Find Files (Alt-F7) VERY slow to open. Please help.

[aviasd]

I have posted on something similar here
This was general slowness in all dialogs that TC opened.
I found out that 32bit TC on 64bit machine is much slower in opening.
In my case, there were also various processes that were hooking to window creation and causing the slowness.
After all attempts, the slowness was still apparent and I ended up with reinstalling windows from scratch. My guess is that at some point I made some change to windows itself which caused the slowness.
I also noticed that with higher windows 10 builds there was a slight slowness increase, ended up with 1903.
I would suggest trying with a clean machine with your current settings, then a clean profile and so on, if it's small, it could just be a different process, hope you wouldn't resolve to my final solution...

[Filarski]

I have exactly the same problem now. New computer, fast CPU, and the most recent Windows 10 installed. For whatever reason the longer the computer is running, the longer it takes for the Find dialog Box (alt-F7) to appear. Eventually it takes about 5 seconds or even more. The speed of the search itself isn't affected though, only the appearance of the Find Dialog Box.
I didn't have any problem with my older Windows version and older computer (2018), by the way. Is seems to be a problem with more recent Windows 10-builds (1903 or so and up).

But I eventually found a good and fast solution.
1. Press CTRL-SHIFT-ESC (taskmanager)
2. Under 'Windows processes', scroll to "Windows Explorer". Right click and choose "Restart"

That's it. After this, Alt-F7 is snappy again! It takes about five seconds to do and even much faster with a shortcut I made on my desktop. Works like a charm!
Shortcut command: "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c taskkill.exe /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer.exe".
(this kills explorer.exe and restarts it. I really takes half a second. It just refreshes the explorer-module).

Of course it's also possible to make a simple batch-file:
taskkill /im explorer.exe /f
start explorer.exe
exit

[Filarski]

I forgot to say: the process "Windows Explorer" I mentioned is not to be confused with Window's filmanager of the same name (the 'Explorer')!

[drax]

I have been experiencing the same issue. takes 3 sec for the Search dialogue to appear. I tried killing explorer.exe and starting again as @filarski advised but no joy. Still slow to open...Strange. Any other suggestions?

[Dalai]

2drax
Do you use dark mode in TC? Does it happen with a fresh wincmd.ini?

Code: Select all

totalcmd.exe /i="%TEMP%\fresh.ini"

Regards
Dalai

[miskox]

Maybe you could use Sysinternal's Process Monitor (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon) to see elapsed times?

(use filter to show only TC)

Saso

[olluz]

What seems to help a little is to add TC as an exclusion in the SmartScreen settings as described here.
In my case I've excluded the process name "TOTALCMD64.EXE". Not sure about the implications this might have on security, though.

Network drives seem to slow down the dialogue creation, too.

[wOxxOm]

Terminating dwm.exe process helps. It automatically restarts and the delay is gone.

[marcob]

I've been experiencing this issue for a few months now. I use often Total Commander to quickly search some text in a directory and this delay of several seconds is a major annoyance for me.

procmon doesn't show any slow operation, but it shows a lot happens.
I've attached a debugger to Total Commander and pausing execution while waiting for the Find Files dialog to appear shows that the Main thread is deep into Windows DLLs.

Is there a way to dump some information useful to diagnose this issue?

[ghisler(Author)]

Something must be interfering with the loading of the dialog. It has a lot of controls, so maybe a scripting tool or theming function hooking all of the windows?

[marcob]

Something must be interfering with the loading of the dialog. It has a lot of controls, so maybe a scripting tool or theming function hooking all of the windows?

I don't have any theming software installed.
This computer is running BitDefender. I saw one of its DLLs in the stacktrace, presumably hooking the process, so I disabled it and it made no difference with no hooking.

This morning it seems to be not as slow, but it still takes about 1.5s to open that dialog. I'd swear it used to be almost instantaneous.
I have captured a few stack traces, see below. I'm not seeing anything obviously wrong, it seems to be running Windows code.
All traces captured with antivirus disabled.

Code: Select all

>	win32u.dll!NtUserBuildHwndList()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!BuildHwndList(struct HDESK__ *,struct HWND__ *,int,int,unsigned long,struct _tagHWNDCACHE * *)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!EnumChildWindows()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!_WindowPosChangedWorker()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!OnOwpPostWindowPosChanged(class CThemeWnd *,struct _THEME_MSG *)	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemePostWndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DispatchClientMessage()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!__fnINLPWINDOWPOS()	Unknown
 	ntdll.dll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue()	Unknown
 	win32u.dll!NtUserMoveWindow()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ComboBox_SetDroppedSize(struct tagCBox *,struct tagRECT const *)	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ComboBox_Position(struct tagCBox *)	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ComboBox_SizeHandler()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ComboBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!CallWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	TOTALCMD64.EXE!00000000009576a8()	Unknown
 	
