IE Spyad causing Hijack This to "Not Respond"

[Sylvander]

A Squared was "Not Responding" so I uninstalled it.

"Hijack This" was working OK.

Then I installed "IE Spyad".

Then "Hijack This" began "Not Responding" in the middle of a scan.
I removed the "IE Spyad" settings from the registry [using "install.bat"] and tried "Hijack This" again and it worked.

Put the "IE Spyad" settings back in the registry and "Hijack This" began "Not Responding" again.

[ErnieK]

Alex
I have been in touch with a2 because of this. They said that at the moment for some reason it is very slow to respond but to leave it and it will respond. I can only assume it is something to do with thier last update. Also I see from thier forums that there is possibly an ugrade coming out. (that is if I have read it correctly)

I also installed Spyad and HJT has been acting funny (keeps freezing/hanging) I will un-install spy ad and seee what happens


I have just been back to a2 forum and Andreas (the maker) says that ther ewill be a fix posted on Teusday to resolve this problem. Some oneelse posted and said it takes about 67 seconds to respond on his computer.

Second edit (5 minutes later) On my compute ri ttakes just over 80 secs rto start. Scanning in the background at this moment.

[Donn]

Yep, I noticed A Squared hanging up at the start for a bit, but I just figured it was reading or diagnosing something. Nice to know I wasn't alone, thanks.

Spy Ad was nothing but trouble so I just unloaded it. I figure with Adaware, A Sqaured, AVG, Spyware Blaster, MRU Blaster, and Script Sentry I got the bases covered.

[Sylvander]

I'm very happy with A2 & IE Spyad & Hijack This, when they work.

A2 catches the Trojans that AV progs tend to miss [so I'm led to believe].

I'm happier with IE Spyad than I expected.
It has been prompting me when in certain sites, for permission to allow or not, which lets me know that these are on the list of dodgy sites, which is nice to know.
I guess that the sheer amount of information added to the registry by this is slowing down searches/accesses. So any application accessing the registry is being slowed down.

Hijack This I'm VERY pleased with.
I've put all the safe items on an ignorelist. So now it only comes up with 1, 2, or 3 settings, and I can usually tell that they are alright [and add them to the ignorelist], or that it is not [like "Qmanager" (which I'm not keen on)], and I remove it.

[Donn]

Originally posted by Sylvander

I guess that the sheer amount of information added to the registry by this is slowing down searches/accesses. So any application accessing the registry is being slowed down.


I think that was my problem. ihave been watching my 'available resource' indicator lately and for some reason I am not getting up over 70% on boot up. So letting go of Spyad and Spywareguard and some other things was a boost, but still can't get into the high 70s--low 80s. Probably need to clean some frag out of the Reg, but I'm not confident enough to do that alone, yet.

Originally posted by Sylvander
Hijack This I'm VERY pleased with.
I've put all the safe items on an ignorelist. So now it only comes up with 1, 2, or 3 settings, and I can usually tell that they are alright [and add them to the ignorelist], or that it is not [like "Qmanager" (which I'm not keen on)], and I remove it.

That's my next project.

:)

[Sylvander]

Re-installed A2, ran it and waited EXACTLY 10 minutes.

It was still "Not Responding".

Removed the "IE Spyad" settings from the registry, ran "Hijack This" and it ran just fine.

I wonder why "IE Spyad" interferes with "Hyjack This"?

[Donn]

I didn't get into it enough to to see if it had an ignore list, things just went loopy right off and I dumped it, twice.

Did you check your resource indicator? Mine (Win Me) is under My Computer > Properties > Performance. Perhaps it's just sucking your resource level down to low.

[Sylvander]

All "IE Spyad" does is put a GREAT, LONG, list of websites in the "Restricted Zone", so the rules for that zone apply to them.

The problem with that is the sheer amount of information involved.
It increases the size of the registry something terrible.
My files are:
system.dat = 5.9 MB
user.dat = 1.8 MB
But I don't know if this is the cause of a problem or not.

I remember a time when I could get both of these on a 1.44 MB floppy with room to spare.

My resource usage isn't a problem.
All 3 are around 62% free.

[PrntRhd]

I uninstalled ScriptTrap, and kept SpywareBlaster and IESpyads. I have had no problems so far.

[Sylvander]

I tried what you did.
Uninstalled [Script Sentry in my case], kept Spywareblaster & IE Spyad.

It made no difference.
Hyjack This is still "Not Responding".

If I:
Remove IE Spyad settings it responds.
Install IE Spyad settings it is "Not Responding".

[Sylvander]

Apparently the 1,031 kB of information that "IE Spyad" puts in the registry can take 5 or 10 minutes to scan [depending on how fast your PC is, and mine is slow].

I tried it again [with the "IE Spyad" settings in place] and the scan completed in 5 minutes.

[PrntRhd]

Sylvander,
I had already changed the registry value allowing me to set security for Active-X in the "My Computer" (normally hidden) zone as per the Zero Day posts a few days ago. I noticed a big performance hit and SpywareGuard would not install, so I tried removing the ScriptTrap. So far it seems normal since the removal. I did not try reinstalling the SpywareGuard since then either, experimenting a little at a time. I also did a defrag, sometimes we forget just how much we took out or added to a drive. :)