TeaTimer CPU load after startup thoughts

TeaTimer-beta-1.6.1.21.zip

Five .reg files allow toggling of the discussed things (debug mode to have more details in Resident.log; switching between the two scan engine modes).

Balloons are enabled by default, can be disabled from the context menu of the tray icon.

One thing I do still find annoying is that he balloons stay for at least 10 seconds (or was it 15)? That's a Windows limitation designed to make sure the user notices them, smaller values are not possible. I added a final "All new processes have been scanned" message to avoid the impression that the last process would take very long compared to earlier ones.

As for the reason this takes longer: Spybot-S&D is optimized for doing a full system scan, not exactly for scanning single files. Antivirus applications do build one or few hash values of a file and look that up in their database. Spybot-S&D is much faster for the complete scan, but slower on individual scans ;)
 
Teatimer beta 1.6.1.21

Query re terminology.

Fast scan is currently ConserveMemory=1
Slow scan is currently ConserveMemory=0

To conserve memory is to limit the amount used. To me Slow scan (conserving or limiting memory) should be ConserveMemory=1

Is there a possibility the files are cross named?
 
Will the normal updates be applicable to this beta version or is it just a standalone for testing purposes.
 
PepiMK (Patrick):

I believe that the following question by nagan may be referring to the weekly include file updates (.sbi and .sbs files):

nagan said:
Will the normal updates be applicable to this beta version or is it just a standalone for testing purposes.
Click to expand...
If the reference is for the weekly include file updates, I assume the answer is: Yes, the weekly include file updates will be use by Teatimer beta 1.6.1.21. Is that correct?
 
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Ah, ok. In that case: your assumption is correct!
It needs the same files the regular TeaTimer.exe needs, so the best way to try it is to e.g. rename the existing TeaTimer.exe to TeaTimer.exe.bak und put the new file in its place.

(btw: if placed in any other location, TeaTimer would still read the installation location from the registry to be able to locate the databases)
 
The 1.6.1.21 beta version of Teatimer seems to work fine on my 2.4GH Core 2Duo computer - 1Gb memory. I'm currently running it with ConserveMemory=0, and the scan speed is quite fast. Having now been through a number of reboots and the PC having been used for a reasonable period there is only a very brief scan occurring now at each bootup (the "cache" working as planned?) and the shut down delay of the bubble is now the slowest item. (I specifically haven't turned this off yet whilst trialling the new version, although that would be my preferred normal mode.

I did an initial test with ConverveMemory=1 before changing this to the current mode, however even when Teatimer is disabled and then subsequently re-enabled it doesn't now seem to be scanning as many processes as it did when I first installed it. Does unticking Teatimer in Tools/Resident and later re-enabling clear Teatimer's cache, or is there another way if doing this so I can obtain a start from scratch scan for each different settings option?
 
To add to my previous post -

With ConserveMemory=0 Teatimer' memory usage (as shown in task manager) was 169,376K.

With ConverveMemory=1 it was 34,968K. In this mode it does take a little longer to complete scanning processes at bootup, but is still not a problem on this PC.
 
Yes, very brief scan on bootup sounds like the cache ;)

The only way to clear it would be to delete the file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy\ProcCache.sbc, or download an update (the cache is completely reset when loading again after an update, since a new update might recognize bad file that wasn't recognized before the update).

My tests were usually around 25 vs 100 MB. Not sure if that included the latest Beta.sbi, if not, that would probably explain the difference, the next update (available as beta since last Wednesday) includes a huge jump ;)
 
md usa spybot fan said:
PepiMK (Patrick):

I believe that the following question by nagan may be referring to the weekly include file updates (.sbi and .sbs files):


If the reference is for the weekly include file updates, I assume the answer is: Yes, the weekly include file updates will be use by Teatimer beta 1.6.1.21. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

If I understood this properly,I should be able to use the beta as the regular Spybot?But the size of the beta file is anly 2 MB,whereas the original is around 10 mb.Can you clarify please?
 
Nagan,

The Teatimer beta release is only a patch, not a full spybot installation. The .zip file contains a replacement Teatimer.exe file and a number of registry patch files to allow changes in configuration.

To install the teatimer beta I would recommend first unticking Teatimer in Spybot Tools/Resident, then renaming the existing Teatimer.exe in C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy. I renamed mine OldTeatimer.exe.
After that, just copy the new Teatimer.exe into the folder and then retick it in Spybot and my preference is to then reboot.

Note: to see teatimer.exe you will need to unhide system files - don't forget to rehide them again after.

Finally: Whilst it seems fine at the moment, as with all beta releases, there is no guarantee that it is bug free - that after all is what beta is all about. If you are not comfortable with this stay with the official release versions.
 
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Greyfox said:
Nagan,

The Teatimer beta release is only a patch, not a full spybot installation. The .zip file contains a replacement Teatimer.exe file and a number of registry patch files to allow changes in configuration.

