MS Office 2003 causes Cmdagent.exe to use 100% CPU [merged topic]

[Guest]

[pt1158]

I'm not sure which version of CIS this problem started (possibly since 3.13), but I've noticed that launching any MS Office 2003 app (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) causes cmdagent.exe to use 100% CPU for several seconds causing Word etc. to be very sluggish in opening.
I am running a P4 2.66GHz laptop with 512MB RAM, XPSP3 fully updated.

I have also noticed the same on a Core2 desktop PC with 2GHz RAM and XPSP3 altohugh the extra processing power means that the 100% spike only lasts 1-2 secs.

If I disable CIS AV scanning then Word etc. open instantly.

The strange thing is that it doesn't get any better if you open Word etc. a second time.
Normally, the stateful file inspection remembers that the files have already been scanned and doesn't rescan them.
If I exclude the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office" folder from scanning in CIS then again Word etc. opens instantly.

I tried excluding just the winword.exe program, but that didn't seem to help. I'm guessing that it must be some .dll which is causing the scanning problem, but it would take a long time to track down which one.

Has anyone else observed this?

On the whole, I find CIS to be pretty light on resources apart from during the AV update cycle which can be pretty miserable if the PC has been off for a few days and needs to apply lots of incremental updates to bases.cav (but that's a separate story!)

[pt1158]

I tried excluding just the winword.exe program, but that didn't seem to help. I'm guessing that it must be some .dll which is causing the scanning problem, but it would take a long time to track down which one.

OK. I've done some more investigation and it seems that excluding winword.exe, excel.exe and powerpnt.exe from the AV scanning does the job.

Not sure what happened when I tried excluding it before. I'll put it down to "finger trouble"!
I'm still wondering if it's some common dll that's the real problem, given that I have to exclude all 3 exe files to avoid the problem in word, excel and powerpoint. And why doesn't stateful file inspection work on these files?   

[Surfinusa]

Seems like a bug in CIS wanting to rescan and taking a long time to scan MS OFFICE 2003 any app before it allows me to see the contents. Virus engine very slow only when opening MS OFFICE 2003. I only have this problem with MS OFFICE 2003 running CIS version: 3.13.126709.581.

 I have XP PRO SP3 with MS OFFICE 2003 with all the latest updated from MS Update since January 8,2010 and I am using the latest version of CIS.  

When I try and open MS OFFICE WORD or EXCELL even Outlook  it seems to hang for awhile and then it says anti-virus scanning at bottom of application.

Then it finally opens.  CIS wants to scan MS OFFICE APPS everytime I open the document even if it was closed and reopened it keeps wanting to scan the same office application.  

This scan delays Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint in MS OFFICE 2003.

It does not appear to have the same effect on Vista 64x or Win7 64x.  

This is only a Win XP PRO problem.

When I disable CIS and only run firewall Office opens up fast without any hitches.

I disabled CIS and just used the firewall and now using MS Security Essentials and having no delays or issues with opening MS OFFICE 2003.


My system Specs:

Windows XP PRO SP3
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Bios: Latest available
500w PWR Supply
1 Gig Dual channel PC-2700 ( Corsair  512mb x 2 )
AMD Athlon XP 2500+


Any Help Appreciated.

[L.A.R. Grizzly]

Seems like a bug in CIS wanting to rescan and taking a long time to scan MS OFFICE 2003 any app before it allows me to see the contents. Virus engine very slow only when opening MS OFFICE 2003. I only have this problem with MS OFFICE 2003 running CIS version: 3.13.126709.581.

 I have XP PRO SP3 with MS OFFICE 2003 with all the latest updated from MS Update since January 8,2010 and I am using the latest version of CIS.  

When I try and open MS OFFICE WORD or EXCELL even Outlook  it seems to hang for awhile and then it says anti-virus scanning at bottom of application.

Then it finally opens.  CIS wants to scan MS OFFICE APPS everytime I open the document even if it was closed and reopened it keeps wanting to scan the same office application.  

This scan delays Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint in MS OFFICE 2003.

It does not appear to have the same effect on Vista 64x or Win7 64x.  

This is only a Win XP PRO problem.

When I disable CIS and only run firewall Office opens up fast without any hitches.

I disabled CIS and just used the firewall and now using MS Security Essentials and having no delays or issues with opening MS OFFICE 2003.


My system Specs:

Windows XP PRO SP3
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Bios: Latest available
500w PWR Supply
1 Gig Dual channel PC-2700 ( Corsair  512mb x 2 )
AMD Athlon XP 2500+


Any Help Appreciated.

