Beta2: long loading times for Windows prompt

Hi Jurij @jure,

Thank you very much for reporting this.

I see that you are running Windows 10, right? Not 11?

On my windows 10 computers, APP 2.0 is much faster with everything when compared to 1.083 so something is very odd in this case.

First of all, what does the general console output show when APP has started up? It will be interesting to see if some part of APP causes the delay and the console might give us a hint there 😉

The file chooser/loader also works promptly and fast on my windows 10 machines, so that delay on your machine is very likely a problem with something else running on the operating system I think. Have you checked that security software like anti-virus or antimalware is not causing the issues?

The window that shows the files is called the FIleChooser 😉

To be clear, so APP startup is okay, or also very slow? are the delays only with the FileChooser?

Mabula

Oh and please check if behaviour is normal, when ONLY 2.0.0-beta2 is installed.

Can you first uninstall BOTH 1.083.4 and 2.0.0-beta2 and then install only 2.0.0-beta2 ?

Maybe there is something wrong with the windows registry when you keep them both installed. Or maybe some other part of windows or another software package is doing something weird in that case.

Mabula

Hi Mabula,

thank you for such a swift reply and thank you for APP! It really eased my entry into astrophotography! 🙂

Aha, FileChoser! I learned something again! 😉 I am attaching the contents of console upon loading APP - which goes very fast, as normal. Also, License checking takes just a few moments.

Yes, I am running Win10, my 'puter is not "qualified" for Win11 - processor is too old. Running version Win10 Pro 21H2 OS build 19044.1766

Using ESET antivirus - we run it on all machines (+100) at work and no problems anywhere. 

To sum it all up: only the FileChooser is slow. 26 seconds, always the same

Jure

EDIT: Oops, didn't see your second reply! Will do that and reply here! Sorry...

Seems to be Win registry, yes. I tried to uninstall both versions and found only Beta2 listed! I uninstalled Beta2, then tried to uninstall 1.083.4 - but it's not there according to Windows! It is, however, running normally when I run it. 

I stopped here in case you need more data.

Jure

Hi Jurij @jure,

I am not sure if I understand you correctly here. Is 1.083.4 running normally when you only have that installed, or is 2.0.0-beta2 running normally when you only have that installed?

Mabula

Hi Mabula,

sorry, I was not very clear... I installed 2.0.0-beta2 to: "C:\Users\Jure\AppData\Local\AstroPixelProcessor2" and 1.083.4 was installed long ago in it's default location "C:\Users\Jure\AppData\Local\AstroPixelProcessor"

When you wrote yesterday that I should uninstall both versions, I couldn't. Only one APP installation was listed under "Programs and Features" and that was APP 2.0.0-beta2. I uninstalled that and it was gone. So far so good. But 1.083.4 was/is not listed as an installed program, although the folder "C:\Users\Jure\AppData\Local\AstroPixelProcessor" has all the files and when I tried to run it - it did.

So it looks to me that installation of APP beta2 has overwritten the information about 1.083.4 even if I installed it to a different location. APP 2.0.0-beta2 was uninstalled correctly, but 1.083.4 is now an orphan as it seems. According to Win10, it is not installed. 🙂

Jure

Posted by: @jure

Hi,

I was delighted to see that the new Beta 2 was available! I installed it here: C:\Users\-username-\AppData\Local\AstroPixelProcessor2 to keep the stable 1.083.4 version. And it works like a charm, except for one really strange thing:

when I try to load something via one of the buttons "Light", "Flat", "Other/processed", and so on, it takes 1 minute 7 seconds the first time I run APP to show the windows prompt and on subsequent attempts to load a file it takes 26 seconds to show the file list (prompt?). Once something has been loaded from a folder, the next prompt comes up in 1-2 seconds, but if I change the folder, let's say, I loaded from "Lights", then change to folder "Flats", it again takes 26 seconds to open the prompt - or whatever that window is called that shows the files. 🙂

Really strange, I cannot explain it... I thought maybe it was because I set the working directory to my external SSD drive, but it is the same when I set it to, let's say, my D: drive. 

Has anybody experienced such ridiculously long times to show the files list? APP 1.083.4 is working normally, the file list comes up instantly. Also, my computer is nothing special:

- Intel i5 4690 processor, 16Gb RAM

- nVidia GTX 1660 Ti

- Win 10 up to date

- 2x6 Tb SATA drives, two partitions in RAID 1 (mirroring)

- 1 Tb external SSD drive (USB 3)

Thanks!

Jure

P.S.: maybe because I am a molecular cloud? 😀 😀 😀 

 

For me, just execute APP Beta with administration rights and all is perfect (Win11).

This is not necessary with previous versions (in my case)

Hope it helps you.

