TCmenu V1.9 Problem

[Jaguarist]

Hello, all. This is the first plugin I've attempted to use with TC, and I seem to be having some small problem with it.

My system is WinXP Pro, running a P4 with 1G of DDR ram, using Fat32 filesystem. All that to say this, I don't think it should take TCmenu 6-8 secs to activate after I click on a button that is set up to use it.

My drives are de-fragged, and have no access problems at all.

The only parameter I have used is the -$ for the small icons. It does function correctly, the only problem is the extreme time it takes to show up on-screen.

Is there a way I can speed this plugin up, because I really like the feature it provides. However, if it takes 6-8 secs each time I use it, I will go back to just using the .bar files straight from the button.

Thanks for your time and ideas on this!

Jag

[djk]

It's rather additional tool, not plugin
I use it on different computers, the strongest is Athlon 1,1 with 512MB RAM, WInXP PRo, NTFS and it shows the menu at once, there is no delay.

[Clo]

2Jaguarist
He again, Jag!
From TCmenu ReadMe:

!!! WARNING !!! Using CD command in TCmenu was checked with TC 5.51 only and may not work with future TC versions.

Something about this, perhaps?
• I can't test exactly like you, my best PC runs NTFS (2-CPU Athlon 2000+MC 1 GB DDR XP-Pro ...)

{ offtopic Great whether you'ld add a media to contact you in your profile: private messages are disabled here }

kind regards,
Clo

[VadiMGP]

2Jaguarist
It is really strange behavior and i never encountered such big delay.
Can you perform some tests?
1.Try to put .bar files on different disks/folders.
2.Try to run TCmenu without parameters (just to see if this delay in program starting or in menu displaying).

[Maxwish]

All that to say this, I don't think it should take TCmenu 6-8 secs to activate after I click on a button that is set up to use it.

Could it be your (background) virus scanner ?

[Jaguarist]

Could it be your (background) virus scanner ?

That was exactly the problem!!

I disabled NAV2004 auto-protect, and now my largest .bar ( 67 buttons ) will display in just under 1 sec. The rest of my .bar files ( avg of about 15 buttons each ) will display almost immediately !!

Now, I do not know why it is behaving like that, but you were correct in that NAV is somehow causing the problem.

This leaves me in a quandary. I very much like the function of Tcmenu, but for obvious reasons, I do not want to leave my system without NAV.

Any more suggestions as to a good resolution here? Thanks again!!

Jag

[Jaguarist]

It is really strange behavior and i never encountered such big delay.
Can you perform some tests?
1.Try to put .bar files on different disks/folders.
2.Try to run TCmenu without parameters (just to see if this delay in program starting or in menu displaying).

Hello, and thank you for your ideas! I did as you suggested, with the same results, that being about 6-8 secs before the menu would appear. It looks like Maxwish is on the right track, and that my NAV is really delaying the program for some reason.

Jag

[Jaguarist]

It's rather additional tool, not plugin

Thank you, I stand corrected.

I'll get the terminology correct sooner or later..

Jag

[Jaguarist]

{ offtopic Great whether you'ld add a media to contact you in your profile: private messages are disabled here }

Hello, Clo. I have done as you suggested, and I thank you for bringing that to my attention. I still have some fine tuning to do on this board.

Now, I'm off to see what I can do to have NAV get along with Tcmenu so that I can use them both.

Jag

[Maxwish]

Now, I do not know why it is behaving like that, but you were correct in that NAV is somehow causing the problem.

I think it is because TCMenu opens ALL the files in the submenu (deleted text: to read their icons) when you select it. And your virussscanner will then scan all those files too! Especially big files and packed files (upx, aspack) will slow the scanner down a lot.

*edited*
I can confirm TCMenu reads all the files in the bar (just tested it with Filemon). However TCMenu reads uses the icons from the bar's own icon file (*.br1) - edited

[Clo]

2Jaguarist

Woke early!

¤ Thank you for the email addition, it's nice, I'll certainly use it soon...

¤ The N-AV causes more problems than it solves... Please, a look here:
http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=2867
Isn't sad!
* About a mean to keep your PC "healthy" for free!
Cheers,
Clo

[Jaguarist]

I think it is because TCMenu opens ALL the files in the submenu to extract their icons when you select it. And your virussscanner will then scan all those files too! Especially big files and packed files (upx, aspack) will slow the scanner down a lot.

You may be on to something there! I'm reading the manual for NAV to see if I can get it to ignore anything that Tcmenu does. I'll post back later if I can resolve this issue.

While I'm here, and have your attention, would you please explain to me how I can add a new button to my .bar file that Tcmenu calls?

Here is what I mean.... I have a button on the default.bar that is called Graphics. When I used to click on that button, it would make a call to graphics.bar, and that .bar file contained all my buttons for graphic programs. When I wanted to add another button for a new program, I would just drag-n-drop the new .exe file up to an empty space on the graphic.bar, and the new button would appear.

I cannot do that now. When I click on my Graphics button on the default.bar, it of course, calls Tcmenu, which in turn, calls my graphics.bar. The graphics.bar is displayed in the drop-down menu, as it is supposed to do. But now, I cannot select a .exe file to drag-n-drop up to the drop-down menu, because when I click outside of the drop-down menu, it disappears.

So, all that to say this.... how do I add a new button to the graphics.bar file while using Tcmenu?

I hope that made some sort of sense to you..


Thanks again for your patience and time!!

Jag

[Jaguarist]

2Jaguarist

Woke early!

¤ Thank you for the email addition, it's nice, I'll certainly use it soon...

¤ The N-AV causes more problems than it solves... Please, a look here:
http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=2867
Isn't sad!
* About a mean to keep your PC "healthy" for free!
Cheers,
Clo

Good Morning, Clo ! I could not sleep last night, so here I am, learning more about TC.

I will read that thread, and see what is in it. Hopefully I can figure out something with NAV so that I can use Tcmenu. If I figure it out, I will post the results.

Thanks, and have a good day, or night, as the case may be for you.. LOL

Jag

[Maxwish]

While I'm here, and have your attention, would you please explain to me how I can add a new button to my .bar file that Tcmenu calls?

I don't use TCMenu so I don't know if there is a trick for this but I would like to suggest this:

Why not make a 'normal' subbar button on you default bar (and call it "TCMENU CONFIG") and add all the subbars to it. This way you still can add/remove all the buttons thew old fashioned way.

[Jaguarist]

First, I would like to once again, Thank You all very much for your patience and help!! With a combination of all the suggestions given me by you all, I have solved the two issues I had with TCmenu.

For future reference of anyone reading this thread, if you are using NAV, you can go into the Options, and exclude the file TCmenu.exe from being scanned. This takes care of the extreme lag in time for the menu to show up onscreen. OK, that's one problem solved.

Thanks to Maxwish, once again, the second problem is solved of how to add a new button to an existing .bar file. Just create a new .bar file that contains all of your existing .bar files, and then you can add a new button just like before. Second problem solved!

The support on this board is FANTASTIC!!

Many thanks to all of you!

Jag