Delay on Opening Menu?

[harrismail]

Hi all,
For a few Open Shell Menu "versions" I've noticed quite a delay on Windows start up when first clicking the Open Shell Menu start button. The delay is at least 2 seconds until the main menu opens. After that it works perfectly.
I've obviously checked the setting for Pre-Cache icons in the general settings page and that shows a tick.
It's not a biggy as, for me everything else works perfectly.
Running Windows 10 Home (x64)
Steve

[ge0rdi]

If you are able to replicate it then you can create ETW trace and send it to me for analysis.

Ideally also enable logging and provide the log too (created at the same time as the ETW trace).

[harrismail]

Would that account for the “only” time the delay happens is opening the menu for the very first time after boot?
Can I exclude open shell menu from defender? Or would that not make a difference?
It’s odd because I can’t say any other thing has a pause as long as open shell menu - especially as I selected to pre-cache the menu??

[ge0rdi]

I can see cca 3.5s delay when Open-Shell is loading icons for start menu items. And this delay is accounted to Windows Defender (Open-Shell opens files and Defender scans them).

especially as I selected to pre-cache the menu?

This is what I wanted to ask you to check, but now I see in original description that you have Pre-cache icons option enabled.
It should preload icons when you log-in (before the start menu is displayed).

Would that account for the “only” time the delay happens is opening the menu for the very first time after boot?

Well, I guess so. If you open start menu right after log-in (before icons get preloaded) then Defender will have to scan them and cause delays.

There is Delay loading of icons setting that should cause Open-Shell to not wait for icons and proceed with start menu.
Do you have it enabled?

Can I exclude open shell menu from defender?

You can't exclude just Open-Shell because it is loaded (and runs) within explorer.exe process.
So you will need to exclude whole explorer.exe process from scanning. Though I don't know whether it is possible (and even good idea).

[harrismail]

Thanks for the info - the "Delay Loading of Icons" setting isn't enabled (should I try this?)

Does this kind of "delay" behaviour happen for all those using Windows Defender or is it just me ;-)

As I said - it's not a biggy as using Open Shell Menu is one thing I would definitely HATE to be without.
Thanks to all concerned for everything you guys do.

[ge0rdi]

Thanks for the info - the "Delay Loading of Icons" setting isn't enabled (should I try this?)

You can try it. The option is supposed to be enabled by default (so it should be safe to use).

Does this kind of "delay" behaviour happen for all those using Windows Defender or is it just me ;-)

Well, that's hard to tell, because it depends on so many factors ...
But for sure AVs may affect performance of start menu.

I have some more details about the delay.
In fact there is single 3.59s delay caused by defender (other Defender delays are much smaller).
During that window it seems that Defender is reading from C:\totalcmd\TOTALCMD64.EXE (I guess it makes sense as it seems you have it in your start menu).

So maybe try to exclude this single file from Defender's scan.

[harrismail]

That’s brilliant to find that out!!
I’ve knocked out commander from the menu as I pretty much only use the desktop or Quick Launch icon anyway so I’ll see how it goes.
Thanks again for all your help 👍