XYplorer hangs with lots of EXEs (antivirus real-time scan)

[soja]

I finally tracked down the reason why XYplorer hangs (or is otherwise very unresponsive) for a while when I try to view a folder full of largish executables (such as a healthy GOG.com collection). It turns out that, at least with Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus, the default behavior of real-time scanning of files is at the root of the behavior. Having so many (larger) executable in view takes a while for MSE to process, and presumably, it blocks access to them in XYplorer. Since XYplorer is not multi-threaded, it hangs for many seconds at a time until all files in the view are processed.

For others who might experience a similar issue, I work around it by going to MSE settings and changing the "Monitor file and program activity on your computer" (under Real-Time Protection) to "Monitor only incoming files." The hanging behavior is immediately remedied in all cases for me.

Explorer, which is multi-threaded, does not exhibit the hang, but with the same setting toggled in MSE, I do see my CPU usage increase. I'm not sure whether other antivirus programs will cause the same symptoms in XYplorer.

[j_c_hallgren]

I finally tracked down the reason why XYplorer hangs (or is otherwise very unresponsive) for a while when I try to view a folder full of largish executables (such as a healthy GOG.com collection). It turns out that, at least with Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus, the default behavior of real-time scanning of files is at the root of the behavior.

Finally? I'm a bit surprised as this has been the topic of a nbr of threads here over time and also is noted in XY site FAQ's at http://www.xyplorer.com/faq-topic.php?id=mse...It's always good to have this documented clearly as you've done but don't see why you weren't aware of this much sooner given the nbr of places it's been discussed.

[soja]

I'm not sure when the particular FAQ went up, but this is the first time I've seen that post. The last time I read the FAQ is probably on the order of years. All I can say is that I've searched the forum numerous times for this behavior, but I never found anything that characterized it. (Believe me, I would have liked to.) Admittedly, I did not search for MSE, but that makes sense, since I did not know MSE was causing the problem.

Also, I do not follow all the posts regularly, so I don't have a large knowledge base built up in my mind to count on.

Now, when I search for MSE, I see some threads discussing this behavior, but they were not what I was searching for. (I never had a problem with load times, and I never searched for "delays.") I was searching for other terms (e.g. "hang"). This post is probably the most informing one. A possible answer to it and solution for preempting the issue might be to search for MSE upon XYplorer installation and tell the user that there is an incompatibility (and how to work around it).

Anyway, I feel a bit condescended to, but if you wanted to know, that's my story. I just thought I might help somebody else in my situation.

[j_c_hallgren]

Anyway, I feel a bit condescended to,

My apologies if that's the way it came across but that's maybe because I try to tailor my reply based on when user joined forum and how many posts they have...Had your post count been a handful and/or join date quite recent, I'm sure I'd replied differently...I guess I make the presumption that posters with your forum history have seen (just by visiting here) a few threads that occur often and that topic is one of those.

And I also know that the XY site is constantly evolving so I try to review it at least monthly for any changes...there are a couple of FAQ's that are 'hidden' because Don doesn't feel they are popular enough but other than that, it's always a good idea to look at XY site again when you have an issue in case it's documented there.