Closing delays

[rider]

After updating to version 3, I noticed that Foxit reader delays closing for couple of seconds as compared with the previous version. This is very annoying when you are opening and closing many files. Is there something that can be done?

[christina]

Thanks for posting here. Can you please be more details?
For example:
1. What's your operation system
2. How does that delay happen?
3. How many files you are opening?
4. What actions you have performed?
5. Any other info that helps...

Thanks.

[rider]

I have a core2 duo laptop with XP SP2. I normally open a PDF file while double clicking the file, so it brings Foxit reader on. When I am done with the file, I just close Foxit reader. Normally I open 1 file at the time. With the previous version, when I close Foxit reader, it closed immediately, but now with version 3, it takes about 3 seconds to close. It gets very annoying when you have to open and close several files consecutively.

[christina]

Thanks for your response . Would you please use the following tool to get your computer info and then send to us?
www.foxitsoftware.com/tools/getcomputerinfo.exe

Thanks in advance.

[Kekkil]

I have the same problem on a w2k System (SP 4, Pentium 4, 2.00 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM). I am using Foxit Reader 3.0 (Build 1506). The document is opening very quickly but closing the Foxit Reader window takes several seconds. This is very annoying.

Kekkil

[christina]

Thanks for posting here.

Could you please provide us the file for testing?

[Kekkil]

Thanks for posting here.

Could you please provide us the file for testing?

It depends not on a file, it happens always when closing the window e.g. with keyboard (ctrl+q) or mouse ("x"). I have to wait 3 or 4 seconds. At first it seems like the program is freezing.

Otherwise, closing the tabs makes no problem. In that case there is no delay.

Kekkil

[christina]

I am wondering did you save the file before closing it? In this case, Reader may try saving the file before aborting it.

[hansen]

I've seen this issue too. It's hard to find the real issue, since it doesn't do it every time.
I've been running with fast computers with loads of RAM, so it's something else. I'll try to run some SysInternals tools to debug.

[Kekkil]

I am wondering did you save the file before closing it? In this case, Reader may try saving the file before aborting it.

No. I open the PDF-Files via double-click.

Even if I open the document via the "Open Dialog" Foxit Reader delays closing for couples of seconds.

Kekkil

[christina]

Thanks Kekkil. Our tester team will look into this issue.

Hello Hansen, if you have any new information, please post here.

[Kekkil]

Hi christina

What's the news?

Kekkil

[christina]

Sorry，it seems that it's difficult to repro in our end. Is it possible for us to access your machine and have a testing?

[Kekkil]

Is it possible for us to access your machine and have a testing?

Unfortunately it is not possible. Although I hope you will find the bug quickly.

Kekkil

[christina]

Ok. Thanks anyway. Our testing team will keep watching this issue.

[sailmaker]

I too am seeing this every time. It's not document-related, since I see it if I merely open Foxit Reader 3.0 (Build 1506) from the Start Menu, wait a few secs, then click the main window's close button. Timing it with the stopwatch on my mobile phone, I consistently get 7 seconds between clicking the main window's close button and the window closing.

I downloaded http://www.foxitsoftware.com/tools/getcomputerinfo.exe but AVG warned of "Worm/Autoit.WXA" so I did not run it. Instead, here are my system details culled from a dxdiag report (it's an Intel iMac booted directly into Windows XP via Boot Camp):


------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 4/2/2009, 00:13:24
Machine name: ARIEL
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.080814-1236)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Apple Computer, Inc.
System Model: iMac4,1
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2400 @ 1.83GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1520MB RAM
Page File: 841MB used, 2809MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode


I'm a professional programmer myself, so please let me know if I can provide additional info e.g. using a SysInternals tool or forcing a crash dump using userdump.exe (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241215) so as to obtain a call stack.

Foxit crew, please PM me if you need more info. I could do a WebEx or FogCreek CoPilot session by appointment (7pm-10pm, UK time zone), but would need a bit of notice as I'd want to Ghost the machine before and after (no offence, just policy).

Richard.

[sailmaker]

Christina mailed me and we're going to do a WebEx session so the FoxIt crew can observe the problem first-hand on my machine. Due to time zone constraints, it may need to wait until the weekend or the Easter hols, but I just wanted to let everyone know that Foxit are on the case and I'll help them as much as I can.

[christina]

Thanks sailmaker.

[DavidR2PA]

I have the same problem. I open and close many pdfs all day, from Explorer, Opera, Thunderbird, network drive, local drives, etc. I've been doing this for years. I loved Foxit because it was fast and I recommended it to countless associates. Foxit is no longer quick and nimble and certainly does not meet your byline "with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed". It is slower than Adobe, particularly on the close action. This happened as soon as I "upgraded" to the new version. It was obvious and is not in any way shape or form related to my computer, OS, files, drives, etc. I made one and only one change - version 3. Sadly, I was forced uninstalled Foxit completely since the other options (go back to the previous version or be very frustrated all day every day) were not viable in my opinion. I'll lurk for a while and maybe try the next version but until then, adios and good luck!

[christina]

Sorry for this. We are investigating this issue....,please provide us your operation system. Thanks.

[akeil]

Ha, funny, I actually have the problem described here with Acrobat but not with Foxit! That's actually one of the reasons I switched to Foxit.

[mhilden]

Hi Christana,
I have this problem as well. Closing Foxit Reader from any instance causes the reader to be unresponsive for 3-5 seconds before exit. The method of program termination does not matter ('x' button, Alt-F4, etc.), and the delay occurs on every exit. Typically, I have one instance of the reader open and only one PDF open within that instance.
My machine is not available to you for a demonstration, but I have attached an output file from the getcomputerinfo.exe application. Please note that I have removed some of the information from the output file that I was not willing to share.

