Recently the Folder Tree in Directory Opus Pro is very slow to show the directories on all drives as illustrated by the attached (and compressed video). Toward the end of the video, you'll see a delay in files displaying in the right hand window. This started with Opus 10.5.4.0 (5080) x64. I have uninstalled it and reinstalled the previous version -- and get the same problem. I have uninstalled the previous version, cleaned the registry, and reinstalled version 10.5.4.0 -- to no avail. The delays are still there. This is not occurring on another similarly configured computer (for which we have another licensed copy of Opus). Both computers are Windows 8.1 Pro -- with 16GB RAM and an AMD FX-6300 processor. I've tried most of your troubleshooting tips for slowness with Directory Opus and they've made no difference. These delays are unique to Directory Opus Pro. I do not get these delays in Windows File Explorer or the XYplorer file manager. Do you have any ideas as to what may be causing these delays? Thanks very much for your assistance.
Opus Slow Starting.zip (3.35 MB)
Do you have Microsoft Security Essentials installed? That's caused a folder tree slowdown for some people, with folders containing lots of archives or (certain types of) exe files.
Other than that, the problem is most likely to be a shell extension. The troubleshooting guides have recommendations in case that is the issue (e.g. turn on the generic icons option, remove all esoteric columns from the file display, and using ShellExView or similar to disable/re-enable shell extensions until the problematic one is found.) I don't know if those are some of the things you've already tried?
Since the problem does not seem related to the Opus update (as it still happens with the previous version), it's worth looking at what else may have been installed or updated around the time it happened. (The Windows reliability control panel is a good way to get an overview of when things were installed, although it won't cover everything; e.g. antivirus engine/signature updates.)
I'd also advise against using registry cleaners as they're more likely to cause these kinds of problems than ever help fix them.
Leo - Thanks for your thoughts.
I do not have Microsoft Security Essentials installed on either computer (the one with Opus misbehaving or the one where Opus behaves). I use Norton Internet Security 2014 on both. I've tried the generic icons idea, there are no esoteric columns in the file display -- but not the ShellExView or disable/re-enalbe shell extensions. I have downloaded the ShellExView program and will see if that solves the issue. I'll report back.
I have 2 PC's one a laptop and other desktop both Win 7 X 64. Same antivirus MSE and OutPost Firewall. The laptop Alien MX-17 is the fastest but when in Directory Opus folder tree is so slow it make almost unusable. Have added the GPSoftware to exclusions in MSE for real time protection and still crawls. Also did back configuration from faster Directory Opus and restored on faster Alien and no improvement. Have had to go back to PowerDesk 8 to get a fast folder tree on this PC.It has been this way for about 6 months and I always update Directory Opus when it prompts me for update.
Any suggestions ?
I'd suggest trying ShellExView (mentioned above and also in more detail in the FAQ about problems and slowdowns when reading folders) to see if a shell extension is involved.
The guide on general slowdown suggestions may also have some useful ideas.
Comparing what's different about the software on the fast and slow machine may also point to useful things to investigate.
ShellExView did not help. Went through and tested all extension non-Microsoft. I do believe its security eseentials now. Excluded in File Locations the C:\ ( root) and folder tree was qucik. Only problem excluding the root is that renders the anti virus software pretty useless. Tried excluding the the Dopus.exe , Dopusrt.exe in excluded processes in security essentials and that did not help, So only solution seems to be a diffrenet AV-software.The only difference between slow and fast is that slower is Windows 7 Ultimate and fast is Professional. Just wonder why it does not effect folder display in Power Desk 8, Explorer, Cubic Explorer, Explorer++,XYPlorer,Q-Dir or Magellan Explorer? 
We wonder why Microsoft's anti-virus causes problems when none of the others do. 
Configuring Opus not to show zips & anything else not needed in the folder tree may help (Preferences / Folder Tree / Contents), since showing zips means Opus may inspect zip and exe files to see if they should be in the tree, which could trigger virus scans of those filetypes. But I think people with the MSE problem have tried that without luck before. It's worth a try but may still make no difference.
Reporting it to Microsoft is the main thing, since antivirus is not supposed to cause pathological slowdowns, and other vendors' antivirus has no problems here. Microsoft may not care, though. (They've said themselves 'Microsoft Security Essentials was just a “baseline” that’s designed to “always be on the bottom” of antivirus tests' so the quality of MSE doesn't seem their priority, sadly.