Hi Steph,

well, that helped! Executing APP Beta2 as an administrator launches File Chooser momentarily! 🙂

Thank you very much! 👍 

So definitely a rights issue, that's interesting. I'll pass it on to Mabula.

Excellent @steph & @jure, thank you very much for reporting this.

I will try to fix this problem 😉

Mabula

Hi @jure @steph,

I am investigating this issue still and want it to be fixed as soon as possible now.

Can you check the following for me: run the 2.0.0-beta4 without admin rights and let me know if the issue is still there, which is: File Chooser takes a long time to open.

If it does, can you check if you have desktop icons  that are not working any more (broken linkst) or if you have icons present that require admin rights to show properly to start with.

Thanks 😉

Mabula

Hi Mabula,

still a long time, about 20-22 seconds without admin rights to show the File Chooser. I have 11 icons on the desktop, 4 are folders, the rest links to executables. All are working fine, not one requires admin rights to run properly.

Jure

Hello Mabula, I also observed the phenomenon. For me it occurs when network drives are not accessible. If I then start my Nas and the network drives are accessible,  File Chooser works quickly and smoothly again. The last stable APP version did not behave this way. And admin rights don't help in this case.

Hello Mabula, hello Vincent. So the long waiting times of the Windows FileChosser come with me when network drives (NAS) are not accessible. I start the NAS and the network drives are connected, the FileChosser is again fast and liquid. The problem exists only since APP 2.0, the current stable version is not affected. My workaround is to permanently disconnect all shares of the NAS that are mounted in Windows as network drive.
Then mount the NAS shares as network address (I think it's called UNC path) again in Windows Explorer.
Maybe this helps.

With kind regards.

Thanks for sharing, yes it's an issue we've seen more, we're looking into it but don't have a solution just yet. I'm wondering if it's an issue in the updated Java we're using perhaps, we'll continue to try and find out.

Hi all @jure & @steph & @minusman,

Can you all test this new windows installer?

https://astropixelprocessor.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/astropixelprocessor_2.0.0-beta5-Windows-64bits.zip

I updated my lenovo laptop to windows 11 in the hope that I could duplicate your issues with the File Chooser. Unfortunately, all works as normal and thus good on my windows 11 installation. I never experience a delay with the file chooser. I tested with broken shortcuts on the desktop, i tested with network shares that are unreachable. All is fine and I don't experience delays like yours.

We know that running APP with admin rights seems to help solve the delay in some situations. To try to improve things, the windows installer has been changed now and I hope this solves it on your computers as well:

• when the installer starts, you can now choose to install APP for all users or only for you. For all users, requires admin rights.
• When installing for all users, you can install by default in c:/program files/astropixelprocessor/ I would recommend now to use this if you have admin rights on your computer. I think this might solve the issues with the delay of the file chooser. (You would run APP after installation without admin rights from c:/program files/astropixelprocessor )

The icon for APP on the taskbar when you run it should work now and also the icon for APP in the remove/unistall list 😉

Pinning the application to the taskbar is possible when you go to the start menu, and right click on the APP icon. But the application itself will still open another icon on the taskbar when you run it. That icon can not be pinned and for now it does not seem possible to do so with our new packaging for the 2.0 APP version. Somehow windows will not pin it and I have no clue why at the moment.

Please let me know if you have any question about all of this and I eagerly await your testing feedback 😉

Mabula

Hi Mabula,

I installed beta 5 for all users (with admin rights) but after a "normal" start, unfortunately there is still a delay of approximately 23 seconds when I press any of the buttons that should invoke the chooser.

When I start APP as admin, all is working well. 

For the record, my system: Win 10 64-bit, Version 21H2, OS build 19044.2006.

I do have two inactive mapped drives, one for another computer (desktop), the other for a Synology NAS. I will try to turn on everything during the weekend and see what happens.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... but on the other hand, for me, this is no biggie...  🙂 

Jure

Hello Vincent, hello Mabula. Beta5 seems to have solved the problem with the delay of the Windows filechosser for me. But the workaround with the network shares as network address in Windows had also solved the problem in Beta4. The desktop icon is now also displayed correctly again.

With kind regards.

Hi,

if all network shares are active (all computers are accessible), then the problem goes away and the chooser works instantly! Finally had the chance to test that. 🙂

Posted by: @minusman

Hello Vincent, hello Mabula. Beta5 seems to have solved the problem with the delay of the Windows filechosser for me. But the workaround with the network shares as network address in Windows had also solved the problem in Beta4. The desktop icon is now also displayed correctly again.

With kind regards.

Hi @minusman & @jure,

Thank you very much for confirming this 🙂 !

We will now release 2.0.0-beta6 with this fix (and others) for everyone.

Mabula