Emsisoft Anti-Malware 8.0 Service appears to be slowing boot of all my computers

[webthistle 0]

I have several pc's running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, fully patched and updated.   All use Microsoft

security Essentials for active protection and various scanners, including Emsisoft Anti-malware free, for

additional scanning and detection.

 

Since updating Emsisoft to version 8.0.0.10, I have had slow boot problems with all of my pc's.
This includes black screens and very slow refresh of desktop icons.  In some instances, there is a blank desktop

for 20 seconds or more.

 

Event viewer show multiple instances (event 101) of a2service.exe "taking longer than usual to startup"

 

All of my pc's, to a greater or lesser degree,  display the same problem.

 

I have tried uninstalling and doing a fresh install, but this does not correct the problem.

 

The only solution I have found, to regain normal boot speed, is to change a2service to "manual" in services.

 

Is anyone else having similar problems?

 

regards

 

[Antarctica 0]

Hi, this is strange because I have two computers,one Desktop and one Laptop, with EAM, and on both 

I did gain about 10 seconds boot speed since upgraded to v8. I am not using Microsoft security essentials tough...

[Fabian Wosar 390]

Most likely the problem is caused by an interaction between EAM and MSE. EAM will load all signatures during the boot, which will trigger a ton of additional scans that have to be performed by MSE. I suggest you exclude the EAM service in MSE. Instructions on how to exclude a process in MSE can be found here:

http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-7/set-microsoft-security-essentials-to-exclude-a-process/

Other causes can be the memory optimization, that may be a bit to hasty when swapping signature data to disk. So disabling this option would be a good idea. Last but not least you can reduce the signature load times by enabling the signature cache. There currently is no GUI option for that, but you can enable it manually by creating an empty file named cache.000 in the Signatures\BD folder.

Let me know how things go with these modifications .

[webthistle 0]

Hi Fabian,

first of all let me thank you for your very quick response.

I applied the exclusion in MSE, as you recommended, and also unticked memory optimization.

After two or three reboots, the boot speed seemed more normal.

I have applied these changes to two of my pc's. So far so good.

Regarding the recommendation to create an empty file named cache.000 in the Signatures\BD folder.
Is this to be saved with a .txt extension? I was not sure.

In any case, your advice re MSE appears to have returned my test pc's to their original boot speed.

However, I will also try the cache.000 file, when I receive clarification on the saved file extension.

I will also test my other pc's. I will get back to you if there is any problems.

Kindest Regards.

[Fabian Wosar 390]

Without the .txt extension. Just "cache.000". You will have to stop the service first though as otherwise it will block write access to the EAM directory.

[webthistle 0]

Hi Fabian,

Successfully created cache.000 file thanks to your help.

Initial Reboot was quite fast but Desktop Icon refresh slow.

A couple of subsequent reboots restored normal boot speed and everything now appears ok.

I am not sure whether the cache.000 file helped the boot speed a lot though.

Many thanks for your assistance.


I look forward to trying a full version of EAM in the very near future.


Regards