SilvrDrgn
03-21-2007, 02:17 PM
Spyware Doctor v5 betas and the release version are interacting very strangely with McAfee VirusScan v11, and there are other issues I have encountered which are listed below. I've done testing on multiple systems in my home to verify that the problem lies with Spyware Doctor v5, not with my other installed software. My systems are:
1) Toshiba M45-S351 laptop, Windows XP Pro SP2, 1.73 GHz Pentium-M, 2GB RAM, 100GB HD, McAfee VirusScan v11, ZoneAlarm (free) v7.0.337
2) Toshiba A105-S4344 laptop, Windows Media Center 2005 (latest patches), 1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 200GB HD,McAfee VirusScan v11, ZoneAlarm (free) v7.0.337
List of symptoms after installing most of the Spyware Doctor v5 betas and even the "Release" version:
1) Slow startup of entire computer after a reboot.
1a) Memory consumption of Spyware Doctor v5 near 200MB, usually only temporary (v4 would go up to 100MB temporarily).
2) Very slow startup of Internet Explorer, Firefox 2.0.0.2, and Thunderbird 1.5.0.10. Sometimes would have to wait 1-2 minutes just for the hard drive to "churn" and the program window to show up.
3) Network connection to POP3 Email servers very slow to establish.
4) Very slow download of Email messages from POP3 accounts. IMAP accounts seemed to be unaffected. Disabling "Email Guard" in the Onguard settings did speed up the downloads somewhat, but they would still be much slower than normal.
5) McAfee VirusScan now detects and quarantines this file -
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\iksysflt.sys
Examination of that file reveals that it appears to belong to Spyware Doctor v5 (it is not present on the system with v4 installed). After McAfee quarantines the file, Spyware Doctor v5 fails to operate properly. Sometimes the user interface won't come up at all, and if it does some of the functions don't work.
6) I use Norton Ghost v10 to make a complete backup image of both laptops every night. Since installing any of the Spyware Doctor v5 versions, the Norton Ghost service (i.e. in the Services control panel) fails and stops running after each backup completes. The service must be manually restarted.
I am pretty sure there are more symptoms, but I cannot recall them at the moment.
All of the above symptoms happen on both of my laptops with any of the Spyware Doctor v5 versions. Steps followed after encountering the issues:
1) Uninstalled v5 from both laptops.
2) Ran PCTools Registry Mechanic to do its cleanup.
3) Manually cleaned out any remaining Spyware Doctor entries in the Windows registry with regedit.
4) Reboot.
5) Install Spyware Doctor v4.
6) Applied latest Spyware Doctor v4 updates (which happens automatically immediately after the install).
7) Run scan in Spyware Doctor v4 (which happens automatically immediately after the install).
8) Reboot.
9) Run Smart Update in Spyware Doctor v4 again (which did find 2 more updates).
Using Spyware Doctor v4 on both laptops, none of the symptoms occur on either of my laptops. This pretty much confirms that v5 has major issues. In my opinion, there is no way that Spyware Doctor v5 is "Release" ready.
1) Toshiba M45-S351 laptop, Windows XP Pro SP2, 1.73 GHz Pentium-M, 2GB RAM, 100GB HD, McAfee VirusScan v11, ZoneAlarm (free) v7.0.337
2) Toshiba A105-S4344 laptop, Windows Media Center 2005 (latest patches), 1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 200GB HD,McAfee VirusScan v11, ZoneAlarm (free) v7.0.337
List of symptoms after installing most of the Spyware Doctor v5 betas and even the "Release" version:
1) Slow startup of entire computer after a reboot.
1a) Memory consumption of Spyware Doctor v5 near 200MB, usually only temporary (v4 would go up to 100MB temporarily).
2) Very slow startup of Internet Explorer, Firefox 2.0.0.2, and Thunderbird 1.5.0.10. Sometimes would have to wait 1-2 minutes just for the hard drive to "churn" and the program window to show up.
3) Network connection to POP3 Email servers very slow to establish.
4) Very slow download of Email messages from POP3 accounts. IMAP accounts seemed to be unaffected. Disabling "Email Guard" in the Onguard settings did speed up the downloads somewhat, but they would still be much slower than normal.
5) McAfee VirusScan now detects and quarantines this file -
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\iksysflt.sys
Examination of that file reveals that it appears to belong to Spyware Doctor v5 (it is not present on the system with v4 installed). After McAfee quarantines the file, Spyware Doctor v5 fails to operate properly. Sometimes the user interface won't come up at all, and if it does some of the functions don't work.
6) I use Norton Ghost v10 to make a complete backup image of both laptops every night. Since installing any of the Spyware Doctor v5 versions, the Norton Ghost service (i.e. in the Services control panel) fails and stops running after each backup completes. The service must be manually restarted.
I am pretty sure there are more symptoms, but I cannot recall them at the moment.
All of the above symptoms happen on both of my laptops with any of the Spyware Doctor v5 versions. Steps followed after encountering the issues:
1) Uninstalled v5 from both laptops.
2) Ran PCTools Registry Mechanic to do its cleanup.
3) Manually cleaned out any remaining Spyware Doctor entries in the Windows registry with regedit.
4) Reboot.
5) Install Spyware Doctor v4.
6) Applied latest Spyware Doctor v4 updates (which happens automatically immediately after the install).
7) Run scan in Spyware Doctor v4 (which happens automatically immediately after the install).
8) Reboot.
9) Run Smart Update in Spyware Doctor v4 again (which did find 2 more updates).
Using Spyware Doctor v4 on both laptops, none of the symptoms occur on either of my laptops. This pretty much confirms that v5 has major issues. In my opinion, there is no way that Spyware Doctor v5 is "Release" ready.