Update: PSP2018 App launch time degradation

[JoeB]

JoeB -- I finally got around to blocking PSP and Video Studio access to the internet via McAfee. When I went to start PSP, after 30 seconds the splash screen appeared, accompanied by a McAfee message that PSP was requesting access to the internet. I pressed the Block key. In all it took exactly 2 minutes for PSP to open and be ready for use. This is just about my worst time ever. So blocking internet access does not appear to work for me -- just makes the delay worse.

I will need a little time to get around to meeting Joseph's latest requests.

But what was PSP's launch time after the first opening?

That extra slowdown wasn't necessarily PSP's fault (although it could have been of course). Did you ever test opening PSP without blocking it with McAfee but by turning off the internet by disconnecting from your modem? If you were to try that and it didn't slow PSP down to 2 minutes like blocking with McAfee did then you'd know it was something about McAfee doing the blocking that caused the extra slowdown, not PSP not being able to access the internet. When I want to completely stop all access to the internet I simply do it with ZoneAlarm, right clicking the icon and checking Stop All Internet Activity. I don't use ZoneAlarm's anti-virus, just the firewall and website monitoring for suspicious sites. I use Malwarebytes and AVG Free for anti-virus.

[Ken Berry]

Time for reopening the second time (with McAfee blocking) was 73 seconds. This was roughly the same time it took for first startup after rebooting without McAfee blocking.

So I turned off the modem and rebooted (in other words, Joseph Lin's Step #2). I didn't change McAfee settings which I had reverted to allow internet access (but pointless in this case since there was no internet access). But I let McAfee still run, in other words.

First startup of PSP after reboot was 45 seconds. So an improvement over my usual first startup time and an enormous improvement over the time with McAfee blocking. But still quite slow compared to other users. Second startup was just 18 seconds -- which is about the fastest I have ever achieved with PSP 2018.

Now I just have to try Joseph's Step #1 -- disable McAfee completely. Windows Defender is already disabled.

EDIT: With MCafee Firewall and antivirus turned off, but internet connected, first startup of PSP was 35 seconds -- marginally better than with internet turned off. Second startup was 18 seconds -- so the same as with internet turned off by McAfee running.

[jimbeaux]

I had been seeing upwards of 6 minute launch times after the Fall Creators update that MS pushed to my system in late 2017. Since the Windows update a few weeks of Defender (which I guess fixed the PSP "phone home" delays), and another subsequent Windows update about a week ago, PSP9 now consistently launches in under 10 seconds. And this time holds no matter how times I launch and close it

[JoeB]

I had been seeing upwards of 6 minute launch times after the Fall Creators update that MS pushed to my system in late 2017. Since the Windows update a few weeks of Defender (which I guess fixed the PSP "phone home" delays), and another subsequent Windows update about a week ago, PSP9 now consistently launches in under 10 seconds. And this time holds no matter how times I launch and close it

Nice to see that. I'm one who tends to think (based on when the majority of complaints started) that the major culprit (if not necessarily the only one) was the Creators Update, and I suspect that there were some changes to Windows Defender in that update and perhaps updates to the update.

EDIT: Based on Ken Berry's post, I also think people who have McAfee anti-virus software installed should look at that as also contributing to the issue, because from his reporting it can cause at least some problems with slowing things down. And it's possible that this might have been exacerbated with the Creator's updates, which perhaps McAfee was no better prepared for than Corel. Just a thought....

[JoeB]

Time for reopening the second time (with McAfee blocking) was 73 seconds. This was roughly the same time it took for first startup after rebooting without McAfee blocking.

That starts to sound like McAfee was the culprit for the extra launch times once you used it to block PSP's internet access.

So I turned off the modem and rebooted (in other words, Joseph Lin's Step #2). I didn't change McAfee settings which I had reverted to allow internet access (but pointless in this case since there was no internet access). But I let McAfee still run, in other words.

First startup of PSP after reboot was 45 seconds. So an improvement over my usual first startup time and an enormous improvement over the time with McAfee blocking.

Further evidence that McAfee blocking was responsible for the excessively slow launch times (as per my comment above). I did mention in an earlier post that I wouldn't wish McAfee on my worst enemy, didn't I?

