Slow SpywareBlaster startup

SpywareBlaster 4.2 is taking 20 seconds to start up on WinXP. It used to take less than 5 seconds. Any ideas please?

• Laptop is a clean XP install with all MS updates.
• The AV installed is Trend Micro OfficeScan.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks
G

 

Hi,

This is often caused by other security software that takes too long to "scan" the file on open.

Have you tried temporarily disabling Trend Micro OfficeScan to see if it shortens the time it takes SpywareBlaster to open?

Best regards and thanks,

-Javacool

 

I also noticed that it was taking an unusually long time for SpywareBlaster to open on some of my systems. Based on your suggestion to look at my security scanners, I just determined --- at least, on this particular machine --- that the slowdown is being caused by Windows Defender.

modifying Defender's Tools / Options / Advanced Options
not to scan SpywareBlaster.exe , fixed the problem.
Will try to confirm this on another system later.

 

I agree that Windows Defender is somehow affecting how long it takes for SpywareBlaster to start up.

I disabled the Windows Defender service and after numerous reboots to test the effect, I have noted that SpywareBlaster's startup time has improved from 20 seconds to consistently under 3 seconds.

What has changed, since this never used to be the case? I'm not happy about bypassing scanning of any file on my system.

 

I have just confirmed the Windows Defender "blame" on yet another PC.

Glenki,
rather than disabling the Defender service... which might impact how/whether Defender runs overall... the suggestion I made above, about listing SpywareBlaster.exe as a one-file "exception" not to be scanned by Defender, will keep Defender active and fully protecting the rest of your system, while ignoring this one file.

 

I can also confirm ky331's fix.

Many thanks!

 

Amen to that! SpywareBlaster has been taking a good 30 seconds to open. I followed your suggestion to configure WD to not scan SpywareBlaster.exe and the opening time dropped sharply to like 2 seconds! Thanks for the tip.

 

I appreciate the tip - it certainly does work.

However, bypassing the scanning of spywareblaster.exe by Windows Defender may fix the slow startup symptom, but it doesn't address the cause. A trojan called spywareblaster.exe is the logical conclusion to this practice.

Why does it take so long for Defender to scan this particular file? I can open larger .exe files in less time.

 

A curious statement, indeed. Care to elaborate? Nothing that any scan by any security application that I know of has ever produced any results that point to spywareblaster.exe being a trojan.
Edit in: I see that about a year ago Bitdefender was falsely detecting spywareblaster.exe as a virus.

I tend to feel the same way.

 

Keep in mind that while Windows Defender will not be scanning SpywareBlaster (if you follow the "work-around" I suggested), it should still be scanned by your resident anti-virus program, which should offer you adequate protection.

That it takes so long for Defender to scan SpywareBlaster does NOT imply it's a trojan... indeed, if Defender actually detected a problem with the file, it would have explicitly alerted you. It simply means that something, either in Defender's algorithm or signatures, or in the coding of SpywareBlaster, is slowing things down --- significantly --- while the analysis is being performed. Since several users have now confirmed this phenomenon, I would hope that Javacool might be able to investigate the intricate details, and hopefully work out a better "solution" than bypassing scanning of the file.