I regularly use DOpus with a network share (SMB) that contains ~10 .lnk files to my most-used folders. I found that when accessing this share via VPN, the .lnk files slow down the folder loading time by up to 5 seconds because each .lnk file seems to be resolved. I’m not sure what the resolution is needed for (icon? link target?).
Is there any option to speed that up? Generally disabling the resolution for network shares isn’t a good option for me, as it’s fast enough when the share is on the same local network. I thought about using Junction points or symlinks instead, but that comes with other problems (regarding backups etc.) I guess.
The only options are turning off Preferences / Filtering and Sorting / Sorting / Sort shortcuts to folders like folders (it's off by default) or avoiding shortcuts to network folders that aren't always online.
There's no way to speed it up as Windows provides has no way to know if a request against a network share will be instant it take 30 seconds to time out.
Thanks @Leo. I didn’t remember this option exists and that I have turned it on in the past. Switching it off did improve the loading time a little bit, 1-2 seconds maybe.
My network share contains 16 folders and 6 .lnk files. I did a quick test:
loading time without the .lnk files in there is instant (< 0.5s)
loading time with the .lnk files is 8 seconds
There must be some other resolution going on? Could it be that DOpus fetches the icons for every .lnk file?
Setting Preferences / File Display Columns / Icons / Show generic icons for to “All Folders” doesn’t help.
If the .lnks are also pointing to icons on network shares that aren't available, that might also slow things down.
If they point to exe files, antivirus may be the delay.
What happens in File Explorer? (Assuming it's slow each time in Opus. If it's only slow the first time, you'll probably need to reboot to test in another program for the same reaon.)
The .lnk files point to folders on the same network share, so the share is available and AV scanning executables shouldn’t be the problem.
It loads instantly in File Explorer. I also just learned that regardless of the .lnk files File Explorer seems to be 2-3x faster in opening any network folder.
After some more testing, I have the assumption that loading a network folder becomes much slower as soon as it contains any file/folder labelled with “pin-to-top”, regardless of whether the label is actually assigned to the file itself (metadata) or via Preferences / Labels / Label Assignments.
As if “pin-to-top” defers showing the lister items until “everything” is loaded, while with no “pin-to-top” files, things are loaded lazily in the background.
Ok, good to know. Curious: how does DOpus store the flag if a folder contains pin-to-top labels? Is the flag enabled when the first pin-to-top file is found, or is it attached to the folder itself?