But still quite slow compared to other users. Second startup was just 18 seconds -- which is about the fastest I have ever achieved with PSP 2018.

It has always been slow for you compared to others, so that's likely just a system thing. But at least an improvement over what used to be normal for you!

Now I just have to try Joseph's Step #1 -- disable McAfee completely. Windows Defender is already disabled.

EDIT: With MCafee Firewall and antivirus turned off, but internet connected, first startup of PSP was 35 seconds -- marginally better than with internet turned off. Second startup was 18 seconds -- so the same as with internet turned off by McAfee running.

I'll stick with my suggestion, today's and previously - i.e., just get rid of McAfee and go back to AVG and Malwarebytes. Seriously, McAfee has always been the worst AV program in terms of integrating without causing issues. Kapersky isn't as bad but not great either - and I'm talking about years of comments by users, which is why I ended up years ago with just AVG and Malwareytes (and I do not have any connection with each). But whatever you choose, do yourself a favor and dump McAfee! Defender is no great shakes either, I'm afraid. But, of course, personal choices and all that....

I won't be helping Josephlin's troubleshooting, of course, because with my setup I do not have any of the issues he's trying to troubleshoot so can't be of any use to him. Good on you, though, for going through all this to try to isolate the actual issues!

[frankfokke]

I have no problems at all on my laptop with windows 10 x64 and McAfee. I do have these problems on my pc with windows x64 and Kaspersky Total Security 2017. But turning Kaspersky off was no solution either.
The solution came from removing psp2018 and reinstalling it. Now it starts quickly again, but I'm sure in a couple of weeks it will start slowing down again.
I get all windows updates automatically installed and am currently at version 1709 of windows 10 home 64 bits, build 16299.248. My pc has a intel core i5-6400 cpu at 2.71 GHz and I have 16Gb RAM and PSP installed on the D-drive, since the C-drive is a 128 Gb SSD and is too small for applications.
Cheers, Frank. B.t.w I am now typing on my Ipad, because as soon as I am logged in at my pc, I am directly logged out again.

[JoeB]

I get all windows updates automatically installed and am currently at version 1709 of windows 10 home 64 bits, build 16299.248. My pc has a intel core i5-6400 cpu at 2.71 GHz and I have 16Gb RAM and PSP installed on the D-drive, since the C-drive is a 128 Gb SSD and is too small for applications.
Cheers, Frank. B.t.w I am now typing on my Ipad, because as soon as I am logged in at my pc, I am directly logged out again.

I would like to suggest that you put all of the info about your computer configuration as well as the PSP versions you use in our Profile. This will save you having to type that info in posts if you have to return with questions about an issue you're having. We use that profile info to determine whether an answer we might provide for a posted issue might be dependent on the computer and PSP version the poster has, and means we don't have to post unnecessarily asking for clarification of those specs.

[hartpaul]

Cheers, Frank. B.t.w I am now typing on my Ipad, because as soon as I am logged in at my pc, I am directly logged out again.

Just started experiencing this with Firefox. You do the login , it says you are logged in and then as it goes to the main board you are logged out again.

This occurs with Firefox and Opera, but login is still OK with IE11, Edge, and Chrome.

It appears that firefox and opera are now warning against insecure connections and by logging out of any site that does not have a https connection making some sites inaccessible.

Can information be passed along to the Web master of this site to suggest that they update the sites security . If the other browsers start to follow then the site may not be accessible unless with a very old browser.

Edit: Did a search on the problem re Firefox and had to go to the browser settings, delete the forum.corel.com site's history and that fixed it for Firefox also went into settings and cookies for Opera and deleted cookies for this site as well and all is now back to normal.

[frankfokke]

Thanks 'hartpaul'. I have the inlog problems with Google Chrome, so you can add it to the problem list No problems with the Edge-browser currently, so I'll use that for now. Deleting all cookies and/or clearing cache is not something I like doing.

JoeB, I'll update my profile, but the info changes with every windows update. (EDIT: no, that's not true, sorry )
Frank.

[Ken Berry]

Can information be passed along to the Web master of this site to suggest that they update the sites security.

