FoxPro loads very very slow on Windows 7

[SteadySystems]

FoxPro loads very very slow on Windows 7
I'm assisting a company that is using fairly old software and they want to get off the old server and on to a more recent workstation.

I've created a test environment (Windows 7 Pro) and copied the live environment (windows 2000 Server) Data folder over. Here is their setup...

Live Working Environment: Windows 2000 Server (domain controller) FoxPro 5.0a as a shared folder (no database, just a folder with the data)

How they launch the Inventory system:

PC users double click a lucky.exe shortcut which is mapped to the server share in a \lucky folder. The only requirement for this to run is to map a driver letter E: to the server\lucky folder. When the exe is launched the custom FoxPro inventory system loads immediately. Everyone in the office uses this same method of opening and they can all run it at the same time. The data seems to be stored in a folder called \lucky\LU_

In this current environment the inventory system works fine.

However, for the fear of the hard drives failing they would like to get rid of the Windows 2000 server and have the inventory run on a newer machine. So I bought a Windows 7 Pro workstation. Copied the \lucky folder and tried to run the inventory system.

It takes more than 4 minutes just to load the Log in screen. It's clearly hanging or doing something erroneous. Then a pop up asks if we want to RUN the exe). Clicking Run then takes another 4 minutes or so just to see the log in screen appear. I've tested this on a Windows 7 workstation and Windows XP - both have same issues. Once the login screen finally loads the system works fine.

So to recap, I am trying to get the inventory system to work on a Windows 7 Pro workstation but it simply takes forever to load.

Things I've tried that made no difference:

1. right click "Run as administrator"
2. Compatibility mode

AntiVirus prorgram uninstalled and not the culprit.

To test, I took an old XP Workstation (newly formatted) and connected to the live environment (Windows 2000 Server), joined the Workgroup, mapped the drive, launched lucky.exe and it loads fast and works great.

I then removed the mapping, change the workgroup to point to new Windows 7 Workstation, remapped the drives, launched lucky.exe and its brutally slow. I checked resource monitor on the Windows 7 Workstation and it does not spike.

This is a complete mystery. Someone had mentioned something about the files I copied from Windows 2000 Server (Live environment) to the Windows 7 Workstation (test environment) having Encrypted Files enabled since it was on Windows 2000 Server first?

Here is a quick video also:

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c26Dqwejy3

Thanks!

 

[GriffMG]

How fast does it run once it has loaded?

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are not good for you. ​

 

[Olaf Doschke]

EFS - simple check: Does Windows Explorer show file names red in Win2k or Win7? Then they are encrypted. If not, then not.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

What is the Network Bandwidth?

We already discussed there is a difference between the win2k and win7 used as server - the last cable to it. How about the NIC of the win7? And it's configuration? 10/100 MBit va 1 GBit makes a difference of 1:10 or even 1:100. Ideally you have a gbit network today and all network cards are configured to 1 gbit and not to negotiate bandwidth.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[SteadySystems]

Griff - runs normal, sane speed as wink server

Olaf - nothing red here. I can check the cable / card but it's blazing fast in all other aspects. It's even running Mozy Pro backup. It connects to the win 2k server share \\server\data\lucky and backs up nightly.

 

[GriffMG]

Then this must be some kind of 'establishment' thing - something it tries to do as it is first run, rather
than any disc related problem. Does it need MS Office or anything like that?

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are not good for you. ​

 

[SteadySystems]

Griff - no

 

[GriffMG]

Is there any kind of configuration file - an .ini or something like that?

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are not good for you. ​

 

[SteadySystems]

Griff - not that I know of. That's why I offered someone to connect in and take a look.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

How many times did I hear "other software (eg Word) runs well". Database file access differs very much of loading a document, just as one example. Eg Ping time plays a bigger role than sequential read and throughput.

Since you say the app finally runs in the same speed as the win2k server, you only have the startup problem. So what happens, if you just copy the EXE local and start it there? Does it then not find the data files? Con you configure it to look into the central (win7) folder? As griff asked, is there some configuration, eg INI file or similar?

Bye, Olaf.

 

[SteadySystems]

Olaf - there seems to be a main.ini from what I can see. Sending another video, standy.

 

[SteadySystems]

Little more insight:

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c26YIueQTA

 

[Olaf Doschke]

So there is another twist in what you show now in starting the win2k system from the win7 system as a client.
The goal is to start the test system from an XP client on the win7 client acting as server.

The question is, whether you can have a much better load time if the EXE in the LU_ folder is copied to the XP client instead of just having a shortcut to the exe.
And the fear is, this won't find the data, as the EXE seems to find the data where it is itself, that's why we asked fro some config. The main.ini doesn't seem to have paths in it to the data.

But what you can try is this:

1. copy lucky.exe from the remote folder to a local folder
2. create a shortcut to the local lucky.exe (on an XP machine)
3. edit the shortcut properties and set "start in" to the central LU_ folder instead of the folder of the local exe copy.

What this does is: a) the EXE itself is loaded into memory from the local drive, not via LAN. b) the working directory (the current directoy the application itself will "see") still is the central folder with all the data in it.

That may help. If the EXE is programmed using a foxpro command to tell it its own location that won't work.

Bye, Olaf.