Has this version addresse the problem of cmdagent randomly using a large amount of CPU. I’ve been using CIS for several years and on the whole I find it very good but I really do get fed up with cmdagent taking over my machine from time to time.
Also, a problem which seems to have appeared in 6.1.276687.2813 (or in that version area) where HIPS asks about an application which it should alresady know about and then won’t do anything when you try to answer.
If there is any chance that these issues are cured I’d be happy to try the Beta.
There are now no other security products installed on my machine, having seen the thread which suggested removal of anything else. Having specifically rmoved MS Security Essentials and run the McAffe uninstaller just in case something was installed alongside another product, when I rebooted the machie was still sluggish for some time and cmdagent was the culprit for some of the time. At least that was better than the previous boot where cmdagent was using one CPU continuously. At the moment everything is OK, but that has been the pattern for some time in the past.
With regard to the other issue, even after the last boot there was a HIPS message about a Windows application (can’t remember which at this moment) and the box just sat there in the right hand corner of the screen and wouldn’t take any notice of any click. The box stayed there for about 10 minutes and then went away on its own, in other words I couldn’t answer the question it was asking. I’ve noticed this asking behaviour, although not so bad in terms of not allowing a response, on another machine where I have been asked more than once about explorer.exe, trustedinstaller,exe and various other system components. Plus, from time to time, applications are sandboxed when they had been working OK.
Okay, this may be a bug. However, I think the best thing to do is to create a clean starting point. Please reinstall CIS by following the advice I give in this post. Do not make any changes to the default settings. Also, do not import any old configurations.
Please let me know if the problems persists even after rebooting.
Also, if it does, can you please post a screenshot of the task manager showing the CPU consumption while it is misbehaving?
OK, when I can find a slot I will try the remove re-install, although it is annoying not to be able to import an old configuration. Is there any way to extract the details of existing configurations in such a way that you can set up a new installation with the same details, rather than importing the old values.
Having said that, my success rate of importing configurations from previous versions of CIS has been very low and often I’ve found that the process says it has imported the configuration but even after a reboot the basic configuration is still being run.
Appreciate the advice.
(As an aside, HIPS prompted me about two applications which have been set as trusted for a very long time)
For info, no screen shot, I have a 64 bit quad core machine running Windows 7 64 and when cmdagent behaves badly procexp shows it is using 25% (i.e. one CPU?).
In order to classify this as a bug, which would be the next logical step, I need to ensure that this isn’t caused by an issue related to importing an old configuration (which can sometimes cause problems). Thus, that’s why I asked you to see if it happens with a clean default install. This allows us to eliminate a lot of possible explanations.
For me cmdagent is most often using approximately none of my CPU. Please see if a clean reinstall fixes the problem and if it does not, see if you can isolate any situations in which is is using very little CPU and situations in which is uses the most CPU.
For the HIPS, can you please check and see if you have it set to make rules for safe applications? If so that could be why you’re seeing these alerts.
HIPS question, yes the box for creating rules for safe application is checked, but it has been that way since I installed this version so why does it persist in asking about applications it has asked about before.
Should I turn the option off/ would I be better off with it off?
Having it checked or unchecked is up to you. Personally, I leave it unchecked.
However, I would advise that you start a new topic to discuss that option. That way your questions won’t get buried. I think it’s best to concentrate on the CPU issue in this topic.