agent.exe problems

[willstott]

agent.exe was consuming 50% of CPU and a search of disk showed this file was at:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\UpdateService\agent.exe

I started InstallShield Update Manager, but it seemed to be in a loop waiting for contact with server. There was no means to disable update manager so I
stopped the process agent.exe from task manager. However, within a few seconds it restarted itself so I renamed agent.exe renamed to agent.exe2 and then stopped the process again. Unfortunately, this triggered Windows Installer to try and repair InstallShield and prompted me to insert the install disk. I was unable to cancel this operation even after rebooting the PC.

I then tried to remove Installshield from my PC using Control Panel's 'Add/Remove programs' applet, but got a "installation in progress" error message. However, after terminating Windows Installer from task manager and quickly clicking 'change' from Add/Remove program I was eventually able to start InstallShield's deinstall program and remove it from my PC without any error messages. I then rebooted and thought my problems were over.

Unfortunately, upon restarting my PC I discovered Agent.exe was still present and was again consuming 50% of CPU. Therefore I renamed:

c:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield
c:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield2

and rebooted. This seemed to cure the problem.

Has anyone else had similar problems? Please would InstallShield make sure that the next version of their product gives people much better control over this agent.exe program and allows you to remove all files after a deinstall.

Will

[looeee]

If your company uses an internet proxy you can do this:

In Internet Explorer, go to Tools->Options->Connections->Lan settings->Advanced->exceptions
add updates.installshield.com to the list of machines on your local network. It will fail cleanly and quickly to get out

If you are not behind a proxy, go to c:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc and open (or create a file called) hosts in notepad. Add a line
127.0.0.1 updates.installshield.com

or ask your firewall/proxy administrator to block the site

remember to keep an eye on the installshield support sites looking for hotfixes because you won't be notified any other way

[coJeff]

Yes I think I finally figured out some of the slowness on my PC and its because of the agent.exe. Many times my pc will grind to a halt and as soon as I kill the agent.exe process it springs to life again. From what I can tell its for the update server. Well I've told it to never check for updates then why would it need to run?!? The product runs just fine without it and in many cases it will run better. There were several times when I looked at the process window that the agent.exe had over 200,000k of memory and increasing.

It appears you can't delete it either cause the DE will continue to launch an installer to get the file back. For now I will continue to kill that process when ever I see it running.

EDIT: Is there any way to kill and keep killed this process?

[RRanck]

I had this same issue and contacted InstallShield Support. They provided me with a copy of Update Service 6 and this resolved the problem. Update Service 5 had been installed with IS 12.

[ljbreedt]

I had this same issue and contacted InstallShield Support. They provided me with a copy of Update Service 6 and this resolved the problem. Update Service 5 had been installed with IS 12.

So I have to wait until a support rep gets back to me with a private copy of the fixed Update Service?

Bloody ridiculous.

Just admit it sucks, you screwed up, and let PAYING CUSTOMERS GET A FIXED VERSION.


I wish I could uninstall it, but I need to use InstallShield to build deployment packages. So this lovely update process makes my machine run like a 486 when I need to compile code. Thanks guys.

EDIT: Stop ISUSPM.exe, and Agent.exe, then delete all InstallShield keys from Run key in registry to prevent auto start up, then deny everything permissions to add stuff into Run, so you can catch them if they try to add it again behind your back.