Question about starting behaviour of NotePad++

Xianhua Zhao

Hi, I have a question about the starting behaviour of NotePad++.

You know. The Windows’s built-in NotePad application always start instantly, lightning fast.

But there is a noticeable and annoying delay (about 5 to 10 seconds) after I start NotePad++, before it shows its main edit screen.

So can people tell me exactly what NotePad++ is doing when it starts? Is it going to the Internet to check for something? Can we make the starting behaviour of NotePad++ exactly the same as Windows’s NotePad (No Internet checking of any stuff at all) ?

Notepad++ v7.8.4 (32-bit)
Build time : Jan 29 2020 - 01:33:47
Path : C:\Program Files (X86)\NotePad++\NotePad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS Name : Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
OS Build : 7601.0
Plugins : mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExec.dll NppExport.dll

Thank you

Alan Kilborn

@xianhua-zhao said in Question about starting behaviour of NotePad++:

annoying delay (about 5 to 10 seconds)

Wow. All that functionality you get in Notepad++ over notepad.exe… And 5 - 10 seconds is too big of a cost. Wow.

My Notepad++, heavily customized so a lot of stuff running at startup, takes a whopping 20-25 seconds to start up, but I certainly have never complained about it – because I get sooo much functionality, I don’t care. :-)

But… on the serious side…

The only “internet checking” Notepad++ might do is to see if an updated version of itself is available. You can turn that off.

Do you have a lot of files in the session that Notepad++ is loading at startup? If so, are these files large? That may take some time.

Alan Kilborn

Also, how about plugins? A lot of them? If so, maybe try starting with them all disabled and see if it makes a difference.

Xianhua Zhao

I check this check-box in my NotePad++, so I think I eliminated one possible culprit.

Recent File History -> Don't check at launch time

In my version of NotePad++, there is no option to disable the auto-updater. So what shall I do here?

Regarding the plug-in, so people mean these plug-ins are mini executable programs by themselves, and they can access the Internet whenever and whereever they like it? Can NotePad++ forcefully stop all the plug-ins from accessing the Internet?

PeterJones

@xianhua-zhao said in Question about starting behaviour of NotePad++:

my version of NotePad++, there is no option to disable the auto-updater.

Settings > Preferences > MISC > ☐ Enable Notepad++ auto-updater has been there since before NPP v7.7, when I documented the entire settings menu, and thus it should exist in your v7.8.4.

Plugins run commands, yes. And some access the internet under limited circumstances. But the ones you listed are either the default plugins or a standard safe plugin:

Plugins : mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExec.dll NppExport.dll

neither they nor NPP accesses the internet every time you run it. The 5-10 second load time isn’t because of internet access. If 5-10 seconds bothers you, you might consider not closing Notepad++ … that way, it’s only one delay every time you reboot.

—
edit after posting: changed v7.0 to v7.7, which is the version that was active when I started the process of the new user manual, though v7.7.1 had been released by the time that the manual was released in September 2019

mpheath

@xianhua-zhao said in Question about starting behaviour of NotePad++:

But there is a noticeable and annoying delay (about 5 to 10 seconds) after I start NotePad++, before it shows its main edit screen.
…
Notepad++ v7.8.4 (32-bit)

Notepad++ v8.2.1   (64-bit)
Build time : Jan 19 2022 - 18:43:05
Path : C:\Programs\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Command Line : 
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : ON
Cloud Config : OFF
OS Name : Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) 
OS Build : 7601.0
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
Plugins : AnalysePlugin.dll LuaScript.dll mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExport.dll PythonScript.dll

Starts up in ~200ms on a 6 core cpu desktop system. The system used can have a large impact on startup time. Some systems are slow at everything.

Update check turned off, though enabling was also similar startup time.

Contains 1 empty document. Numbers and sizes could impact startup. Loaded all autocomplete xml files which are not huge in size, added maybe an extra 100ms on startup. I also dropped the notepad++.exe binary on a tab to open, and took about 300ms to open. Huge documents could takes seconds, even minutes if massive as even notepad.exe can do the same long startup on huge files.

If slow startup, then some investigation might be needed. Guessing in this topic of the cause might not achieve much, as many factors are involved. If discover a bug that is causing it, then let us know.