PSP X3 VERY slow at start

[Antlab]

Hi all.
I am a long time user of PSP, from version 4 if I remember correctly.
Currently I use version XI as my main photo and image retouching application, and find it quite fast and stable for my purposes.
Today I decided to buy the new X3 Ultimate from Corel web site. I installed it, and started to try the new UI and functions.
The main problem I have at the moment is the slowness for starting. I have a Core 2 6300 with 2 GB of RAM and Vista Business 32 bit. With this PC, version XI takes about 5 seconds to start, instead X3 requires much more time, almost a minute. I Also tried to change the Preferences, to directly start with the editor, but the situation doesn't change much. This is quite annoying, I don't understand why the starting time is so longer than in previuos version. Am I the only one with this issue? Do you know if there is any workaround to reduce the starting time?

Thanks

Ciao

[df]

You probably have a few images on your hard drive and the auto cataloger is finding them, bringing your system to a crawl. I hate that. Basically PSP is trying to index all image files on your computer.

Click File > Preferences > General Program Preferences
Choose Organizer and click Uncataloged Folders. Add what you don't care to have searched to it. I chose the entire C drive myself.
Next choose Photo Downloader and tell it not to start if you don't want to use it.

If this doesn't help, there's always going into the computers Task Manager (Ctrl Shift Esc), choose the Processes tab and end the process called MediaCataloger.exe.

[Antlab]

You probably have a few images on your hard drive and the auto cataloger is finding them, bringing your system to a crawl. I hate that. Basically PSP is trying to index all image files on your computer.

Click File > Preferences > General Program Preferences
Choose Organizer and click Uncataloged Folders. Add what you don't care to have searched to it. I chose the entire C drive myself.
Next choose Photo Downloader and tell it not to start if you don't want to use it.

If this doesn't help, there's always going into the computers Task Manager (Ctrl Shift Esc), choose the Processes tab and end the process called MediaCataloger.exe.

Hi df,
thank you very much.
Actually, I don't have a few images, I have a ton of them
At first yesterday I did not have noticed the button for excluding folders from catalog. I added all my hard disks to the list. Now X3 is a faster to start, but still about 30 seconds against 5 for XI. I don't know, probably there are also other reasons for the slowness, I hope to discover them.

Thanks again, ciao.

[df]

X3 is a much bigger program if I remember correctly. It takes me about 30 seconds to start on my Win 7 machine, which is fine with me. I'm usually doing a lot on my computer.

Glad I could help.

[LeviFiction]

That's odd...it only takes 10 seconds on my machine for X3 to load. I can honestly say I'm glad I'm not a photographer. I don't have any real pictures on my harddrive so I've never had to turn off the media cataloger. Got to love those individual experiences, no?

[Tim Morrison]

Basically PSP is trying to index all image files on your computer.

This is a common misconception. When it is first installed, X3 only tries to catalogue 5 folders (and their sub-folders). These are the current user's "My Pictures", "My Videos" and "My Corel Shows" folders, as well as the "My Pictures" and "My Videos" folders in the "All Users" folder (i.e. the "Shared Pictures" and "Shared Videos" folders).
It will also add any folders that have been catalogued by the PSPP XI Organizer or by Snapfire, but will re-catalogue them because XI and X3 use different methods for storing thumbnails.
X3 uses the same database and thumbnails as X2, so any folders that have been added in X2 will show up by won't need re-cataloguing.

[Tadjio]

Basically PSP is trying to index all image files on your computer.

This is a common misconception.

It is common for people to hold all their images in "My Pictures" and sub-folders.
In this case all image files will be cataloged.
I have tried this arrangement on my new PC with X3, on a separate disk drive "F:",
and I can hear the cataloger screaming arond the disk looking for new images
when I am using PSP

[Antlab]

The strange thing is that I NOT use the "My Pictures" folder at all. I use a folder called "Foto" on a different drive respect to the system drive. I don't know exactly what X3 try to load at the start, but it is very slower than XI.
At present I am reinstalling the program, because yesterday it happened a strange thing. Trying to use the Organizer, I was not more able to see the images in any folders, and suddenly the interface lost its black color, becoming light gray. It is quite strange, I will see what happens after reinstalling. By the way, do you know of a method to change the UI color?

Thanks.

Ciao

[LeviFiction]

In the View menu there is an option "Use Graphite Workspace Theme." The graphite workspace is the dark grey color. When turned off it uses the default windows grey color which appears a lot brighter after using the graphite.

[Antlab]

Thanks Levifiction.
After having reinstalled X3, the graphite theme is back. Actually, making the comparison, it seems a bit more agreeable than the old light gray one. There are however some problems, for example the square with the X for closing an image is completely invisible (black on black). maybe the best thing would be a way to customize the different color of the UI.

Ciao

[df]

the square with the X for closing an image is completely invisible (black on black)

That's not supposed to be like that. With the Graphite workspace it should be white text, black background. White on black.

[LeviFiction]

Yes, but the X mentioned is not text. It's simply the close button for tabs. It's the same for the black arrows on the toolbar when the options are too numerous to fit across the screen. The non-text elements keep their color for whatever reason. Which really doesn't make sense because the close buttons on the palettes are white. And the drop-down menus have white arrows. Just very peculiar all the way around.

Now, I've never had a chance to look at this personally so I can't say as it'll make any difference but in this forum post http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=38413 a link to a download for an XML hack is made available for changing the colors in Paint Shop Pro. Chances are this is not what you're looking for.

[df]

I never noticed that as I don't use Tabbed Windows in PSP.

[Simone Corel UK]

Hi to all

Please bear with me if one of you has already given this solution:

I myself experienced slowly and sometimes freezing starts with X3. Since I did the following steps, my PSPX3 launches in 3 seconds:

Please go to

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Corel (XP)
C:\Users\YOUR NAME\AppData\Local\Corel (Vista/Windows 7)

and delete these files:

Note: Deleting these files will delete the database in PSPPX3 completely and reset to its original structure

ScriptMgrDB.db
LastDBFilter.PspCache
ImageDB.db
ImageDB.db-journal

[Tadjio]

If you delete ImageDB.db, you wll also delete the tables that contain
the names of folders and file types you want 'excluded'.
These are called "ExcludedFolders" and "ExcludedFile Types".