Why does cmdagent.exe (Comodo Firewall) take up so much CPU?

After installing Comodo Free Firewall and rebooting, after I logged back in the system was basically unusable, when I finally brought up Task Manager, lo and behold, cmdagent.exe was taking up 90% of my CPU, this always happens on startup and whenever I launch a web browser, the CPU spikes up to 100%. I've already tried reinstalling Comodo Firewall but the same thing always happens.

What you are describing, is a well-known issue with Comodo Free Firewall which is being outlined here and includes troubleshooting steps:

https://forums.comodo.com/help-for-v2/cmdagent-heavy-cpu-usage-solution-t18341.0.html

However, I would recommend uninstalling Comodo Free Firewall in favor of using Windows Defender Firewall which is what most users are using nowadays.

Windows Firewall Tools can be used to extend the default Windows firewall behavior and used for quick access to define rules and configure the most frequently used options.

And, these are as follows: Windows Firewall Control by Malwarebytes: https://www.binisoft.org/wfc, and Simplewall: https://www.henrypp.org/product/simplewall

Good luck!

Thank you, I guess I'll just stick with the built in Windows Firewall and check out the tools you mentioned.

Thank you both. I had the same problem: Comodo free firewall constantly using at least 16% of CPU resources..on my brand new gaming pc with 10th gen i7.

Reading the link above (which dates from 2008...so the feature had a different name back then), I realized the problem comes from "VirusScope".

I disabled VirusScope and voilà ! CPU is free again this allows me to keep using the actual firewall feature. Also, I did not need to disable HIPS although I don't see any use for it (mostly annoying alerts when installing stuff).

Great article, thanks for that. Big sniff sniff for pirated software and P2P, I don't remember malware being THAT sophisticated 15 years ago. Now it's sometimes hard to even tell if the (supposedly trusted) uploader is actually the one he claims to be. Authorities cracking down on trusted websites didn't help IMO - but that's a different thread.

Edited by johnsmith599, 03 June 2020 - 02:11 PM.

I recall when I used to run Comodo's Firewall back in my XP days. HIPS & Viruscope were the culprits for high CPU usage then; doesn't sound like much has changed.

Once those two were disabled, it transformed into a very usable firewall, that just sat in the background, quietly getting on with its job. Mind you, Defender wasn't even a gleam in MyCrudSoft's collective eye back then.....

My main daily driver for the last 6 years, Puppy Linux, only uses the standard Linux Firewall, a GUI 'front-end' to the universal iptables firewall rules. I don't think I've ever bothered with AV software; Comodo's Firewall was all I needed back under XP, and as for Puppy... AV software? Wossat?

Mike.

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 15 October 2020 - 10:51 AM.

What is the difference between hardware and software?

That seems a bit off-topic for this post but ok....