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Difficult technical question - how to speed up cascade menu the first time used?



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 17th 18, 04:03 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
arlen holder
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Posts: 130
Default Difficult technical question - how to speed up cascade menu the first time used?

I realize this is a difficult question to answer, so allow me to explain.

0. I abhor the official Win10 heterodox & orthodox start menus
(so I avoid them as if they were the plague)
(yes, I spent many hours trying to "manage" them - but they just suck.)

Hence, I implemented my own WinXP-style solution, which works great...
1. I put all my installed program shortcuts into two folders:
o One is a cascade (that mirrors my logical hierarchy)
o The other is flat (which is alphabetical, just like the heterodox menu)

Both these toolbars are populated with the "Send To" menu:
o Right click on a shortcut
o Select "Pin to Cascade"
o Select "Pin to Flat"

Both these toolbars are pinned to the Task Bar.
o Right click on the taskbar
o Select "Toolbars New toolbar..."
o Add both the "Cascade" and "Flat" menus to the toolbar

NOTE: As an aside, the "Cascade" is the WinXP accordion style menu.
The "Flat" is the Win10 heterodox (left-side, alphabetical) style menu.

This works perfectly - and is easily maintained - but ...

The one flaw is that as the menus get large, the *first* time is slow.
It could take up to a minute for the first time menu to show up.
For that minute, the menu is completely blank.

I don't know what is going on, but some kind of "cache" must be built.
Right?

Is there a way to pre-build that cache?

The goal would be to pre-load that cache so that it's fast when I first
open up one of those two large menus.

Any suggestions from the Windows 10 experts as to why the menu is slow
the first time it is opened up? (It's fast all subsequent times.)
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  #2  
Old December 17th 18, 04:40 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default Difficult technical question - how to speed up cascade menu thefirst time used?

arlen holder wrote:


Any suggestions from the Windows 10 experts as to why the menu is slow
the first time it is opened up? (It's fast all subsequent times.)


Start "procmon.exe" from the command line, start
a trace running, and look at all the "readfile"
and "writefile" operations ?

Perhaps that will tell you how it is building the
menu, and what folders it is populating before it
can render properly.

It's even possible it is writing to a Jet Blue database,
and isn't storing files in a folder at all. A Jet Blue
database should be just as fast as NTFS, so we cannot
blame such an implementation detail as the only issue.

When you do your research, I'm sure at some point
you'll be scratching your head and saying stuff
like "what the hell are they doing???". Perhaps
your research will indicate that the software
that scans "packages" is running and doing a *lot*
of unnecessary stuff, all as a means to answer
relatively simple queries they might have been
custom crafted in proper code instead. Sort of like
querying the entire US census records, to figure
out how much toilet paper you bought last week.
I don't know how many times I've looked at
traces of this nature, and my jaw dropped at
the stupid stuff I was seeing.

Just a small set of forensic tools, can help
you narrow down what's happening in your
customized environment.

Paul
  #3  
Old December 18th 18, 05:26 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
arlen holder
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Posts: 130
Default Difficult technical question - how to speed up cascade menu the first time used?

On Mon, 17 Dec 2018 10:40:52 -0500, Paul wrote:

Start "procmon.exe" from the command line, start
a trace running, and look at all the "readfile"
and "writefile" operations ?


Hi Paul,
Thanks. I tried from the Task Manager but couldn't see anything, but I know
that the Task Manager is almost worthless.

There are two "debugging tools" that I need to be more proficient at.
1. Network sniffers, and,
2. Process detectors.

I think the canonical "network sniffer" is "Wireshark", but if you've ever
used it, you know how dauntingly copious the output can be.

Likewise with a process monitor.
  #4  
Old December 18th 18, 07:38 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default Difficult technical question - how to speed up cascade menu thefirst time used?

arlen holder wrote:
On Mon, 17 Dec 2018 10:40:52 -0500, Paul wrote:

Start "procmon.exe" from the command line, start
a trace running, and look at all the "readfile"
and "writefile" operations ?


Hi Paul,
Thanks. I tried from the Task Manager but couldn't see anything, but I know
that the Task Manager is almost worthless.

There are two "debugging tools" that I need to be more proficient at.
1. Network sniffers, and,
2. Process detectors.

I think the canonical "network sniffer" is "Wireshark", but if you've ever
used it, you know how dauntingly copious the output can be.

Likewise with a process monitor.


Run ProcMon from Sysinternals.com

Set the filter to "Operation" "Is" "ReadFile"
"Operation" "Is" "Writefile"

and that will reduce the clutter. Next, try to
figure out whether Explorer.exe does the menu
stuff, or it is DWM. Scan through your trace,
to see which process is doing reads and writes
to "suspiciously named files". You know the
names of some of the stuff, and you might be
able to identify what builds the menu.

Paul
 




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