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Security Products Affect Performance |
  
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Security Products Affect Performance |
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Over the last several years, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware (Security) products have become increasingly aggressive - and for good reason. There has been a significant increase in Virus, Spyware, and Remote Control software (Malware) that affects users every day.
The "downside" to more effective Security products is a performance hit as well as the occasional software and data disruption that might occur depending on your specific environment.
Security products watch for....
A pattern of data in a file that has the "signature" of Malware.
A pattern of activity by an application that fits the activity pattern of Malware.
A pattern of activity by remote computers that fit the activity pattern of Malware.
And sometimes it's simply that the Security software doesn't "trust" something.
What are we doing.
We digitally sign our Setup and all the application that are part of Magtax. A digital signature allows you to be reasonably certain the Setup and software you are installing on your computer actually came from us. Newer versions of windows require signed software. We have been doing this since 2006.
We submit our software to Security products companies for review. This allows our product to be reviewed and recognized by their products. This is NOT a guarantee and they make NO guarantees to us. If our software "appears" to be dangerous to them there is no guarantee that they will fix a false-positive. It does help us determine potential problems. For example, something as simple as the wording on a window in the setup can cause a false positive. We can change the wording and the false positive can go away.
Starting in 2019 we are no longer doing "web installs". We used the web installer because it sped up the installation process. Web installers download pieces of the software as it's being installed and installs only parts that have changed during an update. The problem is that Security products see this is something Malware does - because that is what Malware does! So, all of our Setups will be full product, single file (50mb+) files. No internet activity.
We are currently testing alternative storage methods. Most of these are SQL based but the important aspects of any change are that they perform well, do not require any additional installation, and are industry supported.
What you can do.
Make sure that you keep your Security products up to date
Exclude the Magtax data folders from being scanned. This is very important on a network shared installation. See Optimizing Network Performance.
If you are having slow performance let us know through support@magtax.com Make sure you tell us what Security software you use and where it is installed (Workstation, Server, etc.)