Should I block it?

40%

40% of PCs block this file from running.

Possible reason:

Performance resource utilization

Additional versions

9, 4, 0, 2	50.00%
9, 3, 0, 2	50.00%

Relationships

SearchProtection.exe

Search Protection by Spigot (Signed)

Remove SearchProtection.exe

Version:	9, 4, 0, 2
MD5:	fa24303230bdddcf37c785760f907ecd
SHA1:	accadf2e1dbd86f2ac8dcb470f3304336ddfb5d8

Overview

searchprotection.exe executes as a process with the local user's privileges. It is set to be run when the PC boots and the user logs into Windows (added to the Run registry key for the current user). It is installed with a couple of know programs including Search Protection published by Spigot, Inc., Search Protection from Spigot, Inc. and Search Protection by Spigot, Inc.. The file is digitally signed by Spigot which was issued by the VeriSign certificate authority (CA).

Details

File name:	searchprotection.exe
Publisher:	Spigot, Inc.
Product name:	Search Protection
Typical file path:	C:\users\user\appdata\roaming\search protection\searchprotection.exe
File version:	9, 4, 0, 2
Size:	827.35 KB (847,208 bytes)
Build date:	6/18/2014 1:59 PM
Certificate
Issued to:	Spigot
Authority (CA):	VeriSign
Effective date:	Saturday, February 25, 2012
Expiration date:	Saturday, March 28, 2015
Digital DNA
File packed:	No
.NET CLR:	No

More details

Programs

The following programs will install this file

Search Protection

Spigot, Inc.

82% remove

“The Spigot Search Settings is an application which is part of the Spigot Toolbar. Spigot searchsettings.exe'spurpose is to check periodically your default search engine and restore it to Yahoo in case you agreed to set it to Yahoo in the first place and another application is trying to change it. It's easy to uninstall Spigot Inc Seach Settings at any time. Since the application is part of the toolbar, you must uninstall the Spigot tool...”

Behaviors

Startup files (user) run

Runs under the registry key 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'

'SearchProtection' → "C:\users\user\appdata\Roaming\Search Protection\SearchProtection.EXE" /autostart

Resource utilization

(Note: statistics below are averages based on a minimum sample size of 200 unique participants)

Averages

CPU
Total CPU:	0.00006202%	0.028634%
Kernel CPU:	0.00002663%	0.013761%
User CPU:	0.00003539%	0.014873%
Kernel CPU time:	231,474 ms/min	100,923,805ms/min
CPU cycles:	4,464,881/sec	17,470,203/sec
Memory
Private memory:	4.54 MB	21.59 MB
Private (maximum):	12.01 MB
Private (minimum):	10.52 MB
Non-paged memory:	4.54 MB	21.59 MB
Virtual memory:	96.03 MB	140.96 MB
Virtual memory (peak):	102.11 MB	169.69 MB
Working set:	11.48 MB	18.61 MB
Working set (peak):	13.07 MB	37.95 MB
Page faults:	60,589,000/min	2,039/min
I/O
I/O read transfer:	10.37 KB/sec	1.02 MB/min
I/O read operations:	25/sec	343/min
I/O other transfer:	974 Bytes/sec	448.09 KB/min
I/O other operations:	35/sec	1,671/min
Resource allocations
Threads:	6	12
Handles:	143	600
GUI GDI count:	22	103
GUI GDI peak:	31	142
GUI USER count:	17	49
GUI USER peak:	20	71