 	
 	>	win32u.dll!NtUserGetObjectInformation()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!GetWindowDesktopName(struct HWND__ *,unsigned short *,unsigned long)	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!CAppInfo::TrackForeignWindow(struct HWND__ *)	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!CAppInfo::OpenWindowThemeFile()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!_OpenThemeData()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!OpenNcThemeDataInternal()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!OpenNcThemeData()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!CUxScrollBar::Attach()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!CCSetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeSetScrollInfoProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_SetScrollParms()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_NewITopEx()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_Size()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageWorker(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcWorker()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!_ThemeDefWindowProc()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DispatchClientMessage()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!__fnINLPWINDOWPOS()	Unknown
 	ntdll.dll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue()	Unknown
 	win32u.dll!NtUserSetWindowPos()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_Size()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageWorker(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcWorker()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!_ThemeDefWindowProc()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DispatchClientMessage()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!__fnINLPWINDOWPOS()	Unknown
 	ntdll.dll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue()	Unknown
 	win32u.dll!NtUserSetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeSetScrollInfoProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_SetScrollParms()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_ShowHideScrollBars()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_InsertItem()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageWorker(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ComboBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!CallWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	TOTALCMD64.EXE!00000000009576a8()	Unknown



>	win32u.dll!NtUserSetWindowPos()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_Size()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageWorker(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcWorker()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!_ThemeDefWindowProc()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DispatchClientMessage()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!__fnINLPWINDOWPOS()	Unknown
 	ntdll.dll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue()	Unknown
 	win32u.dll!NtUserSetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeSetScrollInfoProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_SetScrollParms()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_ShowHideScrollBars()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_InsertItem()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageWorker(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ComboBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!CallWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	TOTALCMD64.EXE!00000000009576a8()	Unknown



>	win32u.dll!NtUserSetProp()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SetPropW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!CUxScrollBar::Attach()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!CCSetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeSetScrollInfoProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_SetScrollParms()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_NewITopEx()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_Size()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageWorker(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcWorker()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!_ThemeDefWindowProc()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DispatchClientMessage()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!__fnINLPWINDOWPOS()	Unknown
 	ntdll.dll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue()	Unknown
 	win32u.dll!NtUserSetWindowPos()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_Size()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageWorker(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcWorker()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!RealDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!_ThemeDefWindowProc()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DispatchClientMessage()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!__fnINLPWINDOWPOS()	Unknown
 	ntdll.dll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue()	Unknown
 	win32u.dll!NtUserSetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeSetScrollInfoProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_SetScrollParms()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_ShowHideScrollBars()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_InsertItem()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageWorker(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ComboBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!CallWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	TOTALCMD64.EXE!00000000009576a8()	Unknown



>	win32u.dll!NtUserIsNonClientDpiScalingEnabled()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!CThemeWnd::GetNcWindowMetrics()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!CThemeWnd::StyleChanged()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!OnDwpStyleChanged(class CThemeWnd *,struct _THEME_MSG *)	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!_ThemeDefWindowProc()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeDefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DefWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!OnOwpPreStyleChange()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemePreWndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!DispatchClientMessage()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!__fnINOUTLPSIZE()	Unknown
 	ntdll.dll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue()	Unknown
 	win32u.dll!NtUserSetWindowLongPtr()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!_SetWindowLongPtr()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!CCSetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!CUxScrollBar::Attach()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!CCSetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	uxtheme.dll!ThemeSetScrollInfoProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SetScrollInfo()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_SetScrollParms()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_ShowHideScrollBars()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_InsertItem()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ListBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageWorker(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!SendMessageW()	Unknown
 	comctl32.dll!ComboBox_WndProc()	Unknown
 	user32.dll!UserCallWinProcCheckWow(struct _ACTIVATION_CONTEXT *,__int64 (*)(struct tagWND *,unsigned int,unsigned __int64,__int64),struct HWND__ *,enum _WM_VALUE,unsigned __int64,__int64,void *,int)	Unknown
 	user32.dll!CallWindowProcW()	Unknown
 	TOTALCMD64.EXE!00000000009576a8()	Unknown

[ghisler(Author)]

Did you restart the PC over night? One user above reports that restarting Explorer helped. Maybe you have the same problem?

[siealex]

On my PC (4th gen Core i5 with SSD, Windows 11) Alt+F7 opens in slightly over a second. But the Options window is really crazy: almost 5 seconds to open.
This happens ONLY in the 32-bit version, the 64-bit one opens Options immediately.

Surprisingly, both versions (32 and 64 bit) open these dialogs immediately (in less than 0.5 s) on a FreeBSD virtual machine with Wine 10.1 (VMware 17 on the same physical PC). Is this problem specific to Windows 11?

[siealex]

The same on a laptop with an 11th gen Pentium Gold. And again only on the 32-bit version.

[AntonyD]

My case is 2(2.5) sec. And I have to admit that yes, I'm just used to it.
But you probably haven't seen our topic yet: https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=472620#p472620
where I showed in the video is how slow the plugin's rules are being drawn.
Most likely, something similar is happening in other places in the code of this dialog....