Slow network dir nav in Vista

[sTu_Deimus]

Howdy...

I' m finding XY noticably slow when navigating directorieson our windows server.Yes, I've applied various Vista tweaks and XY config settings that are supposed to improve the speed, but its still not convincing.

Consider these scenarios:

XP box + WinExplorer = very quick dir navigation.
XP box + XY = very quick dir navigation.
Vista box + WinExplorer = very quick dir navigation.
Vista box + XY = rather slow dir navigation.


I'd love some help here, as the slow speed is driving me insane. By slow speed, I mean 1+ second in sead of a fraction of a second for any dir I click on.

Stu.

[serendipity]

Which tweaks have you applied? The ones mentioned in FAQ section?

[sTu_Deimus]

Yep... I went through the FAQ... atleast half of those options were (had been) already disabled. Disabling the remaining few hasn't made a difference.

I'm surprised that the dir info isn't even cached at all... I can alternate clicking on two dirs, and each time, it will still take the same 1+ second to show the contents (one has 2 files within, and the other around 10).

Stu.

[sTu_Deimus]

Perhaps also of relevance:
1) I have about 20 fav dir entries.
2) I have one fav file extension defined (not existing in the dirs I'm testing speed with).
3) The windows shares are mapped from an SBS server.
4) Both Vista WS and SBS server have all latest updates/SP's.
5) It seems to take the same time for empty directories.
6) The speed is the same whether accessing the remote dirs via mapped drives, or UNC paths.
7) The problem seems to be largely non-existent when browsing to a Linux server in the same rack as the SBS server. Note that the Linux server is a dual P2/P3 box, while the SBS server is a dual Xeon.
8 ) The problems seems to be the same regardless of which share on the SBS server I browse.
9) My view is using Detail, with just ext, size, and Modified columns. No improvement if I disable each of these columns, or switch to List view.

[admin]

Yep... I went through the FAQ... atleast half of those options were (had been) already disabled. Disabling the remaining few hasn't made a difference.

Looks like the xywiki is not complete here.

(1) What about auto-refresh?! Try to turn it off... (config/advanced-- you can turn it off for network locations only).

(2) Turn off "Check existence of subfolders in tree" (config/general -- again only for network locations)

[sTu_Deimus]

Wow, that auto-refresh seems to be the killer. Across the VPN from home (much slower than LAN at work) the difference when toggling that option is from ~ 0.25 sec to 2-3 seconds! Clearly makes the difference.

Must admit I don't see how this option could make such a difference... isn't the key to auto-refresh that it does it in the background without the need of F4/F5... just like when on clicks on a new dir? ie. doesn't XY do a refresh on clicking on a new dir anyway? Or maybe this option effectively bypasses any cached data?

Also, it would be rather dissapointing to have to hit F5 whenever I want to look at up-to-date dir contents. Would that be necessary even if I click on the dir again?

Stu.

[admin]

Wow, that auto-refresh seems to be the killer. Across the VPN from home (much slower than LAN at work) the difference when toggling that option is from ~ 0.25 sec to 2-3 seconds! Clearly makes the difference.

Must admit I don't see how this option could make such a difference... isn't the key to auto-refresh that it does it in the background without the need of F4/F5... just like when on clicks on a new dir? ie. doesn't XY do a refresh on clicking on a new dir anyway? Or maybe this option effectively bypasses any cached data?

Also, it would be rather dissapointing to have to hit F5 whenever I want to look at up-to-date dir contents. Would that be necessary even if I click on the dir again?

Stu.

Auto-Refresh installs a watch-hook in the watched folder (which also locks the folder from deletion by any program!). This makes things slower in the network (why exactly I don't know). This tip should be added to the wiki!

XYplorer does not do any file list caching. So when you open any directory the contents are always fresh regardless of Auto-Refresh. Auto-Refresh only comes into play while you are inside a folder and another process causes changes to the files you are looking at. Then the listing is automagically refreshed when AR is enabled.

[jacky]

yep, bad wiki! Bad, bad wiki! That's it, "no soup for you"!

---

I'll add this to the wiki, but just to be sure: you actually had option "In network locations as well" enabled, and that's the one you disabled, right? Because otherwise (only option "Auto-refresh on file system changes") then it's something else, maybe even a bug I'd say...

[admin]

yep, bad wiki! Bad, bad wiki! That's it, "no soup for you"!

BTW, I did not mean necessarily you. Everybody here can add it to the wiki. Apart from me, of course, I have to code.

[sTu_Deimus]

Auto-Refresh installs a watch-hook in the watched folder (which also locks the folder from deletion by any program!). This makes things slower in the network (why exactly I don't know). This tip should be added to the wiki!

XYplorer does not do any file list caching. So when you open any directory the contents are always fresh regardless of Auto-Refresh. Auto-Refresh only comes into play while you are inside a folder and another process causes changes to the files you are looking at. Then the listing is automagically refreshed when AR is enabled.

Thats what I don't get - are you saying that the mere installation of that watch-hook is enough to cause this slowdown? Nothing else in what you said sounds like it alone could cause such a slowdown.

I'll add this to the wiki, but just to be sure: you actually had option "In network locations as well" enabled, and that's the one you disabled, right? Because otherwise (only option "Auto-refresh on file system changes") then it's something else, maybe even a bug I'd say...

Definitly just toggled the "In Network Locations aswell" option under "Auto refresh on file system changes". The "No refresh during file operations" was always ticked.

Now I'm very keen to try this at work again tomorrow!!! Very exciting after *months* thinking it was vista working so slow (without any of the performance QB fixes making any difference).

I do wonder though... presumably Windows Explorer does the same watch-hook so it can do the same auto-refreshes?

[sTu_Deimus]

I do wonder though... presumably Windows Explorer does the same watch-hook so it can do the same auto-refreshes?

along these lines, I wonder how this works with shares from our Linux (Samba) server. How does this auto-refresh work when the server is Samba/Linux? Does XY still install the watch-hook? Does Samba just ignore it hence having no such slowdown? Is the slowdown I'm seeing actually from the windows server because it doesn't want to play nicely with 3rd party apps?

Wierd.

Stu.

[admin]

Thats what I don't get - are you saying that the mere installation of that watch-hook is enough to cause this slowdown? Nothing else in what you said sounds like it alone could cause such a slowdown
...
I do wonder though... presumably Windows Explorer does the same watch-hook so it can do the same auto-refreshes?

Yes, the watch-hook is enough. Don't know about Explorer, cannot test right now.

[sTu_Deimus]

Wow... as expected, it works perfectly back on the Office LAN! Very happy!

I also confirmed that the same problem occurs with the XP box. It already had that option disabled, hence the good performance. If I enable it, the perf degrades just like on the Vista box.

I did some tinkering with creation of new files on each box, to see how the auto refresh does or doesn't work. It obviously works as expected... though... I notice that even with it disabled, clicking from/to the directory does the required refresh (as admin previously suggested) so it still seems odd that this problem only seems to impact on dir accesses. ie. methinks some investigation into this might reveal something interesting about use of that watch-hook.

Anyway, now I can speedily get on with my work again.

Stu.

[sTu_Deimus]

BTW Jacky... nice wiki update!

[admin]

methinks some investigation into this might reveal something interesting about use of that watch-hook.

I think the same. Did you check whether Explorer does auto-refresh in network locations? If yes (which I assume) then there must be a way.