To install the teatimer beta I would recommend first unticking Teatimer in Spybot Tools/Resident, then renaming the existing Teatimer.exe in C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy. I renamed mine OldTeatimer.exe.
After that, just copy the new Teatimer.exe into the folder and then retick it in Spybot and my preference is to then reboot.

Note: to see teatimer.exe you will need to unhide system files - don't forget to rehide them again after.

Finally: Whilst it seems fine at the moment, as with all beta releases, there is no guarantee that it is bug free - that after all is what beta is all about. If you are not comfortable with this stay with the official release versions.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the fast reply.I love this forum.Any ideas where the bugs of the beta are listed so that I can find or contribute?
 
Nagan,

Any problems that are found with any particular beta are usually posted in the forum thread relating to the beta (or perhaps in the project tracker thread). In the case of this Teatimer beta, they would be in this thread however if you read right through the thread I think you will see that apart from a couple of the registry configuration patches being interchanged, there have been no problems notified.

I have this beta on two PC's in a home network, one with a fast dual core processor with XP-Home SP3, the other a portable with a much slower solo processor and XP-Home SP2. Another PC in the network is running with the standard Teatimer. I have run Teatimer in both the "memory conserving mode" and the "fast use more memory mode" on both without any problems, but then both these PC's have 1GB memory. It would be nice to hear from someone running a trial on a memory starved platform.

The information being shown in the bubble is nice, in that one gets an understanding of what is actually going on. It's a pity the bubble remains up so long after the Spybot event has finished, but as PepiMK said early on, this is a function of the Operating system and not the Teatimer software, but there is provision to disable the info balloons, which reminds me I have yet to try that!

Hope this helps
 
Question Re: major components updates...

Hello,

Will this new version of Teatimer - and future updates to Spybot S&D 1.6 engine - be updated via the Updater engine? Or will new major versions have to be updated by uninstalling old version then installing new version?

Thanks for Spybot! The new version 6 is much faster on scans...

Edit: Oh, I've only seen one instance of Teatimer pegging the CPU at 99% out of about 15 installs, and at the time didn't have time to troubleshoot, so just downgraded back to 1.5.2... glad to see this is fixed now!
 
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Greyfox said:
Nagan,

... It would be nice to hear from someone running a trial on a memory starved platform....
Click to expand...

I understand that Spybot is "freeware" and totally appreciate the developers extending this excellent Spyware application to the public like they do and I would add that the effort to make this application available to those who still use older systems for one reason or another is equally appreciate and very commendable as well... but...

I really cannot imagine that the developers would not have access to something like a 386 computer w/ a WIN95 OS w/ from 50-150 mhz and 32-64 MB RAM resources considering that this platform would be virtually worthless and could be acquired absolutely free in order to bench test the Spybot application version upgrades. Clearly this would be by far the better method of testing version upgrades as opposed to leaving it to users who could have all kinds of other unrelated issues w/ their respective computers that would impact performance that would have nothing to do with the Spybot application at all.

Clearly if Spybot would work on that kind of "resource starved platform" as you put it then any specific Spybot version should work on any Windows platform as far as resource requirements are concerned.
 
Incase this helps

Just in case this might help....

As far as my issue w/ the system crashing at shutdown w/ Teatimer running using either v 1.5 or 1.6 this ONLY happens if I have launched (not even done anything w/ it) the Spybot main application interface sometime prior to shutting down. If I have NEVER launched the Spybot main interface program then I can shutdown w/ Teatimer running w/ a crash. I can't say that I have allowed large time intervals to occur but when I boot up and then shutdown w/ teatimer running and have not used the Spybot main interface then the system will shutdown properly but if I boot up and then go into SpyBot and do NOTHING else but EXIT the program and then shutdown the system will crash (blue screen VxD error 5) if I leave Teatimer running (but will not crash if I "exit" teatimer manually). Again I can't say that his holds true over a longer time frame but trying each scenario one after the other it is consistent.

It would seem like by launching the Spybot interface that something gets "left behind so to speak" or something is not "closed properly" for some reason because of the fact that I can shutdown w/ Teatimer running and the OS doesn't have a problem if I have never used the main Spybot interface application prior to shutting down. On the other hand if I've used the main Spybot interface at any time then I would have to "exit" Teatimer to be able to shutdown properly.
 
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Sorry but the ridiculous 15 minute limit on edits is really a problem.

I made a typo that meant the exact opposite of what I meant to say.

If I have NEVER launched the Spybot main interface program then I can shutdown w/ Teatimer running w/ a crash
Click to expand...

What I meant to say is "... I can shutdown w/ Teatimer running w/OUT a crash.

To bad edits aren't allowed (the only forum I know of that does this and I'm a member of many forums) when a typo means exactly the opposite of what the intent was... :sad:
 
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