Why Does the app take so long to start?
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Ever since a recent update, it takes 5-10 seconds for Notepad++ to launch. Anyone know what could be causing this? Is this normal? The whole reason I use Notepad++ is because it’s lightweight and launches fast so I can jot things down. This is a deal breaker. Thanks in advance for any help.
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No it is not normal. It is possible it may be due to a certain plugin taking a while to load (or lots of plugins). Try starting it with plugins disabled to see if that helps.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I think I figured out why it’s doing this, but I don’t know how to fix it. The app is installed on my OS drive, which is an SSD, but it seems Notepad++ is waiting for my other drives, which are regular HDD to spin up before it launches. Anyone know what it’s looking for and how to stop that check?
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Hi Colin,
check Menu: Settings -> Preferences -> Recent Files History if Don’t check at launch time is checked (✓). Also are you saving your sessions? Therefore opening many files on startup?
Still I don’t think it would be problem. Currently I have Notepad++ (v6.8.5) installed on normal HDD with many plugins, still it won’t take more then 1-2 seconds to start even with opening many files from my last session. So problem would be some specific plugin I guess?
So try using portable version of Notepad++ to check how it works with clean settings. Then try change settings to current, and add plugins one by one (ore by few) to check what exactly is causing delay.
Best regards,
Tomas. -
@tomas-chrastina said:
Currently I have Notepad++ (v6.8.5) installed on normal HDD with many plugins, still it won’t take more then 1-2 seconds to start even with opening many files from my last session. So problem would be some specific plugin I guess?
Your main disk is an HDD, which is VERY PROBABLY speed up already, his is and SSD and the second one is probably sleeping.
Another easy way to find out if you are loading data from another disk is looking into your config.xml file ( C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++ )
Or even better do a Find in Files on that directory and search for your different drive letters like D:\ or E:\ -
Hi.
If Clickable Link setting - enabled, and my document contains many collapsed folds with links inside, Notepad++ (v6.8.5) starts slowly. -
@recklessWriting said:
Your main disk is an HDD, which is VERY PROBABLY speed up already, his is and SSD and the second one is probably sleeping.
Sure I understand. My point was, that startup of Notepad++ should be fast enough in normal conditions, even while loading many files. I think it’s obvious that it’s trying to read something from secondary drive. So there’s need investigation what is it.
@colin-wood: Try if you can get information from Notepad++ configuration files, or playing with settings or even clean install. If you won’t be able ti identify source of problem, I suggest to try Process Monitor from Sysinternals Suite and check what files are accessed by Notepad++ while it’s waiting for secondary drive.
Best regards,
Tomas -
@recklessWriting said in Why Does the app take so long to start?:
Another easy way to find out if you are loading data from another disk is looking into your config.xml file ( C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++ )
Or even better do a Find in Files on that directory and search for your different drive letters like D:\ or E:\I know this is an old post but it didn’t look fully resolved. I also had issues on one machine with Notepad++ opening very slowly. I use it on three different machines and only on this one was it slow. I looked in the config.xml as suggested here and found that some of the recent file history was on our network. I deleted those lines, saved the .xml, and opened Notepad++ which opened at normal speeds. Those files weren’t in my open tabs and it had been a long time since I had opened them so I just didn’t think about it. Thanks!
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@Jacob-Stone said in Why Does the app take so long to start?:
@recklessWriting said in Why Does the app take so long to start?:
Another easy way to find out if you are loading data from another disk is looking into your config.xml file ( C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++ )
Or even better do a Find in Files on that directory and search for your different drive letters like D:\ or E:\I know this is an old post but it didn’t look fully resolved. I also had issues on one machine with Notepad++ opening very slowly. I use it on three different machines and only on this one was it slow. I looked in the config.xml as suggested here and found that some of the recent file history was on our network. I deleted those lines, saved the .xml, and opened Notepad++ which opened at normal speeds. Those files weren’t in my open tabs and it had been a long time since I had opened them so I just didn’t think about it. Thanks!
I’m running v7.8.8 and when I recently started having this issue (Notepad++ taking up to 20 to initially launch) and found this thread, I examined my config.xml and found a recent file located on an external drive (that wasn’t always connected). Removing that entry from the config.xml resolved the issue for me.
v/r,
Dan W. -
When I looked at config.xml I noticed a <FileBrowser> section which listed the folders I was using as workspaces. I realized one of those folders was very large and when I removed it, things sped up again. I just didn’t realize it was scanning that directory every time Notepad++ was opening.
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You are correct the Folder As Workspace feature will scan the whole directory structure of any of the top level folders you have as workspaces, if these folders contain many subfolders with many files in each sub directory they are all scanned and added to the directory tree view.
If you have a number of these large folders in the Folder As Workspace list it could take a while to do all this scanning and will cause Notepad++ to be slower on start up while it performs this scan.
One solution is too close the Folder As Workspace window before closing Notepad++ then it will not perform the scan on opening Notepad++, it will however do the scan when you open the Folder As Workspace window again,
I actually really like the Folder As Workspace feature but this issue caused me so much issue that I have built my own version of Notepad++ with some enhancements so that it does not populate the full directory structure when loading but does so on demand, so initially it only loads the top level directories and only loads the next level sub directories and files when the directory is double clicked and so on and so on so that only the directories and files I want to see in this session of Notepad++ are scanned as I require them.
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https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/1566 << known issue, scanning when NPP is running should be asynchronous (or postponed in some way).
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@Nick-Brown said in Why Does the app take so long to start?:
…I have built my own version of Notepad++ with some enhancements so that it does not populate the full directory structure when loading but does so on demand, so initially it only loads the top level directories and only loads the next level sub directories and files when the directory is double clicked and so on and so on so that only the directories and files I want to see in this session of Notepad++ are scanned as I require them.
Sounds like a nice feature.
Have you submitted it as a change to Notepad++ so that everyone could benefit from it, if accepted? -
It is a simple way to solve this problem, Please click
File->Clear Resent Files
to delete the files previously opened cache.
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This post is deleted! -
This post is deleted! -
@dail said in Why Does the app take so long to start?:
No it is not normal. It is possible it may be due to a certain plugin taking a while to load (or lots of plugins). Try starting it with plugins disabled to see if that helps.
Yes It is normal.
