Solved WUDFHOST.exe Touching my Files

Hello.

When I plug in an external HDD (WD 1TB HDD), it appears to have a lot of activity.
I go to Task Manager->Resource Monitor, and I see that WUDFHOST.exe is accessing almost every file in the HDD.

The only AntiVirus Program I have is Windows Defender, and I have already specified the program to not scan my HDD.

Is this activity anything I should worry about?
Can anyone explain exactly what WUDFHOST.exe is?

By the way, I have confirmed that WUDFHOST.exe is part of Windows\System32, so it's not a virus.
It's just kind of disturbing.

Thanks!
--

From what I'm able to find out...it's accessing the drivers on your system , it's a 'container' for system and hardware drivers , it checks the validity of them and is part of the system for driver updates , people have reported a lot of activity and/or ram use if they have outdated drivers for peripherals etc.

Wullail said:

From what I'm able to find out...it's accessing the drivers on your system , it's a 'container' for system and hardware drivers , it checks the validity of them and is part of the system for driver updates , people have reported a lot of activity and/or ram use if they have outdated drivers for peripherals etc.

Click to expand...

In addition to Wullail's comments, you might want to make sure your external hard drive is not being indexed on a regular basis. So, turn off this indexing option if not needed and see what happens. However, be forewarned that if/when you do turn it off, your hard drive is going to show every file being de-indexed and that could take quite a while. Anyway, if you don't do frequent searches of your external drive, then indexing is not necessary. Good luck.

Thank you both for your answers!

Thank you for the acknowledgement as well. Cheers!

my2cents