Webroot Spy Sweeper question

I recently installed Webroot Spy Sweeper on my machine (IBM with Pentium 3 and 256 Mg's of Ram) It seems to make the machine sluggish where it freezes up for a few seconds a few times a minute. I have a linksys router with firewall on the machine too. But that didn't seem to slow anything down when I put it on.

Is that common with this program?

Spy Sweeper did find several things that Spybot S&D and AdAware6.0 did not find.

Thanks
mild bill

 

That's a very good question. I had the same issue with the program everytime after finishing a scan. I have to reboot to correct the slowdown.

Bill

 

I just installed Webroot spysweeper and immediatly removed it. The first scan I ran with it came up with six seperate spywares. The trouble is they were all false positives, all of the hits were actual win xp pro files that are part of xp. I won't say that this app is junk or anything like that. But you won't find it on my computer again.

 

bigc73542,

Do you have any reccomendations for spyware programs that don't seem to cause problems?

Thanks

 

probably the best program out there is the one that works well on your machine. I would suggest that you trial a few and see if you can find one that works well on your computer. I hate to just recommend any one particular app since there are quite a few out there. Just give them a try I am sure that you will find one that suits your needs. This is probably not the answer you were looking for but I think it is the best way to find one that will give you the best service. I do readily recommend spywareblaster and spywareguard though.

 

I understand what you are saying. I have adaware 6 and spybot S&D on there and spywareblaster. However non of them recently did much to prevent the junk that showed up. I put a router/ firewall in since then.

I just removed spy sweeper and my running speed is back to normal....

I will give spyware guard a try.

 

Hi !

Hey I realize this thread is kind of aged...but just a relative observation for historical purposes.



History:

I installed Spy Sweeper on a brand new machine with a 2ghz processor, and choose 'load on startup' in SS's >options< area, because seemingly it monitors cookies etc for what seemed to me at the time like it would stop something from coming in real-time before it became a problem instead of just finding it after it already had done it's dirty-work (with little time that day when I downloaded it to deep-think it and not taking it too seriously actually at the time, really I didn't read much that day and figured what the heck I'll try it shrugs).


Three days later, having noticed it's tray icon there at startup as I expected, I started noting a serious drag on several usages on my pc (which on this pc here should *never* be happening under 99% of any activity at this point, and in fact had never been happening before in my 2 months of experience with this box).



What was not causing the drag:

I tried to figure out what the heck the relatively predictable pattern of interruption and sluggish behavior by starting with XP processes which I'd disabled (lol) thinking uh oh, disabled too much and it's struggling...but that didn't work. Went then to my firewall and security progs running, nope, not BlackIce's new application firewall either, ruled out all those type of items. Having been quite satisfied to have ruled out those, I went to Task Mgr and ya gotta be quick, I had to resort to running streaming image and clicking screencaps of the Task Mgr list (snicker) to catch it, but there it was...


At every drag, which happened about oh every 45 seconds (which is alot when you're for e.g. streaming video-that's a freeze in video every 45 seconds for a count of 3-4 seconds and then a snap to an image many frames in the future- which performance to me is therefore substantially handicapped by whatever is causing the drag).




What was causing my drag:

But there it was... my settings *only* loaded up Spy Sweeper at start-up, then it sat with it's icon in the tray, and it apparently was checking routinely for something, presuming it was checking real-time to stop cookies from being received etc... but when it *checked* I got screencaps of "cpu usage at 83%" momentarily (during which naturally, other services were starved of processor), 71% usage, 66% usage, and 79% usage, all from Spysweeper, each one 45 seconds apart. This was when I was not scanning anything actively at all, it was simply 'loaded at startup' and 'scanning for incoming cookies/memory'. Perhaps I'd not have noticed this as nuisance as it is, if I hadn't then proceeded to 'run a scan' and use Spy Sweeper actively, at which time (lol) the CPU usage it took to actually RUN a scan was between 9 and 11 % !


