BleepingComputer.com: Spywareblaster Problem When Enabling Protection

Hi everyone.

I've been running Spywareblaster for over a year now and I love it. But I've come across which appears to be an obvious bug.

Whenever I download new updates for SB and enable protection, it takes over 5 minutes for the enabling to complete. The green progress bar goes about half way then slows to a crawl. While it is continuing to enable, my other programs may become very slow to respond. After the enabling protection is done, things go back to normal.

The interesting thing is that it slows down only on the IE protection and Restricted sites protection. When it gets to Firefox protection it goes very quickly.

I just wanted to point out that the slowdown occurred right after I installed IE7. When I was using IE6, protection only took about 10 seconds to enable, maybe 20 at most.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a known fix for this issue?

Hoping someone can help as this is a very annoying problem....even though Spywareblaster only updates every couple of weeks. Thanks in advance!!

Question: Do you have the IE7 browser open or closed when you do the SpywareBlaster updates?

Orange Blossom

IE7 is closed and so is every other window.

Well, now I'm thoroughly bewildered. I installed IE7 a week or so ago, and I have updated SpywareBlaster at least once since I installed IE7, but I did not experience the slowdown you mentioned in enabling protection.

Which browser is your default browser?

Do you have any add-ons or extensions on IE7? If so which ones?

Orange Blossom

Firefox is my default.
When I installed IE7 I accepted all default options and made no changes. So I guess that means I have not added any extensions or add-ons.

But let me check when I come home from work....I want to try something.

Thanks for you help thus far.

The only add-ons are my BHO's from Spybot, Java, the Google toolbar and some ActiveX controls from online viruscans.

Hmm. Let's see what is in common here and what is different between your IE7 and mine.

I have the Spybot BHO
I have the Java BHO, the most recent version which ends in a 9, but I usually have it disabled.
OnLine Scanners BHO's etc: Kaspersky, BitDefender, TrendMicro HouseCall, Windows Live Safety Center, Security Advisor Webscan (I think it's E-Trust), F-Secure

This much I think we have in common.

What I don't have is the Google Toolbar.

I may also have made some changes from the default options, but for the life of me I don't know what they are other than the search engine.

So, it's possible something about the interaction among IE7, the Google Toolbar, and SpywareBlaster is causing the slowdown, but it could also be something else. I do know that that set of updates made a number of changes not even related to the browser itself, but still --- I don't have that slowdown so I don't think those would be the cause.

Hmm. Try this and see if it makes a difference.

First, create a restore point and name it, let's say, "before google toolbar uninstall".

Now uninstall the toolbar and try your SpywareBlaster updates and enabling and see if the slowdown has stopped. If it has, we'll know that there is something going on between the toolbar and SpywareBlaster, and you can then decide whether to reinstall the toolbar or not.

If it has no effect, roll the computer back to the restore point you created and your toolbar will be back as it was before the uninstall.

Other than this, I'm out of ideas.

Orange Blossom

Thanks OB, but I will put your suggestion aside for a minute. I have a hunch....I use Spy Sweeper as my realtime protection against all the scum on the internet.

I think it might have something to do with Spy Sweeper. Version 5 uses an aggressive detection engine and 12 shields. I think that the comination of IE7 & Spy Sweeper have something to do with this. I'm going to "turn off" the Spy Sweeper detection and then try Spywareblaster enabling again.

Also, Spy Sweeper released a new version yesterday, an upgrade to 5.2.3.2132. I haven't upgraded it yet on my IE7 desktop at home but I did on my work comp. Apparently, it runs MUCH FASTER than the previous "version 5's".

I'm thinking the new version might fix this....or it might not. If that fails, then I'll try the Google toolbar thing. And if THAT fails, I guess I'll just live with it.

The mystery is solved!! Spy Sweeper was the culprit.

I shut down SS in the system tray and then disabled all protection in Spywareblaster. It took about 5 seconds to complete. I then enabled protection and again it slowed very slightly but still took only about 8 seconds.

Then I re-started Spy Sweeper and disabled protection in Spywareblaster again. It took 6 minutes and 22 seconds.

So for whatever reason, SS is causing massive slowdowns. I also noticed this when I update my IE-Spyad list. When I remove the old list and install the new one, the batch program appears to hang. Then after some considerable time, it completes.

I like SS a lot and it has a great reputation, but I think I'll write to their support about this problem. Every since version 5 came out, it has become much more of a hog. Version 4.5 is still the best version, but I'll try the new update and see what that does.....version 5.2.3.2132.

Thanks for all your help Orange Blossom, do you use Spy Sweeper??

I'm glad your hunch paid off.

I have trialed SpySweeper a couple times in the past, but I haven't kept it; not because I haven't liked it but for other reasons.

The interactions of the various software programs do make for interesting puzzles.

Security software I have installed right now:

SpywareBlaster - free version

Real-time protection

Kerio Personal Firewall - paid version
Ad-watch (Comes with Ad-Aware SE Plus and is why I don't use tea-timer)
Avast Anti-virus - free version

On demand scanners

AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5 (formerly Edwido) - free version
SuperAntiSpyware - Free edition
Spybot, without TeaTimer
Ad-Aware SE Plus

Privacy software in addition to what is in Kerio Firewall

Cyberscrub Security Suite
Privacy Guard

Trying out

A2 Anti-Dialer
Spyware Terminator - real-time scanning

Other security

McAfee Site Advisor - on Firefox browser which is my default. There is an extension for IE also. I haven't installed that one though as I don't use IE except when it's unavoidable.
CCleaner
ATF-Cleaner by Attribune

And I have Socket Shield Link Scanner bookmarked and which I use to check out links before clicking on them.

Orange Blossom