I did this a couple of weeks ago, and Corel told me soon after that they were thinking of moving to a https:// address -- though like me they have difficulty understanding how posting on a Board like ours can have any security implications. But I'll chase them and see what might be happening (or not)...

But I suspect we might be talking about something else here with regard to people being logged out. That has happened three times to me today alone, despite the box "Keep me logged in" being ticked (and has always worked in the past). I use Chrome. But I am not sure that it is Chrome (or other browser) security concerns kicking us out. Some of you at least will have noticed that in recent days the Board has been running erratically, and sometimes was not even accessible. This also coincided with Chinese New Year, when the people looking after the servers in Taiwan were away for a week.

Another of the Corel execs (I think based in Canada) told me he had his people looking into the server situation, and were going to "fix up" the Board's databases. I am wondering, therefore, whether some of our current log-in problems might be related to that rather than to browser security concerns... I'll see what I can find out.

[hartpaul]

Thanks 'hartpaul'. I have the inlog problems with Google Chrome, so you can add it to the problem list No problems with the Edge-browser currently, so I'll use that for now. Deleting all cookies and/or clearing cache is not something I like doing.

JoeB, I'll update my profile, but the info changes with every windows update. (EDIT: no, that's not true, sorry )
Frank.

You don't have top delete all cookies just ones for a specific site .

Chrome:
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/remove ... le-chrome/

Firefox:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1198361

Opera
https://forums.opera.com/topic/17709/so ... th-opera/2

Bottom comment but Settings > Privacy and Security > Cookies > All Cookies and Site Data > remove forum.corel.com cookies

[JoeB]

JoeB, I'll update my profile, but the info changes with every windows update. (EDIT: no, that's not true, sorry )
Frank.

Thanks for that. However, I think you just put your system drive capacity in the Hard Drive capacity slot, and I suspect you have a lot more hard drive capacity than 128GB.

[JoeB]

Can information be passed along to the Web master of this site to suggest that they update the sites security.

I did this a couple of weeks ago, and Corel told me soon after that they were thinking of moving to a https:// address -- though like me they have difficulty understanding how posting on a Board like ours can have any security implications. But I'll chase them and see what might be happening (or not)...

Don't you just love it when software programmers like those programming web browsers produce software that forces you to adhere to what they decide is the appropriate level of security? I posted a rant about this intrusive, nanny attitude and behaviour of software developers several weeks ago and it continues to irk me no end. If I want a babysitter I'll get one of my own choosing, thank you very much!

But I suspect we might be talking about something else here with regard to people being logged out. That has happened three times to me today alone, despite the box "Keep me logged in" being ticked (and has always worked in the past). I use Chrome. But I am not sure that it is Chrome (or other browser) security concerns kicking us out. Some of you at least will have noticed that in recent days the Board has been running erratically, and sometimes was not even accessible.

I definitely noticed the issue this past week with the board being everything from slow to inaccessible. As for not being automatically logged in despite having that selected on the login screen, I have had this issue intermittently for at least a couple of months, although it has happened more frequently lately - including today when I just logged in. I use IE as my browser.

[hartpaul]

Hey new discovery or perhaps they have coincidentally corrected it.

I Use a bookmarks toolbar in Firefox (same as Favorites Bar in IE 11) to hold my most commonly used sites shortcuts.
Used that just now and again had to log in as had to do other times today.

Browsed from the log in screen to the main Board index , deleted my shortcut and dragged a new one down to the Bookmarks Toolbar . Now I can close the window (not log out) and then use the Toolbar to get back in without going to the login screen . ie I remain logged in. Will see how long it lasts.

Edit : Also works in Chrome and IE

[JoeB]

I'll have to try that. Because I just tried to get to this thread by clicking on the link in my notification email and (a) it took quite awhile to even get to the login screen, and (b) it went to the login screen rather than logging me in automatically. So that's twice today. AND it took several minutes before the login connected me to the forum. Also, I hit the Quote button to quote your reply and got a windows Error screen. I had to just do Reply to be able to type this message.

So there is definitely a problem, and I'm beginning to think it's largely at Corel server's end.