Secunia PSI

Topic

New Reply

Do others using Vista SP2 experience very slow startup when Secunia PSI software is installed? The Secunia community site has limited comment apart from programmes being slow to load.
CYa Ron

Reply | Quote

Replies

I can’t answer your question, but I don’t let Secunia PSI start up with Windows. I run a scan once a week, then exit PSI. That way, it doesn’t use resources except during the scan.

Reply | Quote

Do others using Vista SP2 experience very slow startup when Secunia PSI software is installed?

Ron:

I don’t experience anything I can attribute to Secunia. My Vista SP2 laptop will churn the hard drive for about three minutes starting one minute after boot-up, but the system is usable, if busy. But it does that even if I just have Vista installed without any third-party programs. Adding Secunia had no noticeable effect on boot-up time for me. And I do allow it to start up with Windows and allow it to monitor software changes.

Reply | Quote

Thanks for your inputs H & T. Looks like my prob is not just the Secunia. I have though also decided to use it to manually scan every week.
CYa
Ron

Reply | Quote

Secunia requires Java installation. You can remove Java as a start-up application by configuring it within it’s
control panel. [Control Panel>>java control panel].
Another example of something that doesn’t need to be present upon startup.

Reply | Quote

CLiNT:

Secunia requires Java installation. You can remove Java as a start-up application by configuring it within it’s
control panel. [Control Panel>>java control panel].
Another example of something that doesn’t need to be present upon startup.

More precisely, Secunia’s Online Software Inspector needs Java to run. Secunia’s Personal Software Inspector, however, does not.

The Online Software Inspector only scans for a handful of different programs; the Personal Software Inspector checks an untold (to me, anyway) number of programs.

Reply | Quote

I have found that many, if not most, software manufacturers assume you want their software running in the background so they set it to start running when windows starts. As we all know, anything running in the background uses resources, RAM and CPU cycles. If there is not a disable of this feature during the installation there are several places to look for these start ups to disable them. Many of you know of these, but for those that do not, here are the ones I am aware of (always back up you registry before making changes)

Start Button/All Programs/Startup

Registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftCurrentVersionRun
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftCurrentVersionRun
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodeMicrosoftCurrentVersionRun

These areas will allow you to shut stuff off that’s running in the background. The only small problem is that it may take a second or two longer to start should you actually want to use a piece of software that you have stopped running in the background. A very tiny price to pay to get your speed back.

Reply | Quote

Start Button/All Programs/Startup

Registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftCurrentVersionRun
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftCurrentVersionRun
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodeMicrosoftCurrentVersionRun

Rather than manually check and modify these areas I recommend using a program such as WhatInStartup – Disable/delete programs at Windows startup (fairly simple and straightforward) or Autoruns for Windows (much more detailed. Using the Logon tab is usually sufficient for most users). Both are free.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

I have found that many, if not most, software manufacturers assume you want their software running in the background so they set it to start running when windows starts. As we all know, anything running in the background uses resources, RAM and CPU cycles. If there is not a disable of this feature during the installation there are several places to look for these start ups to disable them. Many of you know of these, but for those that do not, here are the ones I am aware of (always back up you registry before making changes)

Start Button/All Programs/Startup

Registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftCurrentVersionRun
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftCurrentVersionRun
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodeMicrosoftCurrentVersionRun

These areas will allow you to shut stuff off that’s running in the background. The only small problem is that it may take a second or two longer to start should you actually want to use a piece of software that you have stopped running in the background. A very tiny price to pay to get your speed back.

I already mentioned in my other post that I just use CCleaner to disable things (although it might miss something so these locations are nice to know) but I believe it should be mentioned that when you start up the program it will often times start it’s background processes as well so after you close the main program it’s prefetch or “quick launch” background process will continue to run.

There are two main solutions for this 1.) You can go into the task manager and manually delete the processes-this works for many programs though some are resistant and will just relaunch themselves. 2.) If you’ve disabled the programs at startup you can just restart your computer. In my personal experience once the computer is running these steps are only necessary if you wish to run a program (such as a game) that requires most of your power.

For example: My computer is far to underpowered to run the game DeadSpace ordinarily but, by disabling those extra startups, restarting my computer, waiting a few minutes for it to warm up, then running gamebooster I was able to run the game at it’s minimal full screen settings.

Reply | Quote

For example: My computer is far to underpowered to run the game DeadSpace ordinarily but, by disabling those extra startups, restarting my computer, waiting a few minutes for it to warm up, then running gamebooster I was able to run the game at it’s minimal full screen settings.

The two programs I mentioned in http://lounge.windowssecrets.com/index.php?showtopic=770061&view=findpost&p=817832 allow you to disable or delete startup items. You don’t have to remember what registry keys or folders to lookin.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

I remember using PSI when I had Vista but like at least one other person here I disabled it from startup (I used CCleaner for this). I can’t say for sure if PSI is the reason behind your slow startup and honestly with Vista no-one can be sure. I believe PSI was a bit slow when I started it though so it is possible (If a program has a slow start time when your computer is already warmed up (logged in for a while) then it’s usually much worse at start up because it’s competing with other startup programs).

Personally I removed PSI because it failed to analyze my system correctly. It constantly told me I needed to update my Java and Flash installations but, in reality it was detecting intentionally outdated versions of the programs included in developmental programs (Dreamweaver was at least one of these). PSI also had an issue with telling me to update programs that I couldn’t update freely.

So, what I now do instead is use FileHippo’s Update Checker and Software Informer. The Update Checker is only for the freeware that FileHippo host and much of it is included in Software Informers library but, FileHippo’s Servers are much faster. Software informer will also run into the issue of telling you to update programs that can’t be updated freely but, if you use the notifications tab and right click you can tell it to ignore updates for those programs.

Reply | Quote

Personally I removed PSI because it failed to analyze my system correctly. It constantly told me I needed to update my Java and Flash installations but, in reality it was detecting intentionally outdated versions of the programs included in developmental programs (Dreamweaver was at least one of these). PSI also had an issue with telling me to update programs that I couldn’t update freely.

You could have (or at least now can) set an ignore rule for those items you’re not worried about.

Reply | Quote

To set my start ups I have been using this web site Pacs Portal for years and have found no problems at all As for Secunia, I have had it tell me to update some programs that didn’t like Flash, but I just set the ignore and took care of it. The only problem was when I ran it the first time it checked all of my drives, including my Maxtor 500G. Sheesh! I quickly set those to ignore.

Reply | Quote

When I used PSI I honestly didn’t see an Ignore option (though it’s possible I might have missed it). Even with the ignore option though PSI is still unnecessary it you just keep your programs up to date and since most of the security risk (at least the ones PSI found for me) come from outdated browsers and plugins the program FileHippo Update Checker (I mentioned in an earlier post) will actually work pretty well (I generally noticed no more than a week delay from PSI’s detection).

Reply | Quote