Thank you for explaining your situation again. I understand your position.

 

Hopefully Webroot will fix this soon in the next release. @ might be able to give us some information on whether they are aware of this issue.

 

 

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Hi All, 

We have fixed a bug in our upcoming 9.0.19.xx version that resolves an issues that we encounted after the Firefox Quantum update in Nov 17'. 

Specifically, our ID shield in combination with the Firfox quantum update was resulting into high CPU usage and we had complaints about machines being unresponsive for a few of our customers that reached out to our support team. 

 

This fix is currently part of the latest Beta version, Beta users i would really appreciate if someone can confirm that the issue was infact resolved. 

 

@, If you are not part of our Beta program, you should receive our new version by next week if you dont already have it. 

Please keep us posted on whether your issue was resolved after receiving the update.

 

Thanks

Pawani

 

 

 

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I'd be happy to be a beta tester since I have had the issue on three computers including a brand new installation.  Is there a way to sign up, or doesn one have to be invited?

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@ wrote:

Hi All, 

We have fixed a bug in our upcoming 9.0.19.xx version that resolves an issues that we encounted after the Firefox Quantum update in Nov 17'. 

Specifically, our ID shield in combination with the Firfox quantum update was resulting into high CPU usage and we had complaints about machines being unresponsive for a few of our customers that reached out to our support team. 

 

This fix is currently part of the latest Beta version, Beta users i would really appreciate if someone can confirm that the issue was infact resolved. 

 

@, If you are not part of our Beta program, you should receive our new version by next week if you dont already have it. 

Please keep us posted on whether your issue was resolved after receiving the update.

 

Thanks

Pawani

 

 

 

Thank you for the updated information @..very much appreciated.

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@ wrote:

I'd be happy to be a beta tester since I have had the issue on three computers including a brand new installation.  Is there a way to sign up, or doesn one have to be invited?

To join the Beta Group see here: https://community.webroot.com/t5/Announcements/Join-the-Webroot-Beta-team/td-p/306597

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@ wrote:

@ wrote:

I'd be happy to be a beta tester since I have had the issue on three computers including a brand new installation.  Is there a way to sign up, or doesn one have to be invited?

To join the Beta Group see here: https://community.webroot.com/t5/Announcements/Join-the-Webroot-Beta-team/td-p/306597

I have asked to join. Thanks.

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I have read some say that the problem also existed with Chrome but that it is "fixed."  I tried it with Chrome today and didn't lose control as completely as I do with Firefox, but it took about 20 seconds to be able to do anything.  With Firefox is it three to five minutes.  And that's on my new desktop - 2 Xeon processors, 48g RAM, and 1 Terabyte SSD.

---

@ wrote:

Hi All, 

We have fixed a bug in our upcoming 9.0.19.xx version that resolves an issues that we encounted after the Firefox Quantum update in Nov 17'. 

Specifically, our ID shield in combination with the Firfox quantum update was resulting into high CPU usage and we had complaints about machines being unresponsive for a few of our customers that reached out to our support team. 

 

This fix is currently part of the latest Beta version, Beta users i would really appreciate if someone can confirm that the issue was infact resolved. 

 



 

Thanks

Pawani

 

 

 

@

I can confirm that I am still seeing this issue with FF Quantum and Task Manager using the latest Beta, PC becomes unuseable without a hard reset.

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I didn't like the other AV I installed, so I reinstalled Webroot and did this experiment:

 

I had read that whitelisting taskmgr.exe might solve the problem.  It didn't, but I decided to leave it whitelisted and also whitelist Firefox.  That dropped my time to recover control of my computer from about 5 minutes to about 23 seconds.  Even faster on my less powerful laptop.  I've tried it several times and am consistently seeing much quicker recovery, though not instantaneous like it used to be.  Question: is whitelisting Firefox a mistake?  That doesn't leave all web browsing unprotected, does it?

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@ wrote:

I didn't like the other AV I installed, so I reinstalled Webroot and did this experiment:

 

I had read that whitelisting taskmgr.exe might solve the problem.  It didn't, but I decided to leave it whitelisted and also whitelist Firefox.  That dropped my time to recover control of my computer from about 5 minutes to about 23 seconds.  Even faster on my less powerful laptop.  I've tried it several times and am consistently seeing much quicker recovery, though not instantaneous like it used to be.  Question: is whitelisting Firefox a mistake?  That doesn't leave all web browsing unprotected, does it?

After many successful tries, I got a major slowdown again.  I added tasklist.exe and taskkill.exe to the Whitelist and things seem basically normal now.  Sometimes all works instantly, and sometimes I get a lag up to 10 seconds or so.  Interestingly, Task Manager is still a little slow to close.  Also, if Webroot is running a scan, all bets are off.

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Hi smoddelm

 

Out of interest may I ask for clarification as to what you mean when you say "whitelisting" as per se WRSA does not have true Whitelisting functionality built into the client (whitelisting is done in the Webroot Cloud)...it has Identity Protection & Block/Allow/Monitor fucntionality under which you can register a file?

