Why does MATLAB start up slowly when using McAfee Anti-Virus?

When I start MATLAB, it takes a long time to initialize. I noticed that it takes longer when I have McAfee Anti-Virus running in the background.

How do I make MATLAB start faster when I have McAfee Anti-Virus running?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

If you are using McAfee Anti-Virus, make sure you set the "Files to Check" field to "Check program files only" and NOT "check ALL files".

Some users have reported that setting the "Files to Check" field to "check ALL files" causes MATLAB to take an extra 30-60 sec. to launch.

If that does not help, by default, the McAfee virus-checker checks all Java executables on execution. This behavior directly affects the speed of starting MATLAB 6.X with the JVM, because McAfee first checks the Java executables that loads with the JVM as well as the MATLAB desktop. However, McAfee also provides you with a setup window in which you may set the directories to be excluded from the default virus-check. By excluding the MATLAB root directory tree from McAfee scanning, the MATLAB startup-speed is restored to normal.

The procedure for excluding MATLAB directories from McAfee scanning is:

1. Double-click on the McAfee icon in the Windows tray (lower right hand side of Windows start bar).

2. Select System Scan and then the Exclusion tab.

3. Enter the MATLAB root directory in this window.

4. Select all OK buttons until the McAfee configuration window is closed.