Dialogs very slow to open

Michael Brock

A month or so ago I started finding that the file dialogs in Notepad++ are very slow to open. The File ->Open dialog typically takes 10-15 seconds as does the “save as” dialog.

After about 10 seconds, the window blinks and the top bar becomes white. About 5 seconds after that the dialog opens.

I am running version 7.8.1 on a Windows 10 machine with a 4790K processor and 16gb of ram. I haven’t seen any indication that it is an issue with resources. The drive is an SSD and I have not had any issues with Windows File Explorer itself. It is very snappy.

Any ideas?

Ekopalypse

What happens if you try a zipped version?
Extract it to a folder of your choice, make sure npp is NOT running and
execute npp from the zipped version. Is it as slow as the installed one?
Can you post your debug info, which is available from the last menu item, the ? menu?

Michael Brock

Running the zipped version has the exact same issue. Maybe a second faster to the “open file” dialog.
If it is a “clue”, the first time I open the “settings->Preferences” window it also takes quite a while, maybe 30 seconds. Long enough that the top bar of the window shows “(not responding)” until ultimately it does. It has the issue on both the regular installed version and the zipped version.

The “Debug info” (from the zipped version):

Notepad++ v7.8.2 (64-bit)
Build time : Dec 4 2019 - 01:39:49
Path : D:\Downloads\npp.7.8.2.bin.x64\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : ON
OS Name : Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
OS Version : 1903
OS Build : 18362.476
Plugins : mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExport.dll

andrecool-68

Clean up the system disk from temporary files. I advise you to use the free program “CCleaner”. And check how much free space is available on the system disk!

andrecool-68

You can also do a disk check for the integrity of system files. Run the command line from the administrator and run sfc / scannow

Ekopalypse

@Michael-Brock

Beside the tips from @andrecool-68 you can try to run process monitor
and see what is going on.
Set a filter for npp application and see where the lag is coming from.

In addition you can scan your hard disc with tools like crystal disc info
to see if the ssd is starting to die.

Also consult the event viewer(eventvwr.exe) to see if there are
any hints logged in windows logs.

Michael Brock

I scanned the drives with Crystal Disc Info and everything checks out as good. Also no issues found with sfc /scannow. I ran CCleaner and cleaned up the temp files and registry and that seems to have made a significant difference.

Thanks for the help!

andrecool-68

@Michael-Brock You can also use Vit Registry Fix Free Edition, this utility can find some more temporary temporary garbage in the system.

Michael Brock

Unfortunately, the “fix” turned out not to be one.

A short while after thinking that I had it fixed the issue has returned. The "open file dialog takes about 15 seconds to open. Before it does the top bar of Notepad++ displays window’s “not responding” message. It then blinks a few times, and the dialog opens.

The same thing happens when first opening the Settings -> Preferences, but it takes even longer. Almost 30 seconds before the dialog opens.

I downloaded the zip file version and running that exhibits the exact same issue. So it does not appear to be an issue with the profile or configuration files.

Michael Brock

I think I have figured out the issue…this time for real. Following along with task manager, I noticed that every time I opened the file dialog or settings -> preferences that a process called"Tortoisegit status cache" was also opening and causing issues. Disabling the status cache in tortoisegit has solved the issue with slow opening dialogs in Notepad++!

Now I need to figure out why it frequently loses settings on the “Backup” tab and why the latest update killed all of my Pythonscript scripts…

Ekopalypse

@Michael-Brock said in Dialogs very slow to open:

Now I need to figure out why it frequently loses settings on the “Backup” tab

Could it be that you run some automated cleaner software like CCleaner?
I know that this deleted my APPDATA files once.

and why the latest update killed all of my Pythonscript scripts…

Script for PythonScript plugin? If so, you need to update the plugin
to the latest version as a new scintilla version has been introduced by npp which changed the notification structure used by plugins.

Michael Brock

@Ekopalypse

I had actually already updated the plugin and that is what caused the scripts to stop working. Easy fix though. The update made a “bak” copy of its original folder which is where my custom scripts were located. Once I figured that out it was just a matter of copying them from the _bak folder to the active one.

“Could it be that you run some automated cleaner software like CCleaner?
I know that this deleted my APPDATA files once.”

I don’t run any automated cleaner. Specifically, it is the Settings -> Preferences -> Backup -> Backup on save setting that gets reverted. It will stay set through opening/closing the program for a while. Invariably I find it has un-set itself when I go hunting for a back-up copy and find that it hasn’t been saving them. It may actually be reverted by updates, as I don’t frequently need the back-ups. I’ll have to keep an eye out the next time an update is released.

Ekopalypse

@Michael-Brock

Because you already using pythonscript plugin it might be helpful
to let a script like this

from Npp import notepad
from os import path
import xml.etree.ElementTree as et
from pprint import pformat

# <GUIConfig name="Backup" action="0" useCustumDir="no" dir="" isSnapshotMode="yes" snapshotBackupTiming="7000" />
expected_settings = {'name': "Backup",
                     'action': "0",
                     'useCustumDir': "no",
                     'dir': "",
                     'isSnapshotMode': "yes",
                     'snapshotBackupTiming': "7000",
                     }

plugin_config_dir = notepad.getPluginConfigDir()
npp_config_dir = path.join(plugin_config_dir, r'..\..')
config_xml = path.abspath(path.join(npp_config_dir, r'config.xml'))

if path.exists(config_xml):
    xml_doc = et.parse(config_xml)
    node = xml_doc.find('GUIConfigs/GUIConfig[@name="Backup"]')
    current_settings = { x:y for x,y in node.items()}
    if expected_settings != current_settings:
        template = ('name == {name}\r\n'
                    'action == {action}\r\n'
                    'useCustumDir == {useCustumDir}\r\n'
                    'dir == {dir}\r\n'
                    'isSnapshotMode == {isSnapshotMode}\r\n'
                    'snapshotBackupTiming == {snapshotBackupTiming}\r\n')
        current = template.format(**current_settings)
        expected = template.format(**expected_settings)
                   
        notepad.messageBox(('Backup settings have been changed\r\n\r\n'
                            'expected:\r\n\r\n{0}\r\n\r\n'
                            'received:\r\n\r\n{1}').format(expected, current),
                            'BACKUP SETTINGS CHECK')

else:
    notepad.messageBox(('Unable to find:\r\n\r\n{0}\r\n\r\n'
                        'Backup settings might be lost!').format(config_xml),
                        'BACKUP SETTINGS CHECK')

run on every npp startup. Put it in user startup.py and make sure
your configuration is set to ATSTARTUP then your expected
settings will be checked against current xml setting each time npp starts. Of course you need to adapt the expected settings to your need.