Re: COM Service slows down MS Office...?

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Alexander Nickolov (agnickolov_at_mvps.org)
Date: 08/10/04 

Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 18:17:17 -0700

As a pure guess, your service creates an STA and blocks
inside it. Or creates an MTA thread and a window inside it.
That srews up all DDE broadcasts on the system. It may not
be the case, but looks very plausible from the symptoms... 

-- 
=====================================
Alexander Nickolov
Microsoft MVP [VC], MCSD
email: agnickolov@mvps.org
MVP VC FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/vcfaq
=====================================
"James R. Twine" <James R. Twine@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8B2C8D2D-E40B-4165-8E37-7DC17017B0B3@microsoft.com...
> Hello all...
>
> I have built a Win32 service that exposes a simple, single threaded,
> automation-capable (IDispatch) interface.  While the service is running,
even
> when idle, MS Office (Word, Excel, Frontpage, Internet Explorer etc.) take
a
> *long* time to launch and load when a cooresponding file is activated (for
> example, by double-clicking on a DOC or XLS attachment to an email in
> Outlook, or a file shown in an Explorer instance).
>
> The applications launch normally (read: FAST) when started from a shortcut
> directly to the executable.  If the application is already running, then
the
> file double-clicked on opens up immediately.
>
> The problem only happens when the service is running, regardless of its
> activity.  Times range anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes depending on the
target
> system.  Happens with both RELEASE and DEBUG builds.  The delay happens in
> two parts; one delay to actually get the application launched (in the case
of
> Office applications), and another for the "data transfer" to take place to
> open the intended file.
>
> During the delay, the target executable has not yet been loaded (it is not
> showing up in Task Manager), and there is no abnormal CPU activity.  The
> "originating" application (Outlook, Explorer, the Command Prompt if using
the
> "START" command) is unresponsive/hung during the delay (pumps no
messages).
> No applications appear to be silently launched or shutdown during the
delay.
>
> Strangely enough, other applications, Microsoft or otherwise, seem
> unaffected by this problem.  Some files, like TXT (Notepad), and BMP
(Paint,
> Picture Viewer), REG (Regedit), etc., appear to launch their cooresponding
> executables normally/quickly.
>
> Anti-Virus software does not play a part in this problem, nor does
> ActiveSync.  The problem persists regardless of the state of the system or
> how recently it was rebooted.  The delay is not consistent.  Sometimes it
> take a few seconds more or less.  For example, the delay is much longer
when
> double-clicking a file than when using the "START" command on the same
file.
>
> The problem has been replicated on different Windows versions (2K
> Professional, XP Professional, NT40 Workstation).  It happens with MS
Office
> 2002 (XP); I have not yet confirmed if it happens with later versions.
>
> Has anyone ever seen any behavior even close to this?
>
> Thank you for your time.
>
> -=- James R. Twine

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