[quote="leo"]We wonder why Microsoft's anti-virus causes problems when none of the others do.
so the quality of MSE doesn't seem their priority, sadly.[/quote]
That is not just limited to MSE.
Did speed up by removing MSE and replacing with Outpost Security Suite. Much faster but not as fast as othe PC,
Thanks for help
MSE is the only one we know of which causes a pathological slow-down with some folder tree operations.
All anti-virus will cause some slowdowns to filesystem operations, of course, but they should be minor. And they should cache previous results to avoid re-scanning the same things repeatedly, so if there is a slow-down it's only a one-off until the file is modified.
At the end of the day, Opus is calling APIs which should and do normally respond quickly. If a particular anti-virus then makes those APIs incredibly slow, the problem is with the anti-virus.
Win 10 Pro 64, processor i7-6900K, 32 GB memory, SSD drives. Opus 12.7 x64
I have a large number of folders and files on my system. I also notice that each time I open Opus and want to browse folders it takes a long time for the software to read the file directory before it can display my folder structure and files. Each folder that has many subfolders and files exhibits this problem.
I have disabled all anti-virus and anti-malware software and that has not improved the folder speed dispite having a very fast computer system.
My suggest is:
Consider having the program load the file directories in background when the program starts up, so they will already be in memory and folder navigation should be very speedy in that case. If this would be too memory intensive for some users, then perhaps you could make this file catalog loading a user option
The tree should already load folders in the background when it first launches, but something else may be causing the blockage. It is not normal for reading a folder to take long, unless something is unresponsive.
e.g. Unavailable network drive mappings can cause a lot of problems throughout Windows. Similarly, mechanica drives which have gone to sleep can cause a delay if they need to spin-up. Opus aims to minimise the impact of that kind of thing, but sometimes something depends on accessing the data and everything then has to wait. Antivirus can also cause blockages across the whole program even when using multiple threads, and sometimes disabling it doesn't remove its effects (but it depends on the a/v program).
Can you narrow things down to a particular folder?
Do you see things take a similar amount of time in Explorer or other programs?
Is the slowness only the first time any program lists the folder(s)? Is it then fast in just that program, or does one program accessing the folders make them accessible quickly in all other programs from that point on?
Is it only just after system boot?
Using Process Monitor to see what is being accessed and generate a .PML log file of the operations can be a good way to show exactly where the delay is coming from. That can reveal both the device/folder/file which is slow and the code (in Opus) or 3rd part component (external to Opus) that is causing it to be accessed.
Any folder with a significant number of subfolders appears to be affected. I have an i7-6900K processor, 32GB memory, and running on a 1TB SSD drive, so computer speed does not appear to be the reason.
Also, I notice that when I open File Explorer, it does NOT exibit this behavior of slow loading of subdirectories. Once the initial subdirectory load has been accomplished, return to this directory will result in loading the subdirectories quickly. It appears that after they have been loaded once, subsequent loads are okay.
However, it has been my practrice to close the program and not just minimize it when not using it. Each time I restart the program the slow loading of subdirectors is again noticed.
Disabling TrendMicro anti-virus does not speed up the loading of folders.
Was if fast in Explorer because the folders had already been loaded recently in something else? The filesystem caches that kind of information and one program loading the folders can speed up another that loads them afterwards.
Have you tried turning off zip files in the folder tree? That can slow things down (usually due to antivirus, particularly the one built in to Windows which may be enabled).
Several questions/suggestions in my previous reply are still unanswered.
Explorer always loads fast, even if just after a restart. Dopus is always loading slowly, the bigger the folder contents, the longer it takes.
Zip is OFF in folder tree. FTP is OFF. Disabling anti-virus results in no improvement. MSE not running. Network drives not included in display.
Tried running .PML log but there is a log of information there, and not sure how best to filter it to reveal the pertinent items.
If you zip and send the PML log to us, we can look at it for you.
Can you suggest any filters I should apply to the .PML log to focus on the most important entries? For example, should they be the entries generated and logged as related to dopus.exe? Or is it important to include others?
Please include everything. We can filter the results after loading the log, if needed. If they are filtered before saving them we may miss useful information. That can include what other processes are doing at the same time.
I starting Dopus, and then selecting 2 subdirectors that had large numbers of subfolders and files.
It takes about 7-8 sec for each of the subfolders to display after being selected.
The .PML log that was generated is here: http://opsoft.com/uploads/Logfile2.zip
I'm getting "internal server error" from that URL.
what is a "PML log" ?