Speed of MSE scan

[mjf]

My McAfee subscription eventually ran out and I moved to MSE + Malwarebytes.
A full MSE scan takes quite a bit longer than the above two. Is it a case of comparing apples and oranges or is full MSE scan slow?
I'd appreciate any comments (SE ver 2.0.657.0 ~ latest).

 

[WartHog]

My scan with MSE seems to run slow too. took quite a bit of time, but I don't have any reference to Mcafee.

 

[ie9]

Also with no reference, but a full scan takes some time. A don't usually scan with MSE though, I save Malwarebytes for that

 

[mjf]

Interesting that Malwarebytes missed a Java applet that MSE got rid of (both uptodate). MSE went into a zip file to get it (maybe a false positive???).

 

[kodi]

It is VERY SLOW but I just start it and forget it,it works in the background and does not interfere with what I am doing.

 

[Bill2]

Two interesting things I had read a few days ago. One, apparently MS claims that MSE doesnt skip files like other vendors to reduce scan time. That would mean that compressed files such as .rar and .cab files would be loaded into memory and scanned each time MSE is run, that would naturally slow down the process. So MSE may not be flagging files as safe and probably scans them every time.

The other is that full scans or at least scheduled scans are subject to 50% CPU throttling.

See these 2 threads.

Slow "full scan" on MSE 2.0.657.0

Full scan took over 10 hours!

 

[sygnus21]

MSE is slow doing full scans. Basically been that way since first release as I posted here - http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/35027-microsoft-security-essentials-windows-7-a.html

I also noted this on the latest released version here - http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/131437-mse-2-final-released-8.html#post1140848 and here - http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/131437-mse-2-final-released-9.html

Bottom line MSE is ridiculously slow with "full" scans.

 

[Ciara]

I don't stick to the same security now (Vipre missed a few things ... so dumped it) ATM I'm using Zone Alarm Firewall, Avast AV and Malwarebytes free as just a scanner.

 

[Glhs958]

I dont know what you all consider slow but I just finished a full scan of well over 1 million files in about 40 minutes. I kinda think that is rather quick compared to others I have used in the past.

 

[marsmimar]

Another FWIW: I noticed that the first full scan of my machine took about 35 minutes. That was right after I uninstalled MSE 2.0 beta and installed the final 2.0 version. Shut the machine off and went to work. When I came home about 12 hours later I ran another full scan. That one took 11 minutes with the same number of files scanned. Same thing with the quick scan. First one took about 8 minutes and subsequent scans are in the 2 1/2 - 3 minute range.

 

[mjf]

Maybe a bigger issue than speed.

Interesting that Malwarebytes missed a Java applet that MSE got rid of (both uptodate). MSE went into a zip file to get it (maybe a false positive???).

This issue is now related to this post and my response
http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...image-windows-backup-restore.html#post1197919

I have a very bad feeling about all of this.

 

[Fayla]

I have seen it go into CAB files (I'm sure.) But what I found interesting was when I used to have the Avira anti virus, it allowed you to set how FAR it would scan into a archive file directory level (zip, cab, rar etc.) I always had it set to 3 levels down maximum. I don't see that option in MSE. Maybe MSE is scanning every part of a archive file ;/

It's slow regardless, better on a quick scan now though.

Two interesting things I had read a few days ago. One, apparently MS claims that MSE doesnt skip files like other vendors to reduce scan time. That would mean that compressed files such as .rar and .cab files would be loaded into memory and scanned each time MSE is run, that would naturally slow down the process. So MSE may not be flagging files as safe and probably scans them every time.

 

[mitchell64]

I have seen it go into CAB files (I'm sure.) But what I found interesting was when I used to have the Avira anti virus, it allowed you to set how FAR it would scan into a archive file directory level (zip, cab, rar etc.) I always had it set to 3 levels down maximum. I don't see that option in MSE. Maybe MSE is scanning every part of a archive file ;/

It's slow regardless, better on a quick scan now though.

Two interesting things I had read a few days ago. One, apparently MS claims that MSE doesnt skip files like other vendors to reduce scan time. That would mean that compressed files such as .rar and .cab files would be loaded into memory and scanned each time MSE is run, that would naturally slow down the process. So MSE may not be flagging files as safe and probably scans them every time.

In support of these two posts, last week i was intending to restore to a clean image but before doing so i thought i would uninstall Avast & take MSE for a test drive. I wrote down my results from a full scan just to satisfy my own curiosity but never took a screen shot as i thought i would never be wanting to present them.

The result of a full scan with MSE on my OS was 173100 items scanned & took 25 minutes

Now here is the results of a default Full scan with Avast taking note of the amount of files scanned compared to the amount MSE scanned

View attachment 133766

After this i created a custom full system scan with Avast to include "Test whole files" and to scan all 26 listed types of packers not just the 4 as in the default scan

View attachment 133767

So in all fairness to MSE, when Avast is set to scan as near as thoroughly as i can get to how MSE scans. Avast takes pretty much the same amount of time to scan near on the same amount of files.

I just found the result interesting although i don't use MSE i like to keep an open mind as Security is an ever changing world