Skip to main content
why is goggle chrome page slow to respond

 

for the last 6 or 8 weeks my google chrome has been slow to respond. Now today chrome took 60 to 90 seconds to recognize text being typed into search and http bar. My Webroot scan returns 10 threats removed. each time run. but not sure what they are or where they are being picked up. 
Hello mattv, welcome to the Community!

 

This is a bit of a complex answer, as you have a couple different questions here.  

 

The easy past is that your WSA is not removing 10 threats on every scan.  That is a cumulative stat.  Please see THIS KB Article for more information regarding Removed Threats and Active Threats.

 

So, it would appear WSA is not actually finding anything at this time, yet you have that slowdown still right?  There are a couple of possible things here.

 

1) Check your WiFi router.  How close is it to your computer?  If it is in a different room or across the house, this might be the problem itself: too far from your computer.  You also might see improvement by simply unplugging the WiFi router, wait 30 seconds, and plug it back in.

 

2) If you Router is close to or in the same room as your computer, then the problem is probably not the router.  You may have a  problem not with a malware infection, but with the presence of what we refer to on the Community as PUA's.  The short answer to this is to submit a Trouble Ticket and have Webroot Support take a look.  This is a free service with your valid WSA license.

 

As for the long answer regarding PUA's and why they are not being detected?  Well, get that Trouble Ticket submitted first, and then read on!

 

-------

 

What you are seeing and describing sounds like it may be what we on the Community refer to as a PUA. (Potentially Unwanted Application) These are very annoying at best in that they cause pop-us, redirect your browser home page, and other behavior that may slow down the computer and direct ads your way, but they are not actually doing anything bad like damaging files or stealing information. Often they are installed intentionally by you the user as browser add-ons for various tasks such as quick search tools.. but they also come with the result of added annoying pop-ups and ads. Other times they 'piggy back' with other software that you installed, or try to 'sneak' onto your system entirely.

 

WSA does detect and remove many PUA's, and more are being added, but WSA does not detect all of them. A simple browser add-on with PUA behavior that is easy to identify and easy to remove is not likely to be detected and removed by WSA. Those that are intentionally difficult to locate and remove are. Please see THIS LINK for more information regarding Webroot's stance on these annoying programs.

 

For those that are not detected by WSA, please see this KB Article. It has some easy to follow directions on locating and removing PUA's. You may also want to submit a Trouble Ticket, especially if you cannot remove it easily from the directions in the KB Article.

 

For those that ARE detected by WSA, but cannot be removed automatically, you can submit a Trouble Ticket.  Webroot Support will help you get these annoying 'crapware' off your computer at no extra charge, and the additional examples may help to better automatic removal of that particular PUA for all users in the future.

 

To make sure that your WSA is checking for PUA's with the best proficiently, it sometimes helps to reset the PUA detection within WSA's settings. For PUA's that had previously been scanned and determined to be OK, but have since been added to detection/removal, you may want to complete the following steps:

 


  • Open Webroot SecureAnywhere
  • Click on ‘Advanced Settings’ from the top right
  • Select ‘Scan Settings’ from the left side
  • Unselect the option “Detect Potentially Unwanted Applications”
  • Click on the Save button (you may have to enter in a CAPTCHA)
  • Reselect the option to “Detect Potentially Unwanted Applications”
  • Click on the Save button
  • Run another scan with Webroot and remove any items that get detected.
To help avoid PUA's in the future, remember to read all of the information when installing or updating software (Adobe downloads often have those "extra special offers"attached... PUA'S!: often the PUA included will be mentioned, and you can opt out of installing it.  Those check boxes you see? Usually only one of them is for the User Agreement of the software you want, the others are for the junk you don't.

 

 I hope this helps you both understand, and resolve the problem and if not please let us know!

 

 

NOTE: As noted above, PUA's that:

 


  • Come in with other downloads
  • Have a clear opt out ability prior to install
are often NOT detected and removed.  This is partly for legal reasons: the source of the download can complain about it's extra software being blocked automatically by Webroot.  There may be to allow WSA to recognize and block a LOT more PUA's than it currently can.  Please see THIS IDEA for more information, and give a KUDO if you agree.  User Idea requests are noted by the Webroot Team, and the more Kudo's on an Idea the more likely we may see dev time devoted to it.

 

 

Reply