"Advanced Settings" Windows "Not Responding" for 10+ minutes before opening

Comodo Internet Security - CIS Firewall Help - CIS
1

Right click on “C” then “Firewall” then “Settings” hangs for several minutes before opening, then the window appears in a “Not Responding” state for at least five minutes.

Even the regular control panel (right click on “C” icon, then “Open”) takes a good five minutes to open.

The problem is most pronounced on my Windows 7 64-bit workstation (a twin quad-core Lenovo D10- workstation with 32GB RAM, so this isn’t a slow machine by any means). I’ve had no difficulties with any of the many other programs I’m using – and have no difficulties when I switch to the Windows Firewall (which leaves me feeling a bit more exposed than I’d like).

I’ve been using Comodo Firewall for years now (and use Dragon with the Comodo DNS as a backup browser too). I would hate to have to reproduce the custom rules I’ve written on some other platform. I’ve been limping by with this for months by simply starting the process and moving on to other tasks and waiting out the non-responsive period. However, I’m configuring two more systems for the household so it’s decision time: find a solution to the hang time, or find another firewall for all the systems in the house.

My forum search has been uninformative, but as I’m not a regular here I could have easily missed something.

Does this sound at all familiar?

(PS: I am, of course, using the latest update.)

(PPS: Just noticed when closing the advanced settings window that it hangs for more than a minute then too.)

2

Hi Deebs,

We are not able to reproduce the issue. Can you please create a video showing the issue you have?
Thanks in advance.

Kind Regards,
PremJK

3
...reproduce the custom rules I've written...
How many rules do you have? If you have a lot then that is the reason as it has to read all the rules from the registry and populate the rules list interface.
4

Sorry, a wholly unexpected family emergency has me tied up for a while. I’m not even on a machine with Comodo as I post (but rather a more minimalist machine I have on hand).

Moreover, I’m not at all sure what a video of the advanced settings window not opening for a few minutes followed by the advanced settings window appearing, blank inside, and hanging for several more minutes is going to tell you.

The description is K.I.S.S. – but I suppose I could do a screen grab of a hanging control panel. Just not today.

Thanks. That is very well considered. I should have mentioned that I’ve done an uninstall with the executable cleanup tool available here on forum then reinstalled the program without the custom profile (I exported the more customized setup before the uninstall). Same hang time.

The application classes that I did have in the full monty were custom rules for Thundbird with Thunderbrowse (“eMail Plus Browser” – basically the email profile with the specs for a browser added in), for eMule (adapted from a very old port forwarding guide and updated a bit as Comodo has evolved) and Torrent (bashed from a very old guide to general torrent programs). Other programs that Comodo would designate as “custom” were almost universally reassigned to the “Outgoing Only” or rarely “Web Browser.” I’ve been known to block “Promo.exe” type things in freeware from time to time too.

In all, I think there were only three applications where I left them categorized as “custom” with maybe three other promotional executables blocked.

So all in all, three custom application classes (so I could select “eMail with Browser”, “eMule”, or “Torrent”) and perhaps three applications left as “custom” as opposed to a pre-existing class or the three classes I’d created myself.

Stil, even without these rules, I experience the same problem.

I may just have to switch to PrivateFirewall or some other alternative and wait until Comodo reaches the next full numbered version and then try it again. PVF works blazingly fast, but it’s not nearly as user friendly an interface as Comodo.

I will almost surely try Comodo again, too. As you can see from my profile, I’ve been a user since at least 2008 – and if memory serves I’d been using Comodo Firewall for quite some time before I even registered. My comfort level with the Comodo interface is high… and if anything it has improved over the last decade plus. It just hangs on my workstation!

5

I am sorry to hear. Please take the time you need. We will see when you reply again to this topic and will get back to you when you return.

The description is K.I.S.S. -- but I suppose I could do a screen grab of a hanging control panel. Just not today.
K.I.S.S.? Do you mean Kaspersky Internet Security Suite? Do you have other security programs installed? Which of them run in the background alongside CIS?
6

K.I.S.S. means Keep It Simple Stupid.

I do not have Kaspersky and I’ve used various combinations of disabling other programs and/or turning off nearly every autostart, service, shell, or context menu entry to eliminate a conflict being the source. The problem persists.

I’ve uninstalled and then clean reinstalled using every possible combination of the usual uninstall option, the uninstall tool available here on forum, and Revo Uninstaller: one at a time, in combinations of two, and then lastly one sequence of all three together. I have uninstalled and clean reinstalled, testing with the default profile, and the problem persists.

I’ve written a reply twice now, only to get logged out and lose the entire thing when I hit PREVIEW.

I realize now that the effort is futile.

A video showing how to launch Comodo via the Windows System Tray Comodo Icon (two ways, the FIREWALL>SETTINGS or just OPEN), followed by several minutes of a blank desktop, then followed by several minutes of a “Not Responding” white, featureless Window, then finally showing the Comodo GUI launching would be slightly less informative than watching paint dry. Repeating it again to show the launch using the Windows Start Menu PROGRAM>COMODO>Comodo Firewall and the same hang time result would be even less informative.

In all, you’d have a half hour of video that would show you literally nothing, a blank white window, and then finally the GUI. There would of course be one more thing: Windows Time would tic-toc along all the while.

In short, your request for a video is nuts.

I asked if you had seen anything like this before.

Apparently the answer is no.

I think we should have called it there, as it’s probably not even reasonable for me to expect you to come up with a solution (short of a clean rebuild of my entire workstation). Perhaps it would be less nuts than your video request, but not by very much.

Could you please point out to me thread or subforums that I can subscribe to which will let me know if a new, even better uninstall tool is release and/or the next full number update of Comodo is released. Those would at least give me another reasonable option to try.

(I’m not subcribing to an email list of Comodo promotional offers.)

7

Official Comodo Uninstaller v2.0.0.3 Released is the best clean up tool available at the moment.

All I can conclude is that you found a bug and would like to ask you to consider filing a bug report on this in Bug Reports - CIS following the protocol to make sure your bug will be seen and processed by Comodo.

8

Sincere thanks for the effort, EricJH.

A clean reinstall, not surprisingly, took care of everything. It was long overdue. A decade ago I would do a clean setup every three months or so but I’ve become lazy as reinstalls have become more time-consuming. There is no PM that can match a clean reinstallation of the OS and all programs (and I’ve re-imaged the clean setup).

Now Comodo Firewall/HIPS is even getting along well with other security applications (to scan only) that I’d ditched years ago when they had caused issues on a major version revision. I’ve added them to the CFW exclusion list and vice-versa of course.

I’m really quite relieved. There is no advanced Firewall/HIPS interface that can compete with CFW and I have become dependent on the high level of system control that it provides.

Aside from a few hitches that have cropped up with major version changes that required either complete removal and reinstallation of CFW (previously) or a clean OS reinstall (this time) I have only good things to say about the product. Having PM’ed the systems of friends and family I don’t think there’s any product out there that has been problem free over the decade-plus that I’ve used CFW.

Thanks again for the effort, which at least provided me certainty that the clean OS reinstall was really, finally, necessary.