Shortcuts open applications very slowly

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Guest

Since installing MS AntiSpyware about 6 months ago, when I attempt to open a
file by double clicking on it in Windows Explorer, or I attempt to open an
internet site from a link in an email, the application, whether it's IE,
Word, Excel, Adobe Reader, ad infinitum, takes about a full minute to open.
I can almost walk down the hall to the kitchen and get a cup of coffee before
it opens.

However, if I open a program first, then open the document or whatever it
happens to be, speed is normal.

I'm not sure it's MS AntiSpyware, but the issue appeared exactly the day I
installed it. I've spent about 2 hours on google looking for other possible
causes and found nothing.

XPPro, SP1, patches current except for SP2 (breaks too much stuff in my
friends' experience, 2.4GHZ Pentium 4, 512MB RAM.

Microsoft AntiSpyware Version: 1.0.615, defs 10/21.

Anyone else experiencing this or have a possible resolution?
 
I believe this is related to Microsoft Antispyware. Similar issues have been
posted throughout the beta, without any clear rationale for who sees this
issue and who does not (most of the 18 million installs do not!)

Since this appears to be related to the individual install on a given
machine, I would consider trying some things:

1) Control panel, add or remove programs, Microsoft Antispyware, change,
update.

See if that changes the behavior

2) Control panel, add or remove programs, Microsoft Antispyware, "click here
for support information", Repair.

See if that changes the behavior

3) Uninstall Microsoft Antispyware, reboot, reinstall Microsoft Antispyware

See if that changes the behavior

4) Uninstall Microsoft Antispyware, delete \program files\microsoft
antispyware and all subfolders. You will lose access to anything in
Quarantine, history information, and customized settings. Then reinstall
Microsoft Antispyware

See if that changes the behavior

If none of these does the job, I would hesitate to dig deeper, and would
consider removing the beta and awaiting beta2 which will be out before the
end of the year.

This is quite a laundry list, but I'd love to know which of these steps does
the job, or if none of them do--as I say--I've never observed any particular
solution to this issue in the nearly 11 months of this beta--or if I have, I
seem to have forgotten it!
 
I am having the same issue and I am having issues with opening my emails in
outlook and I just downloaded it today. Have you heard of the outlook
problems?
 
Outlook, specifically, doesn't ring a bell for me, I'm afraid.

If in doubt, I'd recommend uninstalling Microsoft Antispyware, beta1, and
seeing if the problem goes away.

If it does, consider:

1) reinstalling Microsoft Antispyware (!)

Does the problem come back? (If so, I'd again uninstall, and leave it that
way until beta2, I think)

If not, then perhaps the issue was specific to some aspect of that original
installation, and the reinstall has worked properly.

I don't know what to predict, in your case, I'm afraid--but that's what I'd
try. You could be more rigorous and try the set of steps I laid out in the
message you are responding to, as well--up to you!
 
Bill,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Had trouble finding my original
post again and did not notice the checkbox for Notify me of replies until
this post. Anyway, nothing changed the symptoms, so I'm awaiting Beta2.

One question if I may. When Beta2 is released, I'm sure I'll get an update
notification like I have with the versions of Beta1. Would you recommend (1)
allowing that update, or (2) should I uninstall Beta1 first, delete program
files\microsoft antispyware and all subfolders, then download and do a fresh
install of Beta2?

Thanks,
Pat
 
I can't predict at this point how that update will work. I believe that both
the installer and the program code will be substantially different from
beta1, so I'm not sure whether they can move it via the same update mechanism
presently in use. I think there will be considerable media buzz around the
beta2 release, and I'm sure it'll be available at the download center, and
featured on the front page at www.microsoft.com. But whether it'll come down
via the automatic update I don't want to try to predict.

If it is offered via an automatic update, I'm sure they won't do that unless
they feel that the installation process is well tested and effective--so I'd
feel confident in letting it just install as offered.
 
Thanks Bill. I expect you're right, and that it will be very well covered.
I'll be watching for it.
 
I have had exactly this problem although at first I did not link it to MS
Antispyware, so it took awhile to discover the answer.

In my case it was indeed the Antispyware program, or rather the updater for
it. I found that the updater was showing as running in task manager when the
update should have occurred in the early hours of the morning so there was no
need for it to still be running. I terminated it using task manager and it
immediately came back saying 'not responding'. Once it was shutdown all my
file associations reverted to there usual speed.

Hope that helps,

David
 
Thanks - that's an interesting observation that I haven't seen from others.
In a somewhat different situation--when Microsoft Antispyware seems to be
hogging the CPU--a knowledgable user has found that it appears to have
spawned an mdm.exe process. The cpu hog behavior has been observed by a
number of folks over time, but nobody else has spotted that MDM is running..

At any rate--thanks for digging deeper--this may give someone else seeing
the same issue an easier fix, anyway.
 
Bill,

My system did not suffer from a process hogging the CPU. When I double
clicked some files that were associated with applications windows explorer
went into 'not responding' mode and effectively hung for a minute or more
before eventually coming back to life and opening the relevant application.
It only seemed to do this with .txt, .doc, .htm files although I am sure
there were others. Files like .zip and .pdf still opened immediately - all a
bit strange, but at least I got to the bottom of it eventually.

David
 
Yes--the way this is most frequently stated here is that clicking on an
Office-related data file has this long lag before the application opens.

This has been observed throughout the year-long beta, and I'm sure it won't
be present in beta2, for whatever solace that may offer.
 
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