- Mar 5, 2019
- 711
- 1,403
Here's something I came across while using GIMP on Windows 10. Posting the solution here in case anyone else is getting annoyed by it.
Seems that Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom (or otherwise) often take it upon themselves reset certain flags, etc. whenever there are major updates. In other words, undoing users changes to suit themselves. One of them that badly affects programs that use their own file dialogs, like GIMP, is the legacy floppy drive controller. If you're using an older motherboard that supports a floppy drive, Windows will occasionally recognise it and turn the drive back on, even if it doesn't exist.
This results in delays of up to 7-8 seconds when opening or saving files before the file dialog even appears. The request is sent to the non-existent floppy drive and the system just sits there till it times out. The most permanent solution is to turn the floppy controller off in the BIOS where it's out of the reach of Windows. If you don't want to do that, you can go to the Device Manager in Windows and disable the floppy drive there but it might get turned on again at some stage when there's a major update.
I just turned the floppy drive off in Device Manager and went from a 7-8 second delay with every file op to near instantaneous.
Seems that Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom (or otherwise) often take it upon themselves reset certain flags, etc. whenever there are major updates. In other words, undoing users changes to suit themselves. One of them that badly affects programs that use their own file dialogs, like GIMP, is the legacy floppy drive controller. If you're using an older motherboard that supports a floppy drive, Windows will occasionally recognise it and turn the drive back on, even if it doesn't exist.
This results in delays of up to 7-8 seconds when opening or saving files before the file dialog even appears. The request is sent to the non-existent floppy drive and the system just sits there till it times out. The most permanent solution is to turn the floppy controller off in the BIOS where it's out of the reach of Windows. If you don't want to do that, you can go to the Device Manager in Windows and disable the floppy drive there but it might get turned on again at some stage when there's a major update.
I just turned the floppy drive off in Device Manager and went from a 7-8 second delay with every file op to near instantaneous.
