Icon cache when using All associated + EXE/LNK

Scyphe · Post by *Scyphe » 2013-03-24, 15:50 UTC

Image: http://i.imgur.com/3bXbgVN.jpg

As it is it's painfully slow every time I open a folder with many .exe's (mostly packed install-files). Isn't it possible to cache those icons and every time that folder is opened the cache is comparing filename, filesize and time stamp to decide whether to use the cached icon or scan the file for the icon? That's just one of may different ways EXE icons could be cached instead of TC scanning each and every file (some big ones take a long time to scan, for instance AMD Catalyst drivers etc).

I switched to all associated (no exe/lnk) and while it's superfast it's very boring to see:
Image: http://i.imgur.com/enE1cJJ.jpg

Some kind of exe icon caching system would be very nice.

/Daniel

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2013-03-25, 14:25 UTC

This is most probably caused by your antivirus software - normally this function is very fast.

But the icons are loaded in a background thread, this should not slow TC down at all. Only exception: Network drives: here the scanner would download all these EXE files. Therefore there is a separate option EXE/LNK not on net.

Scyphe · Post by *Scyphe » 2013-03-27, 13:03 UTC

Well, with slow I didn't mean that TC or the system in itself was affected, just that the icons for install packages are very slow to show up, one by one, as if TC scans and unpacks every installer in RAM to find the icon. But I will disable real-time protection in MSE and see if it makes a difference and report back.

EDIT: and of course you were right.... MSE scans every single file touched and slows down basically all file functions. No more real-time file scanning.

Thanks for the tip.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2013-03-28, 13:53 UTC

I wouldn't turn off realtime file scanning - better not have the icons than antivirus...

Scyphe · Post by *Scyphe » 2013-05-16, 12:57 UTC

Then perhaps an icon cache for .exe files with their own icons in the binary isn't such a bad idea after all? Windows has it's icon cache which removes the need to scan every link in the startup menu etc. every time you open it.

A first time scan of any folder you enter with .exe binaries with v8.02, a small tc_icons.db file (optional in settings), compare dir size or hash or whatever is the fastest to find out if new binaries have been added to the folder.

Scyphe · Post by *Scyphe » 2014-05-01, 13:05 UTC

TC 8.51a

File icons are now completely loaded in the background, so they should no longer slow down the user interface

More speed improvements when reading directories (icons, shared folder overlays)

Thank you Ghisler. Now it's perfect; no slowdowns while scanning every packed .exe file etc.... Just totally smooth windows (scrolling etc.) while icons are being scanned in the background.

Alexmam · Post by *Alexmam » 2014-07-16, 13:33 UTC

Still not fixed. I am on Windows 7, Haswell CPU, SSD+HDD, pretty fast config.

With NIS, 360+, Avast AV software, files in folders are shown very fast, no lags when opening folder.

With AVG, Bitdefender, KIS and few others, files are shown with lag depending on how many and how big they are.

Windows Explorer behaves differently. When I open a folder, files are shown immediately, but icons appear after AV checks them. It doesn't matter which AV I use.

Please fix if possible.

Balderstrom · Post by *Balderstrom » 2014-07-16, 15:07 UTC

Scyphe wrote:Well, with slow I didn't mean that TC or the system in itself was affected, just that the icons for install packages are very slow to show up, one by one, as if TC scans and unpacks every installer in RAM to find the icon. But I will disable real-time protection in MSE and see if it makes a difference and report back.

EDIT: and of course you were right.... MSE scans every single file touched and slows down basically all file functions. No more real-time file scanning.

Thanks for the tip.

MSE was slowing my laptop to a crawl. I don't know what Microsoft did with Windows 8, but I never had that problem on my desktop with Win 7. Then the Windows Search Index process was constantly running and using 50%+ of the CPU. Even after all troubleshooting. Deleting Index. etc. I just disabled that too. I can't believe the bright folks over at Microsoft can't make a damned search-index that actually works without hosing your system.

I probably wouldn't recommend turning off Real-Time scanniing either, but I've had one infection since 1988, and that was in 2000/2001 with windows 98. So I think I'm not going to worry about it.