Loading time of workbook

Is it normal that it takes around 30-40 seconds to load a compiled workbook on a fast PC ?
My Workbook is around 3 MB and loads in a couple of seconds as a normal XLSM file. But when compiled to EXE its about 6.5 MB in size and takes 30-40 seconds to come up.

Best Regards

Same for me… Why does it take so long time? Any answer?

I have also noticed this issue. I have done a lot of tests in different PCs (around 30) and there are 3 of them that takes 1 minute to open the Excel. I don’t know why.
In one case it took 2 minutes with Windows 8.1 64bits - Excel 32 bits (Office 365). The problema in this last case was solved when I reinstalled Excel but this time using Office 2013. Some files were overwritten and now the Excel protected file opens in 15 seconds.

The EXE must decompress all internal files and workbook to memory when starting. On
slow PC, it can take some time, especially with large workbook files. So 30-40 seconds to unpack several MB of data isn’t surprising if you haven’t got enough free RAM and if you have a lot of applications already working.

I am suffering again this issue with a quite new PC (Windows 8.1 and later 10, 64 bits). I am using the last version of XLSPADLOCK.
PC features: Intel i5, 16GB RAM.

1-Issue with Windows 8.1
I installed XLSPADLOCK and Office 365 (32 bits). I generated the .EXE from a 6 MB Excel file (.xlsb) using hardware locked keys option.
When the .EXE is started the loading took 2 minutes!!! . It happened always.
I reinstalled Excel over the Excel 365 but this time using Excel 2013. After this the loading time was 5 seconds. It seems the reinstallation overwrote some previous files solving the problem.

2-Similar issue with Windows 10
I migrate to Windows 10. Same problem with same loading time of the .EXE.
I try also with a .EXE but enabling the XLSPADLOCK option “Do not store the info in the windows registry”. Same problem.
I have not reinstalled Excel waiting for a solution from GDG Soft.

Yes, it looks like Excel installed with Office 365 is sometimes slower to load workbooks. It’s not a problem specific to XLS Padlock but protected workbooks can suffer the same. See http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/how-fix-excel-file-slow-open-bug-windows-10 for instance.

Thank you for the link but I do not think my problem has to do with the article. I am not using Cortana and the problem with XLSPADLOCK is with Windows 8 and 10.
In my case to load an Excel .xlsb workbook takes 5 seconds but the same file generated with XLSPADLOCK takes 2 minutes.

Could you check if the protected EXE file is still in task manager when Excel is started after the 2 minutes?

Checked.
The file .EXE is in the task manager.

Hi Guys,

I have the same issue,
On my Dell i7 16GB windows 10 it takes 5-10 seconds to open a blank .exe excel file

on my Lenovo i7 16GB windows 10 it takes 5-10 minutes to open.a blank .exe excel file

I am trying a reinstallation of office to see if it fixes anything but any help would be appreciated

Larry

Is it the same Excel version on your two computers? Which one? Do you have Office 365?
And did reinstall work for you? (it worked for several customers).

I experience the same slow loading behavior.

On a fast PC it takes about 10-15 seconds before the splash screen appears. In my opinion the splash screen should be shown almost instantly for the following purposes.

  • Shortening the loading time mentally (it feels shorter, since something happened).
  • The user get confirmed that he actually started the application (no mis clicks) and that he has to wait.
  • Professional look

I have three questions.

  • Can you improve the loading speed?
  • Can you give suggestions what a developer can do to speed up the loading process?
  • If shorter loading time remains an issue, can you at least make sure the splash screen shows within a second?

Such a delay is not expected. There is certainly a conflict with some third-party software.
BTW did you try this option:

Displaying the splash screen immediately isn’t possible, however, it could be possible to add some “loading please wait” dialog box.

Well, I have to say, it takes about 10 to 15 seconds until the nag screen (of the trial version) appears. After clicking ok at the nag screen the splash screen shows up almost instantly.

Since you state that such a delay is not expected, how many seconds until the splash screen is expected?

4-5 seconds, depending on your computer configuration. The EXE file must unpack its core files to memory before it can really start the “real” application with splash screen, nag screen…

Did you try with the option highlighted before?

I have tried the option you suggested. It does not seem to make a difference in loading time. It does make a difference in size.

However, you are right about the fact that it should be faster. On two other workstations, the nag screen shows within 2 seconds.

I don’t see what could be delaying the loading process that much, but I will search a bit harder on my workstation.
If I find the cause I will share it here.

The cause has been found.

For some reason when I load the executable directly from a file share (in this case a VirtualBox file share representing a folder on the VM host), it takes 10-15 seconds until the nag screen.

When I copy the file (7 MB) local into the VM Guest (Win7), then loading takes about 1 second until the nag screen.

Maybe XLS Padlock has an inefficient way of loading on a file share?
Maybe the shared folder of VirtualBox is very slow, however I have never noticed this behavior before.

Steps to reproduce

  • Install VirtualBox
  • Install Win7 + Office 2010 on a VM
  • VM Settings -> Shared Folder -> Machine Folder -> i.e. Downloads -> /home/user/Downloads
  • Copy the executable in the Downloads folder
  • Run from the Downloads folder

If you need more info, please let me know.

Thank you for this interesting discover. We’ll try to optimize the loading of a workbook on such a shared folder.

Support

Having the exact same thing xlsm file uncompiled takes 15 seconds…The compiled exe takes 1min 05 seconds.Please can you look into it as this is a bummer having such slow loading time -I see this is not solved and I can attest having the exact same issue as other users with extreme slow loading times

Try to save the workbook to .*xlsb instead of xlsm to see if there is any improvement?