but it can slow down your computer by running tasks in the background without user interaction. Even though ISA does not corrupt files, erase data, or block internet access, it can be a nuisance to have this process running in the background on your computer. 

To remove the program from your system, you can use an uninstaller program such as Revo Uninstaller that will detect and remove any leftover items from uninstalling ISA from the system. 

You can also go into Programs and Features under Control Panel to find any programs with ISA in the name or description. 

You can manually search for the executable using its location (usually C:\Program Files\ISA) before deleting it completely.

How Do I Get Rid Of It?

You can uninstall isa.exe from your computer by following the steps listed below. There will be an uninstaller attached to the software program, which you can find in a directory like C:Program FilesUninstallers. Install isa.exe_uninstall.exe in Program Files>Intel>Intel® Security Assist.

To uninstall the isa.exe, go to System Settings and select Add or Remove Programs.

Alternatively, you could search for Intel® Security Assist or isa.exe in the search bar.

Select the Uninstall Program option to remove the file isa.exe from your computer. Now the Intel® Security Assist program along with the file isa.exe will be removed from your computer.

ISA stands for Internet Security Assistant, which is a Microsoft product that checks the security settings on your computer to determine if it’s vulnerable to viruses and malware. 

If you’re seeing an ISA.exe in your task manager, it means that it has been loaded by a malicious program masquerading as a legitimate process so that you’ll let it install without realizing what’s happening. The Windows event log will also be filled with errors related to file access violations. 

The culprits could be ransomware or Trojans like Zeus, so deleting any of these files might save your data from being compromised and prevent malware from infecting more of your system’s files.

How Did it Get There In The First Place?

ISA.exe is an executable that was once used by the Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server product from Microsoft, which was discontinued in 2008. It is not considered a virus but can be misused as malware if it has been tampered with by a third party.

 ISA.exe should only show up on your computer if you have installed this server software yourself and then uninstalled it afterward; otherwise, you may need to scan your system for viruses or malware.   

If you suspect that your ISP or other company may have installed the program without your knowledge, contact them immediately and ask them what they did. If they refuse to answer your questions, contact the authorities.

How Do I Stop the isa.exe Process?

If you’re still experiencing issues with the ISA.exe process, then you should go to the Start menu and find Task Manager. Once there, it’ll show all of your running processes in the left pane. 

Click on ISA and it will be highlighted in the list on the right side of the screen. Right-click on that and select End Process from the drop-down menu. You can also highlight the entire line by clicking any part of it, so that a green box appears around it, and hit End Process at that point.

 You could also just hit the End Process button under the window on the right. When you do this, a dialogue box will come up asking if you want to kill ISA now. It’s very important that you click yes or else it won’t end properly!

Is isa.exe A Virus Or Malware?

The information we have about isa.exe indicates that it is not a virus. However, a good file may be infected with malware to disguise itself as a virus. 

We recommend downloading anti-malware software from the internet and performing a scan of your computer for any other threats present.  

If you are unable to find any other infections on your machine, then we recommend uninstalling isa.exe if you do not use this program. You can locate the process in Task Manager under the Processes tab.

Is isa.exe Causing High Disk Usage?

ISA.exe, also known as Internet Security & Acceleration, is a Microsoft product that provides firewall protection, parental controls, spyware scanning, and antispamming for your Windows-based computer. 

It’s possible for this program to be the source of high disk usage on your machine when it’s scanning files or emailing spam messages, but this may not always be the case.

 You should do a full scan with an anti-malware tool to see if anything malicious has been installed on your computer.

Is isa.exe Causing High CPU Usage?

ISA stands for Intel Security Assist. It monitors your internet connection to help protect your computer from malware like viruses, spyware, and worms. 

If you are noticing high CPU usage you may have a virus or malware on your computer that was downloaded via the internet connection being monitored by ISA.

 You can run Microsoft’s built-in security scans and if it finds something, it will take care of removing it. You can also perform a scan using Microsoft’s own Windows Defender application which is included in all versions of Windows since Vista. 

Alternatively, you could download and install Kaspersky’s antivirus program.

Conclusion

ISA.exe is a legitimate system process that can also be used to launch malware from the Windows Command Prompt, which means you should be careful if you see this file running on your computer without having initiated it yourself. 

You can simply end the process by pressing Ctrl+C on your keyboard, but if you want to delete it permanently from your machine, then you’ll need a program like Spybot Anti-Beacon which will completely remove all traces of the file from your system without damaging any other files in the process.