Security → Spy Sweeper 4.5 really slows things down

I just upgraded to Spy Sweeper 4.5 from 4.0.

I immediately noticed that my homepage (google.com) was taking anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds to appear.
Before installing 4.5, it was almost instantaneous.

Even if I exit Spy Sweeper, IE is still very slow in opening a page.

I have to use task manager to kill the WRSSSDK.EXE process.
Soon as I do that then everything speeds back to normal.
I even reported this finding to Webroot when 4.5 was still in beta but never received anything back from them concerning it.

Curious if anyone else is seeing this behavior if running version 4.5?

I have since went back to version 4 for now.

Is anyone here from Webroot?

I just installed Spy Sweeper 4.5 and I haven't noticed any change in my system.

That is weird.
I just installed 4.5 on another system and it slowed it way down like my previous system.

Odd.

That is odd,, mine is running as usual. Have you used the program long? If so, until now, what have you thought of it? I am just trying it out.

Do you by any chance have a large hosts file?

I've used whatever version they had almost a year ago.
I don't recall if it was version 4.0 but my one year subscription is almost up.

I've always liked it and never had any problems with it until this 4.5 version.

I recall when I first installed it, I had previously used Adaware and Spybot very often and they always came up clean for the most part.
But after I installed SS, it found a bunch of legit (not false positives) crapware so I was impressed.

No on the hosts file.

I have in the past let SS put its common ads shield into the hosts file but currently my hosts file is back to windows default with just the one default entry.

Yes, I also use Adaware and Spybot, but the Spy Sweeper found some entries that the other two did not find.

When you upgraded did you install over the top of the old install or do a clean install? I just upgraded on a couple of my PC's, but I did a clean install just to avoid weird things like you're experiencing.

Good idea!
I always do that!

Forgot this time so I think I'll give that a try.

Report back.

Just installed Spy Sweeper 4.5 and have no problems like you described.

I also did a clean install.

I did a clean install and still see the browsing slowdown:(

I even went as far as to search the registry for webroot and spysweeper after the uninstall but not much was leftover.

I see a very noticeable slowdown when I open IE and it loads google.com.

IE will start and down in the bottom left corner of IE it will say "done" indicating the page is done loading but it is several seconds before I actually see anything at all in the browser.
Very weird.

I just tried firefox and it seems to not be affected.

IE shows the same problem when I browse to another site via the dropdown history or when manually typing an URL in the address bar.

I also see a noticeable delay in just the time that IE takes to open before the homepage even starts to load.

One weird thing I am seeing - Regardless of doing a clean or upgrade install, I get a message every time the SpySweeper v3 was found on my system.

I have no idea why this comes up at each install or upgrade.
I've never had v3 on here plus about two weeks ago I did a format and clean install of XP Pro.
Then I went straight to version 4.04 of SpySweeper.

Well, the problem I Had after DLing the new version was a bit different, tho, it happened the first time I Dled the beta too.

After DLing and installing, it froze at the update screen, and I had to task mgr kill it. After having a similar problem with the beta, I recalled that the Webroot rep, told me to restart it again, to see what happened. So, I did, and lo and behold the app worked fine.

They said it was a quirk they had been unable to duplicate in their labs.

And the host file issue, I'm guessing they are still not going to support any files with over 5000 entries, as at that point, the app takes a big resource hit, and they didn't want to have that happen, so, just leave those shields off as I do.

Yes... I can also confirm that I am expiriencing a slow down when opening a link to a new IE window.

It only happens when the IE have to open a new window and not on simple links/button within IE.

But I haven't tried the final build of SS (only the beta) is the final 4.5 out?

Hello, I just installed V4.5.3. Build 560 Spy Sweeper this morning.

kruser,
This is the first I've heard of IE slowdowns caused by Spy Sweeper 4.5... I'll pass this along...

I'm also sending you a PM.

I am also experiencing strong delays in opening new windows in Internet Explorer. There is a delay between 4 to 5 second between the command and the actual opening of the Internet Explorer window.

This happens if a click on html link in a web page that will open a new window or simply if I go to Internet Explorer-->File-->New-->Window (or CTRL N)

With the previous version windows were opened instantly.

Fax
P.S. Already reported to support

Any update on this v4.5 anyone? Slow down issues still there, is there a new fix/build please?

Thanks

Fedorov.

Yeap 4.5 also bogs down my system I can't run it in real time I can only run it on demand, AND once I run it on damand I later have to kill the WRSSSDK.exe process since the bastard hogs down my cpu resources and eats about 50mb of ram.

I am also getting a HIDDEN FILES FOUND, POSSIBLE ROOTKIT alert. All I know is that I am PG 3.15 and Bo and haven't allowed anything else through so that is weird.

Webroot_SS did say he sent the info to support for me and has PM'd me a couple times but I've not heard anything new regarding the issue.
I'm back to 4.03 for now.

I also have BO running but I did not see anything about hidden files or possible rootkits when I was running 4.5 version of SS.
For now I'm back to 4.03 till they fix the slowdown issue.

Kruser,
I did pass your issue along but haven't heard anything back on the IE slowdown issue... I'll follow-up on that today...

tempnexus,
Spy Sweeper is going to use cpu and memory resources during a scan - especially when it is scanning memory. Here's some further info on Spy Sweeper and how memory usage is displayed in task manager:

During and shortly after a sweep it is normal to see this type of memory activity. In this case, Task Manager is showing you how much physical memory is being utilized by each process on your computer. As we scan the memory of a given process during a sweep, the physical memory usage shown in Task Manager will increase as Windows swaps virtual memory from disk. Once the sweep is complete, the Windows Virtual Memory Manager will begin to automatically readjust the physical/virtual memory allocation for the individual processes based upon your usage. This process is completely normal and will not adversely affect your system.

For the possible rootkit detection, it's essentially looking for discrepancies between the file system and the api and there can be detections caused by timing issues - this is something that occasionally happens with all of the rootkit detectors I'm aware of... it's typically pretty obvious when
rootkit detections are false.

I also had the possible rootkit detection when in beta, but this has not popped up on scans since 4.5 went FR.

I'm having the same slow down problem and the answer I got from support was to uninstall and re-install. After re-install to disable all IE shields.

Did all that and there was some improvement but it's still a definite lag.

As above, doesn't affect FireFox.

Interesting how things will vary from one setup to the next. I had a world of problems with the new Counterspy 1.5 so I switched to Spysweeper. I am noting no slowdowns at all and it is running swimmingly here. No problems with IE at all...:)

Problems with slowdowns where one user says it works fine and another user says it slows down is often related to a conflict with another application. It is worth in these instances closing down each of your other application's one at a time and after each application is closed down trying Spy Sweeper again. You may find that one of your other real-time application's is causing the problem. If you identify something that seems to be conflicting with Spy Sweeper then tell Webroot's support so they can investigate it.

muf

I'm going to check this tonight although I think I did this already:D

I disabled everything via msconfig and then did a clean install of 4.5.3 build 560 and the same slowdown is still present.

I timed it at 5 to 6 seconds for IE to even open to a blank page.
Once IE is open to a blank page, it is another 5 to 6 seconds before google.com is displayed even though IE shows "DONE" down in the bottom left corner.
Generally on this machine, I can start IE and the google page is displayed in one second, two at most.

Only other thing I can think of is a driver conflict between the webroot wrsssdk.exe service and one of my hardware drivers?
ATI video drivers maybe.

Problem definitely goes away when I kill the WRSSSDK.EXE service.

Try to stop and re-start webroot engine service (you need to close SS executable before).

The slowdown should go away...at least the slow opening of new windows in IE...