 

In terms of your question: "is whitelisting Firefox a mistake?"; in my view that does not leave all web browsing unprotected, but in any case if you were to be 'attacked' by a web site driveby download, for example, WRSA would intercept any malicious payload & neutralise it.

 

At least that is my uunderstanding...however, other members mauy have a different understanding and want to chip in here. ;)

 

Regards, Baldrick

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@ wrote:

Hi smoddelm

 

Out of interest may I ask for clarification as to what you mean when you say "whitelisting" as per se WRSA does not have true Whitelisting functionality built into the client (whitelisting is done in the Webroot Cloud)...it has Identity Protection & Block/Allow/Monitor fucntionality under which you can register a file?

 

In terms of your question: "is whitelisting Firefox a mistake?"; in my view that does not leave all web browsing unprotected, but in any case if you were to be 'attacked' by a web site driveby download, for example, WRSA would intercept any malicious payload & neutralise it.

 

At least that is my uunderstanding...however, other members mauy have a different understanding and want to chip in here. ;)

 

Regards, Baldrick

I'm "allowing" the files.  I used the term "whitelisting" because that's how I saw it described wherever I first read that allowing taskmgr.exe would help.

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Hi smoddelm

 

Thanks for clarifying. :D

 

That does not change my response to your question.

 

Regards, Baldrick

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I'm stumped again.  Trying to run task manager AND regedit while Firefox was running caused me to lose control for so long that I finally gave up and did a hard reboot.  Now that I'm paying attention, there seems to be a lot of Webroot activity on every startup.  Does it run a scan every reboot?  I've been through the hard reboot several times now this morning and Webroot has scanned every time I restart. 

 

Also, since I am having to hard reboot, I lose my "allow" configuration and have to start over.  I exported my Webroot settings thinking that would make it easier to set up again, but every time I try to import, the Webroot icon disappears momentarily, another scan is initiated, and my settings are not imported.  I have never had a problem importing Webroot settings before.

 

Given that Windows Defender seems to be much improved from its earliest iterations and I am a pretty careful user, I may just default to it until / unless Webroot fixes the probelm.  There is not the slightest hint of an issue using task manager and regedit with Firefox running with just Defender as my protection.

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@ wrote:

I have read some say that the problem also existed with Chrome but that it is "fixed."  I tried it with Chrome today and didn't lose control as completely as I do with Firefox, but it took about 20 seconds to be able to do anything.  With Firefox is it three to five minutes.  And that's on my new desktop - 2 Xeon processors, 48g RAM, and 1 Terabyte SSD.

I was one who stated they also experienced issues with Chrome as well as Firefix Quantum. Granted, with Chrome open, Taskmanger and my computer resume normal operation in a shorter period than if I have Firefox open, but the behavior exists nonetheless; to the point I make sure to not use Taskmanager (even though I want to) in fear of my machine freezing.

 

In the interim while this is being worked on, I use System Explorer and Resource Monitor in lieu of Taskmanager.

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I have been following a thread about this issue in the Microsoft Community forums.  Someone there (maybe someone who's also posting in this thread) said that Webroot tech support suggested setting Firefox.exe to "allow" in the Webroot Identity Protection settings.  I tried on my laptop and everythign worked fine.  Not so on my desktop, so I played aroung with "allowing" other programs and dlls that were by default "protected."  I discovered that allowing cryptsp.dll solved the problem for me, even if I "protected" Firefox.exe.  For myself, I'm considering the problem solved, though of course it would be nice to protect everything that Webroot suggests protecting by default.  Maybe there's a clue in here for the programmers about a conclusive fix.

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I would add that like the last responder I have the latest version of all current browsers installed and have been running webroot products for several years now without any performance related problems or perceived problems of any kind. When you did not mention, or if so i somehow missed it, and that is what operating system you are using. If is is windows 10, then have you installed the Falls Creator upgrade. This upgrade is notorious for being problematic and that could be where the problem lies.

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I have the Fall Creators update.  It has certainly been problematic for me, but don't you fall outside of the normal Windows update path if you prevent it from installing?  And not receive critical security updates like the Meltdown / Spectre patch?

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I am not really sure about that as Microsoft have a duty of care to its customers whether they upgrade or not. I am an IT professional of a great may years standing and apart from conflicts arising where 2 or more avt products are installed on a single machine but are not fully compatible then I can see no reason why Webroot AVT should affect the operation of windows Task Manager. I have identified issues with Falls Creator release affecting the way file manager operates with respct to copying and pasting files so would not be suprised if Task Manager was affected as well. I say affected, but with file manager it appears that it is down to the way that it works within windows 10 which is slightly different from the traditionally accepted way of doing things.

