start up scan

[newyorker]

there are few items in my notebook that require to be clean with a scan at start up. Every time I run this modality, the system not only requires 28 minutes to finish the scanning but also does not clean anything because the page with the results does not appear on the screen and whenever I try to check other pages of the programs, the results appear for a fraction of second and then disappear forever. I use winxp sp3 and S&D 1.6. Any suggestion?

[Greyfox]

Perhaps a few questions to clarify your problem.

How long does a normal spybot take on your PC - I want to clarify whether the time you have indicated for the scan on startup is significantly different to that of a normal scan on your PC.

What items specifically are being shown in a normal scan that cannot be "fixed" without a startup scan. (You could do a normal scan, fix selected problems and at the end of this right click in the white area of the screen and choose "copy full report to clipboard". You can either paste this into a post back to the forum, or if there were a large number of items that were fixed, to shorten it, edit in notepad and remove all the fixed items first).

Can you also post your CPU type and speed, and memory size?

edit: I also should have asked whether you mean scan at program startup, or scan at system startup?

[newyorker]

my complain about time of system scanning at system start up was related to the fact that I wait for nothing, given that I cannot clean up the problems because no cleaning page with results appears...

By the way:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600

ASUS W1N
CPU x86 Family 6 Model 9 Stepping 5 GenuineIntel ~1495 Mhz
Version/data BIOS American Megatrends Inc. 0203, 26/05/2004
Version SMBIOS 2.3
RAM 512,00 MB

Failed cleaning:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2871238479-3923273988-474559221-1005\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist\{5E6AB780-7743-11CF-A12B-00AA004AE837}\Count

MS DirectInput: [SBI $9A063C91] Most recent application
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2871238479-3923273988-474559221-1005\Software\Microsoft\DirectInput\MostRecentApplication\Name

MS DirectInput: [SBI $7B184199] Most recent application ID
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2871238479-3923273988-474559221-1005\Software\Microsoft\DirectInput\MostRecentApplication\Id

[Greyfox]

newyorker,

Do you have anything special or unusual in the way of folder view settings?
What browser are you using IE 6 or IE 7?

Can you try excluding this particular detection from further searches
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2871238479-3923273988-474559221-1005\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist\{5E6AB780-7743-11CF-A12B-00AA004AE837}\Count

At the end of a normal scan, left click on the plus sign next to the item to open it up, then click on the opened details to highlight them, then right click and select "exclude this detection from further searches".

Once that is done, run the fix then post back whether it completed correctly.

[newyorker]

I will, but my point is that Spybot does not allow me to see the cleaning page when it performs an automatic scanning at the start up as suggested when the program is not able to clean up something during a normal Windows session.

After the startup scanning, it just opens a normal instance of the program with no info regarding an effective cleaning.

My guess is that the software version 1.6 does not clean anything when performing the boot cleaning (i.e. before windows activation at start up).

In fact, when I try to activate a new search, the program shows for few nanoseconds a scanning result page with no items automatically checked for cleaning (while it does normally) and then the program starts another scanning and, guess what, it can find the same results.

Now, I do not care about the impossibility to clean up traces or registry records. I am worried regarding the fact that this "attitude" might be manifested also toward serious malwares. And this is another story...

[jeffmc]

I will, but my point is that Spybot does not allow me to see the cleaning page when it performs an automatic scanning at the start up as suggested when the program is not able to clean up something during a normal Windows session.

After the startup scanning, it just opens a normal instance of the program with no info regarding an effective cleaning.

My guess is that the software version 1.6 does not clean anything when performing the boot cleaning (i.e. before windows activation at start up).

In fact, when I try to activate a new search, the program shows for few nanoseconds a scanning result page with no items automatically checked for cleaning (while it does normally) and then the program starts another scanning and, guess what, it can find the same results.

Now, I do not care about the impossibility to clean up traces or registry records. I am worried regarding the fact that this "attitude" might be manifested also toward serious malwares. And this is another story...

I was also facing the problem that newyorker is reporting.

I'm using Spybot 1.6.0 under Windows XP Pro SP2, P4 2.8ghz, 2Gb RAM.

Basically as newyorker reported, after System Startup Scan is performed, the main Spybot window is displayed showing the number of problems found in the lower left corner status bar and in the main window the big buttons showing the options "Check for problems", "Recovery", and "Search for Updates". You do not get the usual and expected list of found problems with checkboxes and the button to "Fix selected problems".

The fix is to simply click on the Search & Destroy button and the proper window with the list of found problems and the button to "Fix selected problems" is displayed. Generally, window is automatically shown after the System Startup scan is completed with found problems.

Hope this helps.

=Jeffrey=

[Yodama]

thank you for reporting this issue,
I can confirm that the scan results do not get displayed by default after a scan at system start. I believe we have to change this behavior to avoid more confusion.

As temporary solutions:
Clicking on the 'Search & Destroy' button over the left 'Recovery' button will show the scan results without doing another scan. If needed you can manually clean found items.

If you want Spybot S&D to automatically fix found items on the system start scan you can set this in advanced mode - settings - settings - automation - system start

Note: by default settings Spybot S&D will not automatically fix.
Also note: the scan at system start with Spybot S&D 1.6 is slower than the regular scan since this mode uses the same methods as 1.5.x
However you can shorten the time Spybot S&D scans at system start if you select the corresponding file sets required (advanced mode - settings - file sets)