Regards,

~mhilden

[christina]

Thanks mhilden for the info.

[mhilden]

Hi Christina,
FYI, when I close Foxit reader, the 3-5 second delay is accompanied by a continuous write to the hard disk. By searching for files modified immediately after I closed the Foxit reader application, I noticed that the file "FoxitReader_Preferences.ini" file is updated on disk every time I close the program. By itself, this is not surprising. What did surprise me, however, is that this write to disk is identical to the delay that I see when I change a user preference and click "OK" from the preferences dialog.
I'm not sure why writing a 17kB file would take 3-5 seconds, but it seems that the delay incurred when writing this file may be related to the delay that I (and others) are experiencing when closing the program.

Regards,

~mhilden

[christina]

Thanks mhilden. I will send you a version with log feature for debugging.

[stesal]

Hi,

I experience the exact same problem, delays of about 5-6 seconds each time I close Foxit. After reading the previous posts claiming that writing to "FoxitReader_Preferences.ini" was causing the problem, I remembered having similar problems with other programs.
So I tried turning off the AntiVirus software's (F-Secure btw) real-time scanning functionality.

Voilà! Problem gone!

Adding an exclusion for "FoxitReader_Preferences.ini" also fixes the problem.
Maybe this isn't a Foxit problem at all, but the way settings are stored could perhaps be altered.

//Stefan

[Kekkil]

Hi,

After reading the previous posts claiming that writing to "FoxitReader_Preferences.ini" was causing the problem, I remembered having similar problems with other programs.
So I tried turning off the AntiVirus software's (F-Secure btw) real-time scanning functionality.

Voilà! Problem gone!

Adding an exclusion for "FoxitReader_Preferences.ini" also fixes the problem.
Maybe this isn't a Foxit problem at all, but the way settings are stored could perhaps be altered.

//Stefan

Unfortunately it doesn't work on my computer.

Kekkil

[dan1elo]

I have the same problem and i just did what stesal said, i disabled NOD32 real time scanning and proceed to open and close a pdf file, and it worked like the old days, a fast start and a fast closing of foxit.

[christina]

Thanks for update.

[Xophile]

Process Monitor gives me the following information after opening Foxit Reader and closing it (no PDF loaded, simply the program). I am also running NOD32 (or Eset Smart Security, both antivirus and firewall from Eset). If I exclude the file from my antivirus the delay is gone.

Reads: 953
Writes: 228

That is way to much for a textfile of that size (mine is 24kb)

I posted about this issue here:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=241800

The response was this:
It sounds a little high for such a small file, but it would probably be best to check with the author of the program. Maybe the .INI file contains many small entries.

I don't believe it is the antivirus fault, the problem must be in how Foxit Reader writes to the file after closing the program.

[christina]

Thanks for update. Our developers are investigating this issue. Thanks.

[Xophile]

Any news regarding this issue?

[christina]

This issue has been addressed to our engineer team for investigating and processing. Thanks.

Reported Mantis ID:0009120

[Kekkil]

Even the new Foxit Version has the annoying closing delay effect.

Kekkil

[mhilden]

Sure enough, my anti-virus scanner was causing this problem (Sophos). Thanks for the tip stesal!

~mhilden

[Kekkil]

I'm also using Sophos Antivirus and I have exclude the "FoxitReader_Preferences.ini" from On-Access-Scanning.

But there is no difference. The delay-problem still causes annoyance.

Kekkil

[mhilden]

Kekkil - I have tried this also (without success). However, killing all of the sophos process _does_ fix the closing delay problem on my machine. Have you tried that?

Once I figure out the right thing to exclude from on-access scanning, I'll post it here.

~mhilden

[Kekkil]

Kekkil - I have tried this also (without success). However, killing all of the sophos process _does_ fix the closing delay problem on my machine. Have you tried that?

Wow, that's it. If I disable the Sophos antivirus On-Acess-Scanning function the closing delay problem is fixed.

But I like to use both - Foxit Reader and Sophos anti virus.

Kekkil

[christina]

I have passed this issue onto our testing team for investigation. Any news, I will post back. Reported Mantis ID:0010311

[mhilden]

Kekkil (and other Sophos AV users) -

For some unknown reason, singling out the file "FoxitReader_Preferences.ini" as an extension by itself doesn't fix the closing delay problem on my machine. However, excluding all .ini files from on-access file scanning does work for me. To do configure Sophos Anti-Virus in this way:
* Open your Sophos Anti-Virus control panel
* Select Configure -> On-access scanning
* Click the "extensions" tab
* Click "Allow me to control exactly what is scanned"
* Find the ".ini" file extension in the list and click "remove"
* Click "Apply"

~mhilden

[Kekkil]

For some unknown reason, singling out the file "FoxitReader_Preferences.ini" as an extension by itself doesn't fix the closing delay problem on my machine. However, excluding all .ini files from on-access file scanning does work for me. To do configure Sophos Anti-Virus in this way:
* Open your Sophos Anti-Virus control panel
* Select Configure -> On-access scanning
* Click the "extensions" tab
* Click "Allow me to control exactly what is scanned"
* Find the ".ini" file extension in the list and click "remove"
* Click "Apply"


Thank you, mhilden. That works fine.

Kekkil

[jesus69]

Uh-Mazing!

That closing-delay was getting mighty annoying.

Eset Smart Security user here; Excluded FoxitReader_Preferences.ini from "Real-time file system protection.

Problem solved!

Thanks all.