File description |
Cidaemon.exe with description Indexing Service filter daemon is a process file from company Microsoft Corporation belonging to product Microsoft® Windows® Operating System.
The file is
digitally signed from Microsoft Windows - Microsoft Time-Stamp Service
We do not recommend removing digitally signed files from Microsoft Windows
What is cidaemon.exe?
Cidaemon.exe, or the Content Indexing Daemon, is part of the Windows Indexing Service. Its purpose is to scan your system for documents and media files and to index them so that searches on your system can occur more quickly.
This process is not essential to the operation of the system and can safely be disabled via services.msc. Note that by disabling the Content Indexing Daemon, searching for files on your computer may take some time. The following screenshot illustrates how cidaemon.exe should appear in the Task Manager:
As you can see in the above screenshot, cidaemon.exe typically runs as SYSTEM. A cidaemon.exe process that is running as another user may be indicative of a malware infection.
Dangers of cidaemon
As cidaemon.exe is an executable that is included with Windows that runs on many machines, it is common for virus writers and spyware vendors to disguise their malware as the genuine Content Indexing Daemon.
Some malicious files may have the name of this legitimate process but be stored somewhere other than in %SystemRoot%\System32. Other malware may use a name that appears similar to the real process but with slight differences in spelling or with appended digits. The following malware is known to disguise itself as the genuine cidaemon.exe:
- W32/Rado-A (%SystemRoot%)
- This is a worm that attempts to disable security products such as anti-virus utilities, firewalls, and spyware removers.
There is typically only one instance of this process running at a given time on a system. The presence of multiple instances of cidaemon.exe may be an indicator of a malware infection.
Common problems
- Cidaemon.exe uses 100% CPU time
- This is a common problem with the Indexing Service. The recommended solution is to disable the Indexing Service in services.msc.
- "Cidaemon.exe - application error" under Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
- This can occur when the Indexing Service tries to index HTML files that contain MSO-style XML tags. Apply the hotfix mentioned in Microsoft's knowledge base article 839054.
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Automatic startup locations |
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001 Running Processes |
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010 Installed services |
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Digital signatures found for this file |
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Signer of certificate |
Issuer of certificate |
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Microsoft Windows |
Microsoft Time-Stamp Service |
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Microsoft Windows |
Microsoft Timestamping Service |
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Microsoft Windows Component Publisher |
Microsoft Timestamping Service |
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Microsoft Windows Publisher |
VeriSign Time Stamping Services Signer |
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MD5 security rating in our database |
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4 |
files (Not yet rated
and
not
signed) |
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20 |
files (Safe
and
digitally
signed) |
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Some versions of this filename have not yet been checked for safety.
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| Warning: Some malware might rename itself to cidaemon.exe. Always make sure that your file is from a verified publisher. |
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Application errors |
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