I have been using SWB for a decade with no issues, periodically updating the database and main program i had been using v6, but about 2 months ago, i tried to start the program and it took 30+ minutes to load and display the screen - it was successful updating, but no matter what i do, it takes well over 30 minutes to load - i tried downloading earlier versions and they all do the same thing, always maxing out my Win7x64 CPU at 13% and not displaying - except v4.6 or earlier - THEY load normally (within seconds) but their database won't update - any ideas?
any ideas on why? of course i checked if there were any new programs that might have been causing a conflict but i could not determine any and i also completely uninstalled v6 and then re-installed it - that didn't work but it must have something to do with the code, as v4.6 (or earlier versions, even just installing right over v6), launch perfectly - just as v6 used to clearly something changed on my system, but i have no idea what - i am hoping the diagnostic of v4.6 and below working fine might suggest where to look, but i don't know the SWB program differences to make use of that info any help/ideas are much appreciated!
Hi @swb108, I don't think that I have that problem on Win7 Pro 64. I'm afraid that I cannot be of much help here; sorry.
Hi swb108, The behavior you are describing makes me suspicious that an anti-virus or other security tool on your system may have had an update and is misbehaving. (Such tools often have "real-time" protection that intercepts the launching of new processes, and if they have a bug they might end up spending a long time blocking the launch of SpywareBlaster while they do various heuristic scanning type things on its executable.) What other anti-virus / anti-malware / security suites / firewalls, etc do you have installed on your system? Have you tried adding the main "spywareblaster.exe" (likely in "Program Files (x86)\SpywareBlaster" on your system if you kept the default install location) to any of those tools' "exclusion lists"? (Or you can try temporarily disabling each tool and launching SpywareBlaster until you can identify which, if any, might be contributing.)
thanks JC! I don't run any TSR (ie., "always on") antivirus or antispyware i have a number of on-demand AV programs that i run if i want to check the safety of a file or do a system scan (eg., malwarebytes, mcafee on-demand, superantispyware, clamwin, swb, spybot s&d, sophos, stinger, virustotal, Jotti, etc), but nothing at all running during SWB launch that would cause the slowdown in fact, i have the minimal set of MSFT (not windows defender or security) and third party services (nothing new installed) that has allowed for smooth operation over the last ~14 years my question about the build differences remains, however: what about SWB versions 4.6 or earlier allow it to immediately open, but cause every later build (v4.7+) to max out my cpu (13% for win7 pro x64) until it finally opens 30-45 minutes after launch? what is different with 4.7 vs 4.6? i am hoping that understanding that better may lead me to the specific problem & solution thank you again!
sorry to bump this, just in case it was missed: my question is about the build differences: what changes were made to SWB v5 (and upward, that were not there in v4.6 or earlier) that might cause v5's processes to max out my cpu (13% for win7 pro x64) until it finally opens 30-45 minutes after launch? also, even if i just try to install v5 over v4.6, it doesn't finish installing, but maxes out the spyware blaster process and if i then kill the maxing process, v5 is installed, but won't launch similarly, once v5 is installed, if i try to install v5 over the same v5, it immediately completes (status bar at 100% green) but freezes at the end of installation (the installation window freezes), while having launched the same 4 installation processes (as before) if i then again end the maxing-out process it closes the 2 spywareblaster.exe processes, leaving just the 2 spywareblastersetup50.exe files and an unfrozen new setup launch screen which if i then click finish (with launch checked), the 2 setup processes close, and are replaced by 2 spywareblaster.exe processes, one of which maxes out process CPU (at 13%) and does not open the program for 30-45mins as far as differences between versions, i see that there is a new feature listed for v6 https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...dge-brave-vivaldi-windows-10-and-more.431613/ but i could not find a new feature list set for v5, in case the new features held any clues vs v4.6 ideally, understanding changes in the coding that could possibly cause prolonged high CPU process usage in v5 and above might be more instructive to the problem and solution thank you again JC!
anything to share on this? What changes were made to SWB v5 (and upward, that were not there in v4.6 or earlier) that might cause v5's processes to max out my cpu (13% for win7 pro x64) until it finally opens 30-45 minutes after launch?
hi again Javacool in the event that sharing details on the differences between SWB v5 and the previous v4.6, in order to help me determine the cause of the problem on my system (in all versions from v5 and after), would you instead be willing to allow v4.6 to still get updates? (...since v4.6 and earlier works perfectly for me, except that it doesn't update) thanks again!
Hi swb108, We've done a bunch of testing and have been unable to reproduce this issue. As you noted, clearly something has changed on your system. I'm still leaning towards a system-specific issue, very possibly due to third-party software. Even if you try to have everything operating as "on-demand", a lot of the software you listed may still have various hooks / modify system behavior even when you don't have its main window open or up - any of these could still be interfering with startup of the SB process. In fact, based on your description this would likely seem to be what's happening - something holding up the very initial start of the SB process (before much of SB's actual initialization has run, which actually occurs *after* the SB main window displays). Because of this, 4.6 working is likely a different cause than any core SB changes post-4.6 (which would be (a) unlikely to cause this issue and (b) largely affect things that occur after the main window first displays). There are other differences, such as a different code signing certificate for the executable (or earlier versions possibly being on an internal whitelist in third-party software), that might impact how third-party software hooks interact with the initial launch of the process. So (even if you mainly try to run those other programs on-demand) it would be worth trying to add the latest version's spywareblaster.exe to the whitelist / exclusion list in all of those programs, and see if that improves things. I will also send you a PM with some additional instructions to try.
Hi Javacool Thanks so much for looking into this!! Even though i have used these programs for years and they have never interfered with any programs i have tried to launch if they were not actively running themselves, I did as you suggested and excluded the SWB folder on 3 of the AV programs that i have which required installation files and offered exclusion lists (ie., malwarebytes, SAS and mcafee on-demand, the others did not). I then rebooted my system to see if the SWB exclusion update was somehow coded into an updated driver that hooked the SWb executable from a non-active state (it did not appear to be) and then i re-ran SWB v6 unfortunately, the long launch lag continues to persist. next, i will re-install SWB v4.6 and try adding in the updated files that you PM'd me to see if v4.6 will update to the latest definitions and i will let you know! thanks again for your excellent SWB software program and for helping me try to determine what causes it to delay its launching.
Hi again Javacool So after reinstalling (and closing) v4.6, I downloaded the db files that you PM linked to me and overwrote them into v4.6's directory I the launched 4.6 and it loaded instantly. I have multiple browers, but the only one that had not been updated was Internet Explorer (which i rarely use) - but it said it had 26 files to update, so i clicked enable all protection and it looked to have successfully updated to the 10/5/23 DB files - i guess the question is did it CORRECTLY update? i will just have to trust that it did until i experience anything otherwise if those links are always kept updated, i will just periodically download and update them - more work but worth it. i could try uninstalling the 3 AV programs that had installation files (as you suggest), since excluding/whitelisting SWB in them didn't help, but that is a bigger project for another day! also, did you ever put out a version history of what features were new to v5 over v4.6? that might also have some clues to the cause. thanks again Javacool!
