Lagging in CS3 Extended due to Antivirus permissions

I know many of you have moved on already to Photoshop CS4; but I thought my situation might be helpful to some. : )

First of all, I never had lagging problems of any kind using Photoshop CS3. But I recently reformatted my computer, reinstalled PS CS3, and wow... the redraw and updating was awful! Brush strokes took several seconds to show, for example.

I looked into my preferences for the culprit. I changed the amount of RAM Photoshop should use, reordered my scratch disks. Changed the # of history states & cache levels, checked & unchecked enable 3D acceleration... Each time I changed one preference, I closed & reopened photoshop. No go, same lagging!

I kept asking myself what was different. Then I remembered: after reformatting my computer, I updated my ZoneAlarm from version 7 to version 8. I had never before used this updated version of ZA with CS3.

So in ZoneAlarm, I went to Program Control, Programs, and saw that whereas the "Trust Level", "Access", "Server", and "Send Mail" columns were all set to question marks for Photoshop 7 (meaning ZA asks me before allowing Photoshop 7 certain permissions), several of those same options were listed as "X's" (completely blocked) when I reinstalled Photoshop CS3.

Btw, ZoneAlarm 8 never prompted me, as version 7 did, about certain permissions for CS3! And it didn't occur to me to look into ZA's settings when Photoshop was virtually unusable. My clue came from a CS4 troubleshooting tip here: temporarily disable one's AV and see how PS behaves. The difference after disabling ZA was astounding!

All this to say, you may not have to replace your AV if you find it makes Photoshop lag. Photoshop CS3 worked smoothly after I changed my AV's permissions.

So... perhaps for those of you who are having lags with CS4, you may be able to keep not only the baby but the bathwater as well. In my case, I only needed to change the bathwater! :P

Doesn't surprise me.

That ZoneAlarm 8 has caused untold problems! I had it on my laptop and it totally stopped Windows closing down.

The tales on their forum were catastrophic. The only solution was to revert to Version 7. (Bit like CS4 ;) )

I will move to Kaspersky when the sub runs out.

For the record, I have mcAfee Internet Security Suite and that doesn't seem to cause any trouble with PSCS4 (or older versions, for that matter) on both desktop and laptop computers.

Rob

"Doesn't surprise me... I had it on my laptop and it totally stopped Windows closing down."
John, I had an enormous lag in shut down times, too! Until you mentioned it, I never made the connection with ZA & those shut down delays. I ended up installing a Microsoft service that helps with slow log off. lol

Rob, thank you for the recommendation; I will certainly look into McAfee! It will be nice to not have to use an additional service just so my computer will shut down as quickly as it's supposed to! :P
Besides that, there is something wrong with an 'upgraded' AV that blocks program features without asking. :O

Before going to McAfee, do some research on AV programs - you may save yourself a LOT of trouble!

Lara:

I'm with Don. I had major lag probs and when I disabled McAfee, I had a major increase in speed. I'm going to take Don's advice and check other AV programs.

Thanks a lot, Don and Ron. ;) You might get a chuckle when I tell you that "look into" (for me) means: search techie forums, browse through user reviews/feedback, ask people I know, do some more readin'... :p

You can imagine how long it takes me to finally buy anything this way. lol

Good lookin' out, peeps!

Read impartial reviews and tests in the computer magazines to get a feel for what's available.

I recommend ESET NOD
doesn't slow down your programs like Norton or McAfee

Yes, thank you for that, John. I am always torn in my searches because honest feedback doesn't necessarily indicate intellegent *and* impartial feedback. :p

Both things are most important to me when deciding what I'm going to install on my 'baby'! :)

Many thanks again. ;)