TeaTimer CPU load after startup thoughts

[rappie]

drragostea,

It's all a matter of how you look at it. As real time active prevention Teatimer has to keep up with the ever increasing number of problems created by the miserable lowlife that produce malware. It has to keep doing more and more, and no matter how smart the coding, sooner or later that will mean using more resources, and/or taking more time. There will be complaints if the software doesn't keep doing more, there will be complaints if it does but uses more resources, and there will be complaints if it does but is slower.

I don't know whether you took part in the beta test of the new version of Teatimer or not, but if you did, you will know that the "conserve memory" mode (which is the default in the new release) was in the area of 40Mb, and that this was and is greatly reduced from the "higher speed at the expense of more memory" which comes in at about 173MB on the three XP machines I have.

The developers of Spybot have a difficult task trying to please users with very different criteria. At one end of the spectrum there are those who for what ever reason have remained with old operating systems with very little memory, and at the other end those who have modern fast platforms with heaps of memory. To be brutally frank, over time the first catagory is gradually dying by attrition, and the latter is moving back to take their place as technology continues to go forward - thats life.

Those with modern equipment rightfully expect performance, and 173MB is really not an issue for them. For those in the middle, with lower but still reasonable amounts of memory, 40MB is also not an issue. I personally think this new version of Teatimer with its ability to be configured in the two different modes, and also with its "caching" of scan results is a real step forward in trying to meet the needs of the widest possible user group.

At the lower end of the equipment range at some stage users have to make a decision - when their equipment is no longer adequate to support the type of software that is needed in todays world, then they either have to replace it, upgrade it, or accept the fact that they can't have all the benefits and features. In this case that may be to use Spybot without Teatimer. It is worth remembering that some other software hasn't bothered to support their end of the spectrum at all.

I fully expect that many will take issue with this post - so be it.

May I ask how can I get the teatimer to performer at higher speed like you say??
I've been looking at my settings but couldn't find an option for increasing the speed of teatimer at the expense of higher memory. I'd like to see it for myself which option will be preferable to me. I'm using the 1.6.0.30 with teatimer beta version 1.6.1.22. Thanks in advance!

[md usa spybot fan]

rappie:

Currently the settings must be done via registry tweaks.

From Spybot's wiki.spybot.info site:

Registry Tweaks

Usage

Usage

To create such a tweak, create a registry value in the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Safer Networking Limited\Tweaks\Application.exe\

Replace Application.exe with the name of the executable it should affect, no paths used. Or, if you want the tweak to apply globally to all our products, simply use this path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Safer Networking Limited\Tweaks\

ConserveMemory

ConserveMemory

Used by TeaTimer only currently to indicate which version of the on-access scanning engine to use.

ConserveMemory : REG_DWORD = 00000000 (less memory, starts faster, but scans slower)
ConserveMemory : REG_DWORD = 00000001 (the mode available by default in versions up to 1.6 beta 2)

By default, currently method 0 is set. Plans are to make the default choice depend on the overall system memory.

__________

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Safer Networking Limited\Tweaks]
"ConserveMemory"=dword:00000000

REGEDIT4


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Safer Networking Limited\Tweaks]
"ConserveMemory"=dword:00000001

[rappie]

im getting a little confused with the registry. I was able to made the registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Safer Networking Limited\Tweaks\ but i don't know how I'll be able to enter the following values

ConserveMemory : REG_DWORD = 00000000
ConserveMemory : REG_DWORD = 00000001

And should I add both entries or just the one I prefer to use?
Sorry, I'm really just a novice when it comes to registry tweaks.

[rappie]

another thing, what I would really like is to set the memory usage of teatimer to 173mb just like what greyfox was saying.

[drragostea]

Hello rappie.

Yes, I believe you can set it to 1 (one) if you wish to and have the adequate resources.

[pwillener]

im getting a little confused with the registry. I was able to made the registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Safer Networking Limited\Tweaks\ but i don't know how I'll be able to enter the following values

ConserveMemory : REG_DWORD = 00000000
ConserveMemory : REG_DWORD = 00000001

And should I add both entries or just the one I prefer to use?
Sorry, I'm really just a novice when it comes to registry tweaks.

I strongly recommend that you make a full registry backup before you start fiddling with the registry. ERUNT is a good registry backup tool.

Right-click on the Tweaks folder, New -> DWORD Value. Rename the 'New Value #1' to 'ConserveMemory'. Right-click and Modify, then set the value to 0 or 1.

[rappie]

i did it. I was able to create the registry entry. The only problem is that nothing seems to have changed The teatimer is still running at the expense of 40mb and not on the faster 173mb that I am trying to do.


Thanks to those who shared their knowledge.

[PepiMK]

1 is the conserving one, the faster one would be 0

Btw, since the balloons are quite annoying on 2000 where you can't click them away, we're looking at more possible changes now...

[drragostea]

1 is the conserving one, the faster one would be 0

I got it mixed up. Thanks Pepi, I'll keep that in mind in the future.

[rappie]

1 is the conserving one, the faster one would be 0

Oh I see. Thanks!