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    Microsoft Security Essentials and Firefox - don't like each other.

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by HTWingNut, Feb 4, 2012.

  1. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    Ok, I've use MSE for some time, and it's a decent free anti-virus program. However I've noticed any time I download something using Firefox it always hangs my machine or extended periods. When I check the task manager, MSE is hogging 25-50% of CPU resources. It takes a while, then everything is back to normal. This happens on both my desktop and laptop.

    Any ideas? Anyone else have this issue?
     
    HTWingNut, Feb 4, 2012
    #1
  2. Kaspersky666

    Kaspersky666 Notebook Enthusiast

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    That's because MSE is bad

    Best Free Antivirus = Avira Antivir FTW
    Best Paid Antivirus = Kaspersky Internet Secucirty FTW
     
    Kaspersky666, Feb 4, 2012
    #2
  3. Marecki_clf

    Marecki_clf Homo laptopicus

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    Everytime You download something, the MSE scans it for viruses. Often things downloaded are compressed with ZIP or RAR (or other formats), so Windows has to decompress it, then MSE scans it, hence the mentioned hangs. This occurs regardless of the AV software used, AFAIK, yet some AV software seems to work better than other, mainly because of multicore optimization (MSE is NOT multicore optimized, it will use one thread only).
     
    Marecki_clf, Feb 4, 2012
    #3
  4. JOSEA

    JOSEA NONE

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    HTwingnut, there are a few suggestions here : Firefox hangs - MozillaZine Knowledge Base
    I use IE 9 and MSE Security Essentials Version: 2.1.1116.0 (latest) and do not notice the hangs, but I always keep the history clear after any DL. Hope this helps, Josea
     
    JOSEA, Feb 4, 2012
    #4
  5. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    Thanks. But this happens with a 1MB jpg or couple MB file even if it's an EXE or msi or whatever. It shouldn't take as much as 30+ seconds to do so. And it shouldn't hang the entire browser. I used to use IE all the time, then moved to Firefox because of ad blockers primarily and have grown to like it. Been using MSE for years as well. I may go back to IE for a bit (although painful to switch) and try Avira AV.
     
    HTWingNut, Feb 4, 2012
    #5
  6. hakira

    hakira <3 xkcd

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    Yeaaah, don't go back to IE :eek:

    Give chrome a try, or try uninstalling and reinstalling FF. I also suspect too many conflicting addons running in FF, what are you running besides ABP? MSE is fine, I wouldn't really switch to avira or whatever. Is this on your hp or eee?
     
    hakira, Feb 4, 2012
    #6
  7. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    This is more predominant on my desktop actually, probably because that's where I do my most downloads (i5-2400 / GTX 460 / 8GB DDR3 1600 / Intel 80GB X25-M SSD). But it is problematic on my HP as well.

    I am only running ABP add-on. I have Chrome loaded too but it doesn't have small features like in Firefox that drive me nuts. Just things like auto-complete in form fields like in NBR's username (just as example). Certain other things too that I don't have top of mind atm.
     
    HTWingNut, Feb 4, 2012
    #7
  8. NotEnoughMinerals

    NotEnoughMinerals Notebook Deity

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    I get the same problem =( it's incredibly annoying.

    I'm thinking of just letting malwarebytes scan incoming files and not let MSE do it.
     
    NotEnoughMinerals, Feb 5, 2012
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  9. Ryan

    Ryan NBR Moderator

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    Well, but Anti-malware and Anti-virus are two different things..

    I recently only use my Air only, so I don't know about this issue though.

    Does this happen in other browsers as well?
     
    Ryan, Feb 5, 2012
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  10. Ultiweap

    Ultiweap Notebook Geek

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    I use norton 360 and i found it very nice...
     
    Ultiweap, Feb 5, 2012
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  11. richierichdollar

    richierichdollar Notebook Geek

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    I use Firefox and mse and I do not get this problem. Have you tried a fresh install of both.
     
    richierichdollar, Feb 5, 2012
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  12. djokaacer

    djokaacer Notebook Enthusiast

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    It also works perfect on my Asus n75....
     
    djokaacer, Feb 5, 2012
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  13. wyterabbit

    wyterabbit Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have had this problem with McAfee and a few others, the latest version of AVG free edition works perfectly - it is a pretty good AV. I stopped using it for years, anyone who used to use it will know why, but they are back to being one of the best (the best in some tests).

    I could never find a solution to the freezing problem, which is why I swapped.
     
    wyterabbit, Feb 6, 2012
    #13
  14. booboo12

    booboo12 Notebook Prophet

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    Haven't had this issue with MSE and Chrome.
     
    booboo12, Feb 6, 2012
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  15. harrypoker

    harrypoker Notebook Enthusiast

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    Avira is better than MSE in detection. Mse, and Avast slow-down my computer.Avira don`t. MSE don`t update daily.Past fom a week and MSE don`t update the definition. Too bad anti-virus.
     
    harrypoker, Feb 10, 2012
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  16. JOSEA

    JOSEA NONE

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    HT, just to test have you tried disabling scan all downloads (from settings, real time protection) in MSE?
    Did the history clearing suggested via link back in post 4 of this thread help?
     
    JOSEA, Feb 10, 2012
    #16
  17. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    This is just misinformation. MSE is quite good for being as lightweight on system resources as it is. I used it and had no problems with Firefox but I'm using Chrome now.
     
    usapatriot, Feb 10, 2012
    #17
  18. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    chrome does that for me. and ff doesn't do what it does for you, here. but i left ff long time ago except for development. every browser is different. if you can't adapt to it and only "miss the old one", sure, chrome has tons of small things that would drive me nuts. but, actually, so does firefox now :)
     
    davepermen, Feb 10, 2012
    #18