MSAS freezing.

This is strange, and I can't seem to find the same problem on their forums, but every time I run MSAS to scan my computer, it always seems to freeze at the "Variable browser hijack scan". I let it run for about 15 mins in a white screen everytime before closing. Looking at Task Manager, it seems like a memory leak of some sort. MSAS starts to use around 80mb of RAM. Am I the only one having this problem?

 

A

A huge HOSTS file can be the reason.
In the past I had the Bluetack Hosts File and MSAS froze too.
It isn't exactly freezing, it only takes MUCH LONGER to run MSAS due to a huge hosts file.
With MVPS Hosts file you don't have that problem.

If you rename the Hosts file in to Hosts.txt temporarily, you will see that MSAS runs much faster.
Don't forget to rename the hosts file back without extension.
I reported this issue to Microsoft, quite some time ago.

 

Re: A

Ah okay I have BlueTack's host as well. Interesting. I'll disable it when running a scan and see if this is the fix. Thanx much ErikAlbert.

 

Re: A

OK. Let me know if it fixed the problem.

 

Re: A

We have confirmation. It was the HOSTS file. Why is that? [just curious. What does variable browser hijack have to do with the HOSTS file? Though I guess through using the hosts file someone could potentially redirect one's browsers. So does MSAS manually scan every single entry of the HOSTS and compare it against its own database]

 

Sorry, I can't answer that question, but I'm sure experts can answer your question.
I tested this myself, that's why I was quite sure my advice was right.
Well M$ knows about it and MSAS is still a beta version as far as I know.
Thanks for confirming it. I can re-use that advice for other members LOL.

 

ROFLMAO! No problem. I'm glad I could contribute. ;P