I'm trying to debug why starting up a Lister takes 5 seconds. Any help would be... helpful!
In the process, I found that my Styles tab, while selected when a lister is opened, actually is not enabled. For example, I open a lister, and the Style Copy of Single is selected (image 1). The Style should be showing Icons, not Details. So, I click on Copy of Single and then the style actually takes affect (image 2).
Why is this occurring?
The Styles tabs can be misleading since styles are not really "active", they just get applied once when you select them.
If something changes the folder format after a style has been applied then that style is no longer really in effect, but the tab remains selected.
There is probably a folder format associated with E:\My Music which is taking effect when that folder is loaded into the lister. See the Folder Formats FAQ for information on how folder formats are applied when folders are loaded.
It could also be that you just need to re-save the lister defaults using th mode that you want. Set things up how you want them and use Settings -> Set as Default Lister.
There is also a checkbox, Settings -> Preferences / Listers / Options: Update Default Lister automatically when closing a lister which you may wish to turn off if you don't want those settings to change.
Thanks for the info Leo.
It appears the problem occurs when using folder shortcuts from the Start menu. They always default to the same lister and folder style, the one shown in image 1 above, unless they have their own folder style defined. It seems that defining a default lister does not override the lister style used when launch via shortcut (when no folder style is present).
What controls this style?
It's probably folder formats. Specifically the default formats, or maybe the content type formats depending on what's in the folder.
Answering (partially) my own query, for the aid of anyone else who encounters this lister opening delay.
It turns out Microsoft Money is the culprit. Whenever MS Money is open, DO lister windows take about 5 seconds to open. But DO is not the only process affected. The opening of a clicked URL link from within Thunderbird also incur the same delay, as do other apps.
I have no idea what Money is doing to cause this delay.