Please note that wilst the producers of the many AVT packages out there do not recommend using more than one, and I speak here as an it professional working within the sphere of IT security and cyberforensics, sometimes it is necessary to use more than one AVT and many will work together quite happily. I would suggest that you look at windows first, maybe even take the retrograde step of reverting back to your previous version of windows 10 to see if the problem follows or not. If it does then you could suggest that the issue is with the webroot product, if it doesn't then the problem is clearly with Falls Creator alond with a myriad of other problems. At the end of the day, providing you create a restore point you should be able to go back, or even reinstall Falls Creator release.

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I just provided this same info in my Webroot support ticket, but wanted to share the info here as well.

 

'I've had to uninstall Webroot for the moment. Another issue that recently reared its head was my voice comms in Discord would stop working. This just started within the last week. I also play ARK, currently the Aberration map, and my game has been crashing unexpectedly due to an 'audio issue'. This would happen in unison with my Discord audio issue. If the game did not crash, at the very least I would lose in-game audio, yet my main computer audio would remain working fine. I could hear things like email notifications even when the game sound was not working, or Discord audio was not working. 



In my Event Log, AUDIODG.EXE would fault and crash, referencing: C:Windowssystem32NAHIMICV3apo.dll. 



I would close and re-open Discord, but I would get the same initial 'digital buzzing' sound for about 2 seconds, then my audio would quit working. Discord would remain running, and my push to talk icon would light up, but I would no longer have audio comms. I would have no visible errors in Discord, only the event log item that I referenced earlier. 



Rebooting would fix Discord and ARK for sure, but that becomes a pain, especially when Discord audio was crashing every 30-60 minutes. I also tried restarting the Windows Audio service, but that didn't help either. However, I did find that if I disabled (exited) Webroot, I could start Discord up and my audio would work as normal. 



That said, and because I am a heavy gamer, I uninstalled Webroot and installed Norton Security Suite, which is provided free to me from Comcast. I ran all afternoon yesterday with no further Discord audio issues, AUDIODG.EXE crashes in Event Log, or ARK crashes. I realize it has only been about a day, and could be coincidental, so I will run Norton this week to see how my computer runs. If I have further Discord and ARK issues, I'll know it was not Webroot entirely, and can uninstall Norton and reinstall Webroot to continue testing as you requested. If I have no further Discord issues, I may just keep running Norton, which means I won't be able to try the steps you requested in regards to 'Identity Protection'. 



I hope this additional information is helpful. Please let me know how else I can assist. '

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Ok...I started this thread and can hopefully finish it for some. Problems have continued support jumped on and even with turning off Web Shield and Identity Status it didn't help.  Biggest problem for me is I would forget and it was 2nd nature to just go to the Task Manager when necessary.  So my fix is simple. Go to https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/process-explorer-portable and install. Open it up and go the the Options menu and choose 'Replace Task Manager' and 'Run at Logon'. You might need to run the program as Administrator initially to do so but it opens up with no delay when you click on Task Manager and I have Identity Shield and Web Shield back on. Can't really see a downside and it has more features if you need them as an advanced user. More info here - https://appuals.com/task-manager-vs-process-explorer/

 

Hope this helps with the frustration for some of you until they resolve the issue!

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Thanks that does seem to work.

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Any resolution on this issue? We're seeing the freezing/delay with Firefox and Chrome and tracked the issue down to Webroot. Affecting a vast array of PC's.

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No resolution for us yet. I've contacted Support they told me to white-list Chrome, Firefox, and the Task Manager, which I've done. I thought the issue was resolved, but it's come back again. I've found that if I uninstall Webroot off of the machine, and delete the C:ProgramDataWRData folder, then reinstall that it solves the issue, at least temporarily. Support told me to watch https://community.webroot.com/t5/Product-Releases/bd-p/ProductReleases for new releases. I haven't seen any new posts regarding this. Sad that this has been an issue since December and still no patch or version has been released to address it.



Also, I can't believe that the marked "solution" was using a replacement to the task manager. That is at best, a workaround, not a solution to the problem, and should not be proposed as such. I'm not going to go around and replace the task manager for all of our PCs - that's not a viable solution.



I understand that Webroot has a quality assurance/control process, but when it takes this long to push out critical patches, people start considering other solutions to switch to. I've experienced multiple machines slowing down and crashing as a result of this issue, including my own!



Webroot should learn to find a good compromise between QA/QC and timely updates!

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Hi Webgroot

 

Whilst I sympathise with what you are saying I have to say that in my mind I can understand the delay...this issue only affects a few out there (not an excuse in itself I hasten to add) and as a result (i) it may take more time to find the cause then something that affects the majority of users & (ii) therefore Webroot have to tread more carefully so as to make sure that a fix for the few does not cause an issue for the many as a result.

 

This is an invidious conundrum which I have come across, many times in my line of work, and fallen foul of on, unfortunately, a small number of occasions.

 

But as I said...all your points are good ones, and I have commented only in the interests of context.

 

Regards, Baldrick

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