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Let me start of by saying your article is an interesting read.It’s nice to see someone actually trying these programs and comparing them the way the article explains. I do have some information from my experience to share that may contribute to the issue from a different angle than just testing startups and shutdowns. I think that the term “resource pig” is a vague term that i use only in specific circumstances and shut downs and startups aren’t related to that term for 1 reason, during the shutdown/startup windows is runninng the processes either turning them off or launching them. the term in my line of work relates to the everyday running of the program endlessly during the whole time the computer is on and consumes 1 or both of 2 things. cpu usage and memory space. Now to my experience: I work in a tech support field with a company of about 600-700 employees doing remote tech support and what i have come across regarding customer complaints of “sow performance” is a number of either glitches or unknown tasks that antivirus programs do or have. Now this is barring any other issue and i’m just talking problems that have been discovered and resolved and they turned out to be a result of an antivirus program process consuming all the cpu usage ( which is the most common cause in these cases). For example All versions of AVG free or paid which have the identity protection has locked up a computer at 1 time or another and this is a known glitch that you can find a resolution for in the avg forum if you want to dig a little (avg doesn’t have the best forum to find answers to problems). The only resolution found to date to resolve the issue is to turn off the identity protection in AVG, reboot the computer then to turn it back on. I get call after call with this type of complaint and after checking Process explorer only to find out that AVGIDSagent.exe is using 100% cpu this is the only resoulution. i think this is what people are talking about when they say “a program” is a resource pig. i found Norton products to perform similarily and Microsoft security essentials. I have not found Mcafee, Kaspersky, or Aviria to do this. What it comes down to i think is the definition of “resource pig” in the end but what i do recommend in the end is try a product, If you don’t like the way it performs or if you find it slows the computer down then change products and do this until you find something that works for you.

Since i am in this field on a regular basis i have seen these symptoms and will refer you to a link i think will help recognize the rootkit : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoplNh3kT2Y[/url] this rootkit at this time is a 50% chance of being cured and the easiest way of detection is a process in task manager running which is alpha numeric like: 697446278:2043702742.exe and also there could be a svchost.exe file runing an unknown file called PING.exe[/FONT][/COLOR]. you may have to run process explorer to find the hooked svchost but you will see those 2 files. at this time my company recommends reinstalling windows at this time as this is the most advanced rootkit yet but we have had success with combofix at times. once its removed you have to reset the permissions on all the files and folders to default . i hope this helps.

Hi All
Hope I am in the correct section
I think I may have a vius on a friends pc that I have received.

OS Win Xp with SP 3
Symptoms
IE 8 flashs and quits
malware bytes and hijack this does the same
Cannot get into safe mode just goes straight to boot up. The person can access their files. but not browse the internet.
the error message that comes up is that “Windows cannot not access the specified device, path, or file. You may have inappropriate permissions to access the item”

I have run TDSS rootkit. that has not solved the problem.
and also reset IE 8

your help in finding a solution would be very grateful.
Dougie

ok i know this is late considering the date of the last post. assuming you have run a bunch of malware scans and either cleaned them up or the scans came back clean.
Here are some things to try: 1) reset IE thru IE options>advanced tab> reset. 2) also reset advanced settings.3) check for mutliple home page entries in the general tab. 4) clear all temp IE files,cookies,history,under the content tab clear the SSL state. 5) if you have java installed in control panel open java and clear the java cache. 6) clear out all your temp,local temp, and prefetch folders. restart your computer. if the issue comes back then try using ie in safemode /w networking by pressing F8 on start up and going into the windows advanced menu options. if the issue doesn’t happen then it could be an add-on so restart the computer into normal mode and try running IE with no add-ons for a a few days or a week and see if it happens, if it doesn’t happen then it is probably an add-on so go through your add-ons and disabled them 1 at a time and try ie when you successfully go a period without this issue then the last add-on disabled is probably the culprit so leave it disabled.

check to see if you use weatherbug i fond in some forums that there was an issue with certain versions of weahterbug and it had to be uninstalled.
also check if you have IE v 7 beta 1 because i also found an issue with it conflicting with ie6 sp1 and a regkey may need to be checked or deleted to resolve the issue. Check this and see if any of it applies: http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-support/966771.htm.

please post whether you resolve the issue or not.

I agree with Matt usually the uninstaller that came with is sufficient but norton does provide a norton removal tool on their website and in my experience i just run it to make sure all components are removed. just be cautious if you have any programs from pc anywhere as they have software they purchased from symantec that still puts symantec regkeys into windows registry and therefore may be removed if nrt is run.

It seems we’ve gotten off topic a bit with bashing mcafee.lets stick to the issue at hand.

It seems that mcafee is having trouble updating and is possibly blocked from retreiving updates or “signature files” and that is a broad range. this is what i would do : 1) install malwarebytes and see if that updates,if it fails updating then something is blocking security sites from updating so there may be a malware problem or possible rootkit. if it does update then run a quickscan to verify no malware is affecting mcafee performance. 2) i would reset internet explorer, including advanced setting by doing this: open IE click tools>internet options> advanced tab> reset advanced settings at the bottom and reset. 2 a) click connections>lan settings and verify no check mark under use proxy settings 2 b) click security tab and reset all zones to default sometimes the button will be at the bottom but you may have to click on each zones custom settings and choose reset from there. 2 c) clear out all temp folders so start with IE on the general tab. close IE at this time.3) open run by clicking start>run and type temp then select all items and delete,4) open run again and type %temp% and select all then delete. (note: if you hold down shift while deleting the files you bypass the recycle bin). 5)open the run box again and this time type “netsh winsock reset” without the qoutes and click ok. 6) open run once more and type ” ipconfig /flushdns” without the quotes and click ok then restart the computer.
open mcafee and try running updates by clicking update and see if your successful.
If that doesn’t work then go to mcafee site http://mvt.mcafee.com/mvt/en-us/default.html?en-us then run the virtual technician. once that is complete if there are any errors see if mvt can fix them then restart and run updates again.
if that doesn’t reslove your issue then 7) open run and type “services.msc” without the qoutes and verify that mcafe services are running except systemguard which shoulld be set to manual. if any are disabled then double click and set to auto, click apply then start the service. try running updates again.

if none of that works then try uninstall/reinstall by downloading mcafee removal tool from mcafee’s website.

start with that and please reply to the thread if your successful or not with updaing