Performance Hints

This page lists ways to make ThumbsPlus perform better in certain situations. It also provides ways to track down problems with performance. I also wanted to use my lemonade image again.

These hints are written for ThumbsPlus version 7 SP2 build 2251. Many are also applicable to earlier versions.

Below are several symptoms related to performance. Each references the hints most likely to be a problem with that particular symptom. Or just read all of the hints! Each will give you some insight into how ThumbsPlus works.

Symptom	See Hint numbers

Startup is slow or hangs	3, 4
Showing the file list is slow (when starting or changing folders)	2, 3, 5, 7, 8
Expanding branches in the tree is slow	3, 5
Slow opening images	1, 2, 3, 6
Editing images is slow	1
Everything is slow	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9
"Updating file list" (in the status bar) constantly	2, 3
Loading raw digital camera images	1, 6
Not using all processors or cores	9


#	Hint	Information

(1)	Memory	ThumbsPlus itself does not require a lot of memory, but working with large images does! If you're working with very large images and are running other memory-intensive applications, it may take much longer than expected to view, thumbnail or convert images. Memory is cheap these days; one of the fastest ways to speed up your computer is to add memory! Running a lot of background tasks can require a lot of memory, especially if large files are being loading. Try reducing the Max. concurrent tasks in Options • Preferences • Advanced. See hint #9 for more information on tasks. For editing images, you can turn off Undo, or decrease the maximum memory ThumbsPlus will allocate for Undo operations. Both options are on the Options • Viewing • Editing.
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(2)	Other programs	Other programs running using the CPU ("spinning") can interfere with ThumbsPlus and other programs. Because any background tasks, like making thumbnails, run at low priority, it may take them significantly longer to run. You can enable the option Run background threads at normal priority in Options • Preferences • Advanced. You may also want to use the Windows Task Manager or the wonderful Process Explorer from sysinternals.com to check for other programs using all of your CPU time.
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(3)	Enormous numbers of files in folder(s)	Having thousands of files in a folder can cause several issues: It can make expanding folders slow because of searching for sub-folders (in order to display the [+] for folders with child folders). To speed up the tree, disable Show Expandable from the Tree menu. It may take a long to to update the file list when files are change , added or removed from the folder. To fix this, disable Watch changes in folder in Options • Preferences • Thumbnail View. With this disabled, you will need to use Window • Refresh Thumbnails to see any changes that have occurred to the folder. When viewing large numbers of files, the thumbnail view operates quickest if no user-defined fields are displayed, and no database information is required for sorting. When viewing a single image, ThumbsPlus builds a list of files for the Previous File and Next File functions. This can require a significant amount of memory for tens of thousands of files.
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(4)	TWAIN problems	Occasionally, old TWAIN drivers can cause ThumbsPlus to be very slow starting up or hang it altogether. Be sure to uninstall drivers for any scanners or cameras no longer on your system, and be sure your drivers are up-to-date for your currently connected hardware. If the manufacturer did not provide an easy way (such as Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel), you can disable drivers individually using Device Manager from Control Panel • Administrative Tools • Computer Management. If you don't use ThumbsPlus for scanning images, you can completely disable TWAIN in Options • Preferences • Startup. If you're unable to run ThumbsPlus at all (it hangs completely), you can disable TWAIN by adding -notwain to the command line for the shortcut: Note that -notwain is placed last, outside of the quotes.
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(5)	Zip files in folders	If you are not using ThumbsPlus to view files within ZIP files, turning off this option will speed up many folder tree operations. Also, invalid zip files can cause performance problems. If you receive ZIP error message during folder or file operations, you may want to rebuild the mentioned zip files.
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(6)	Raw camera files	Because of the amount of processing required to completely decode raw camera files, they are generally slower than other formats. If you need to rapidly look at a bunch of images, you can use Options • File Plug-ins • Digicam Plug-in to load the embedded JPEG for viewing. You'll have to change this back for editing (though batch processing always uses the full raw image). Also be sure to set your camera for the largest allowed preview. If you spend a lot of time culling or sorting raw images, you can use the slide show as well. By default, the slide show uses the preview. Loading some Canon raw (CRW, CR2) files is somewhat faster if Suppress noise filter is checked on the Canon tab. Nikon (NEF) files will generally load faster if you uncheck Use Nikon libraries to load images on the Nikon tab.
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(7)	Shared database	The default database format (MS Access JET) is not designed for concurrent use by a large number of users, so you may see performance degradation as additional people connect. There is not a specific number of users — it really depends on how active the users are. In situations where JET is just too slow, we recommend a true client/server database, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL or SQL Server. Our database page lists the databases that we test and support.
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(8)	Database problems	ThumbsPlus is database driven; all thumbnails, annotations, keywords, file information, galleries and queries are stored in the database. If the database becomes corrupted because of disk problems or frequent crashes, or becomes fragmented because of disk fragmentation, things can become unbearably slow. Databases upgraded from older versions of ThumbsPlus may also have thumbnails stored in non-JPEG formats, which take more disk space and longer to load (with old slow processors, this was better because the JPEG decompression was not fast enough for a screen full of thumbnails). The following steps are for MS Access JET databases only (.TD4 or .MDB): Make a backup copy of the database. Repair the database. File • Database • Repair. This will fix internal errors in the database. Be sure your thumbnails are JPEG compressed: File • Database • JPEG Compress. The recommended quality is 80; higher quality will require more disk space. Note that this will not recompress existing JPEG thumbnails. Compact the database. File • Database • Compact. This is kind of like an internal defragmentation of the database, and frees any unused space. Defragment the disk containing the database. You should defragment your disks regularly and automatically for best system performance. I use Raxco's PerfectDisk 8 at work and at home, and recommend it highly. Be sure the database is not a compressed file! The thumbnails themselves, which make up the bulk of the database, don't compress well anyway, and Windows compression just adds extra overhead to every database disk operation. Very rarely, usually after corruption and repair, Microsoft JET will completely remove an index from the database. (Indexes are used to quickly locate information). This can cause excruciating slowness, especially with large databases. We don't currently have a quick fix to this, but we plan to build in a check during database repair in the future. If you suspect this problem, try creating a new database (don't overwrite your current database!) and make a few hundred thumbnails. If the new database is much faster, you can open the original database, export the data to a text file (File • Database • Export) and import into the new (File • Database • Import). Note: if the database is very large, be sure to export to a disk with a lot of free space. Also, the disk should be formatted as NTFS, since FAT32 only supports files up to 2GB.
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(9)	Multi-threading	ThumbsPlus has been multi-processor compatible and multi-threaded for 10 years! Any background tasks (making thumbnails, batch processing, catalogs, contact sheets, web wizard) run in separate threads that can use multiple processors. You can see each task on the *Tasks* tab. Tasks waiting for an open slot show an hourglass; running tasks a green arrow. You can set the maximum number of concurrent tasks in Options • Preferences • Advanced. When dealing with large images, it's probably not a good idea to run a lot of background threads, because of memory limitations on a 32-bit platform. (We're working on a 64-bit version that will be able to use much more than the current 3GB limit imposed by 32-bit Windows). Multiple threads are also used for movie playback, database activities and the preview window. interface. As of Version 7 SP1, image filtering in a view window will use all processors and cores. Other image processing functions will be multi-threaded in future releases.
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