I'm also noticing a substantial delay opening Word and FrontPage in Office 2000. I am getting the same response time you describe. There is a delay also when opening documents already saved. I have tried setting the AV scanner to Stateful (was using On Access) but it made no difference. Disabling CAV lets the program and files open instantaneously. I just started noticing this with the xxx.581 update.

AMD 1400 mHz
WinXP Pro SP3
1 gb RAM
Microsoft Office 2000

[Surfinusa]

I'm also noticing a substantial delay opening Word and FrontPage in Office 2000. I am getting the same response time you describe. There is a delay also when opening documents already saved. I have tried setting the AV scanner to Stateful (was using On Access) but it made no difference. Disabling CAV lets the program and files open instantaneously. I just started noticing this with the xxx.581 update.

AMD 1400 mHz
WinXP Pro SP3
1 gb RAM
Microsoft Office 2000

I was running stateful also and it didn't make a difference.  The problem appears to be with CIS anti-virus virus scanner.  It keeps trying to scan the ms office app every single time it is reopened even if no changes take place. 

To make matters worse the new AV engine takes a long time to allow MS office apps to open so the engine makes the app hang for awhile until the AV engine scans the MS OFFICE Application.

Like you mentioned when you disable CIS and only use the firewall the problem goes away and MS OFFICE opens like normal no hanging.

The App says scanning for viruses when the app is opened at the bottom left corner of the app.

The problem does not exist with Vista or Win7 only XP PRO for me.

[L.A.R. Grizzly]

I was running stateful also and it didn't make a difference.  The problem appears to be with CIS anti-virus virus scanner.  It keeps trying to scan the ms office app every single time it is reopened even if no changes take place.  

To make matters worse the new AV engine takes a long time to allow MS office apps to open so the engine makes the app hang for awhile until the AV engine scans the MS OFFICE Application.

Like you mentioned when you disable CIS and only use the firewall the problem goes away and MS OFFICE opens like normal no hanging.

The App says scanning for viruses when the app is opened at the bottom left corner of the app.

The problem does not exist with Vista or Win7 only XP PRO for me.

My version of Office doesn't tell me what's going on in the lower portion of the screen. I was wondering what was going on. I just stumbled upon your topic and that's what gave me a clue to what was happening. Hopefully, the devs can work out a solution for this major annoyance.  

[pt1158]

I already opened a thread relating to this under Antivirus bugs:

http://forums.comodo.com/antivirus-bugs/ms-office-2003-causes-cmdagentexe-to-use-100-cpu-t49598.0.html

Perhaps one of the mods could merge the threads.

[Dch48]

The stateful scanning only works until the AV database is updated, then it resets. Given the fequency of the updates, stateful mode is of limited benefit.

[Surfinusa]

I already opened a thread relating to this under Antivirus bugs:

http://forums.comodo.com/antivirus-bugs/ms-office-2003-causes-cmdagentexe-to-use-100-cpu-t49598.0.html

Perhaps one of the mods could merge the threads.

Good idea I wasn't sure what area the topic should be posted.  Since you started the topic sounds good as long as Comodo fixes the issue. 

[pt1158]

The stateful scanning only works until the AV database is updated, then it resets. Given the fequency of the updates, stateful mode is of limited benefit.

I get what you're saying, but stateful scanning doesn't appear to work at all in the case of winword.exe.
If you open winword twice within a few seconds (ie. before another AV update) then you would expect the second opening to be much faster, but it isn't unless you exclude winword.exe from the AV scan.

Another thread has been started on this topic and several people there are seeing the same thing.

http://forums.comodo.com/gui-miscellaneous-other-bugs/cis-latest-edition-causing-ms-office-2003-apps-to-open-real-slow-bug-t49660.0.html

[Jim__]

Does a manual scan of winword.exe also take a significant amount of time? Has anyone seeing this problem submitted the file for analysis?

[L.A.R. Grizzly]

Does a manual scan of winword.exe also take a significant amount of time? Has anyone seeing this problem submitted the file for analysis?

I just manually scanned Frontpg.exe and Winword.exe (Office 2000) and both scans only took milliseconds to complete . 

[EricJH]

Merged.

[L.A.R. Grizzly]

Merged.

Thanks for the merge, EricJH. Hopefully, the devs will notice and find the problem. 

[Surfinusa]

Merged.

So have we found any common issues here that you guys can address?

I am still using Comodo just for firewall though and MSE for anti-virus until Comodo fix comes out for MS Office 2003 issue.

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