Therefore, what it does when I'm not *actively* using it is CPU usage 80% (an incredible amount really, given all these other fine progs I have running here that are likely much more intense and yet each one under 17% or so at any given time of 24/7 active usage it appears...), and what it does when I *am actively* using it is around a 10% cpu usage.



What will remove my drag problem one way or t'other:

Though I respect webroot (the sole reason I downloaded and tried Spy Sweeper really) - I'm going to try to deselect the 'load at startup' option - and if that does not work, out it goes *POOF* I'll be uninstalling it.





I'm sorry, I just find the screencap of "83% an incredible hurdle to attempt to convince myself that for any reason a program sitting in my system tray should need that much more CPU that often than all the other programs also running combined.


Thought I might share that, for those searching for a clue as to what might be causing terrible drag on their systems.


Because my gosh, on this 2ghz brand new XP machine here if it's taking up 83% of CPU usage and causing 3-4 seconds of program-freeze every 45 seconds even when I'm not even actively using it, it makes my hair stand on end and me wanna scream like bride-of-frankenstein-with-fright just *thinking* about what it's going to do to a WIN98SE machine (or any box with any OS with less than a 2ghz processor) !

Note to Webroot - love you guys, but please tweak.



For the archives,
and wishing you all Peace.

SR

 

One thing i have noticed about programs like Spysweeper is when you run a full system scan, after it's done, i've noticed my ram is near zero percent (and i have 512mb of ram) and i need to do a system restart to restore the ram. Otherwise my computer will drag and become very slow. Other programs that do the same thing are Pest Patrol, A2, & NAV. But only after a full system scan. I don't run these programs any other way (except NAV). They seem to suck up ram like a sponge. So i would recommend getting a lot of ram if you plan on using any of these programs, otherwise you can just do a system restart after using them. I have also used rambooster (and other ram management programs) to restore the ram after a system scan, with Spysweeper, Pest Patrol, NAV ect.. and this seems to help a lot. Hth.

 

chiphead,

I'm having the same problem but with 1GB of RAM so it's eating up as much resources as possible. What doesn't make sense is why it's not freeing up the resources after you exit the program.

I haven't played around with it enough to see exactly what's up but it would be nice to find out what Webroot is doing in the program.

Bill

 

For some reason I'm not seeing the same problems with SpySweeper. I've been using it for a month or so, and do automated scans nightly with no problems. Not to say there aren't better apps, but I've not had any of the above problems. Knock on wood...

 

UPDATE:

OK 24 hours later, at least six reboots during continuous use, and ever since I turned off the "load at startup" of Spy Sweeper, I have no 45 second freeze - Task Mgr is tickin like a clock with immense available cpu - and I'm a happy camper I didn't have to uninstall it, but my gosh I can't seem to talk myself into the fact that what I saw registering was remotely reasonable cpu usage (I even tried to trick it into *not* being the one using the cpu that much once I saw it was it, but no dice, definitely Spy Sweeper).



This is version 2.6.1 build 45, and it says in the help, which seems to indicate what it was doing 'every 45 seconds' perhaps:

I suppose it's possible it was doing something different, but it makes reasonable sense it was doing what it was meant to do (the above), and I'd say even if it was doing that, it seems grossly unreasonable that it latched onto 83% cpu when I see other (even very aggressive) programs using less than 20% largely (and that's rare even so). I just wonder how much cpu it would use if I had twice that size cpu running lol-still 83% ? zoom-zoom-zoooooom...perhaps Spy Sweeper in a 2ghz cpu, is like putting a northstar engine in a Yugo. Perhaps I need a northstar cpu



Very relieved that I can keep it installed for now though, because I felt the scan was very useful. I'll just not load it up on startup and *shrugs*, and I guess I won't be justifying buying it until maybe a version down the road perhaps (that 83% cpu usage screencap has me wondering what else is a touch outta whack, can't help that it made me feel that way). I've used several others for years that have been recommended by here and those recommended programs take right good care o' me anyways (can always depend upon the fine peeps here to aim me in the right direction) - always looking to add to the arsenal


Peace to you all,

~SR

 

The current version of Spy Sweeper is 3.0 (Build 110)

You might try "Update Program"

 

The current version of Spy Sweeper is 3.0.0 (Build 113) Using Spyware Definitions 371

 

Hi Lou-

I'm using the version I'm using (downloaded only a week ago or less now) because the newest 'trial' is that version.

Webroot Website: "(Current trial is Spy Sweeper v2.6)"


Gotta admit, if the goal of a trial version is to get you to love it so much you buy the software,

and going with the presumption then that obviously the trial version is seriously lagging behind the 'current purchasable version' in operation,


then I'd say that's not hittin the goal of the intention for a trial version.


In my case, even if I'm the only one that would feel that way on the planet, that's not good. Couple that with the fact that I have Window Washer here on CD, love the thing have used it for years and keep upgrading with them retail too.


But even fan that I am of Webroot, the trial actually made me hesitate to buy, and that cannot be good for their marketing goals even if by only one sale lost.

 

I bought my copy of Spy Sweeper from the shop, for some strange reason, the update program does nopt work.

I know V3.0 is out, I'm running V2.6. When I click program update, it tells me I'm running the latest version

A question I'd like to ask you guys, I have one admin account set up, plus 2 limited account ( for normal day-to-day use)

Is it not possible to run Spy Sweeper as a limited account user?

I also have Window Washer installed by Webroot too. This too, I'm unable to run using the limited account...

I can't even get the shortcut icon by clicking Start>All Program>Window Washer.... it's not even there (I can see it in the admin account...)

TIA

 

Same problem here with updating from app

 

Hi Rainwalker & O_D,

Try this webroot link for requesting an update. Webroot Program Update

HTH

dog -

 

Thanks Dog, the link only applies to purchases from Webroot, mine is a retail copy

 

Hi O_D,

Try emailing Customer Service ... link is at the bottom of that page. (Won't hurt to try) ... also try entering that form using the registration number from your retail version ... they'll have a record of it.

dog -

 

Thank ya dog....that took care of it

 

I have had good luck with spysweeper in the old and new versions - never a single problem (knock on wood)

 

Those with problems will have to consider just running the program as an on-demand scanner.

Any real-time monitor/shield will take up resources/memory etc and this program has several of them.

If this is a general problem, Webroot need to address it fairly quickly or consider offering a cheaper version without all the various shields.

I have used both version 2 and 3 without any problems on Windows 2000 and XP systems but this was with most of the shields being disabled.

 

Can you run Spy Sweeper under 'Limited Account' setting?

I have a limited account when I use for day2day stuff, and I have two Webroot product installed on my PC, both cannot run in limited account setting

 

I think that spysweeper is a good defense for being protecded from cws trojans and other tracking cookies and things like that. I have also P3 866, webroot mybe slow a little the machine if is always enable, but still not too much so my choice is this one ... I also have spybot search & destroy. I racommend you to install spywareblaster which hava a large databese agains this things and once installed you cant get the **** listed in the databese...

Check this link with top ten reviews of spy are softwares for 2004!

http://www.anti-spyware-review.toptenreviews.com/

The winner is webroot.

Bye

 

SPYSWEEPER 3 ??

Yea the v.3 is listed on the site of the webroot under the products info.
It is still not available on the net for download, so if you try to update the program you will get the answer that the latest version is 2.6
We have to wait a little. I so the version 3 full on this site:

****


You will get the site with download and serial number, but the download link goes directly to the author site for download... and the link is deactivated. Seems the author removed this option to directly download the file from the "secret" directory.

I think that soon the file will be again available. I had the version 3 but seems that the instalation dont work. When you have to enter the serial you get some error and the installation ends.