CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-studiowinformsperformance
Eaton
Eaton

Reputation: 1320

WinForms Performance Question

My application has several large forms with lots of images which dramatically increases the size of the built executable. Over time, it seems that the startup performance becomes sluggish and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

If I put all of the forms besides the main form in a separate dll, would it alleviate some of the pressure put on the application during startup?

I'd test it myself, but I have A LOT of forms and I don't want to do it unless someone can confirm that such an action will prove to be useful.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 395

Answers (5)

Mike Dunlavey
Mike Dunlavey

Reputation: 40649

As others said, profile, don't guess.

Not just any profiler will do. Here's a user (besides me) who discovered random pausing on his own. You say the "intense" methods are all in dlls you don't have source code for - that's typical and normal. What you need to know is which statements in your code are requesting the time to be spent, and they can't be restricted to CPU-only time. Most profilers don't tell you this, but random-pausing does.

If you're interested, here's a recent discussion of the issues.

Upvotes: 0

IAbstract
IAbstract

Reputation: 19871

I'm wondering if you were to use MEF and Lazy load, then when you actually need the module (Form) instantiate by calling .Value.

There are a couple of things I do with applications containing a lot of forms:

  • Create a UI .exe: basically only my forms
  • Create a backend .dll: everything that does the work behind the UI.

Are the images actually included in the .dll? If so, I would actually put my images into a .dll separate from the UI.

Given that the images are for toolbars, I wouldn't split them out as resources. I'll still stand fast on my advice to split into multiple .dlls.

Upvotes: 0

Dark Falcon
Dark Falcon

Reputation: 44181

Another tip that may be useful: This reduced my application's startup time from 2 minutes to <10 seconds on a low-end thin client. Use NGEN to generate a precompiled native image of your assemblies.

Upvotes: 1

SteveCav
SteveCav

Reputation: 6719

Many factors can affect startup performance. Have you used any tools to prove that it's the images?

For a start, go through these tips: http://devcomponents.com/blog/?p=361

And consider using multithreading to load bigger objects in the background.

Upvotes: 1

BeemerGuy
BeemerGuy

Reputation: 8269

I'm not quite sure about that, but if I were you I would use the Profiler when it comes to improving performance.
Before I go guessing what's wrong, I consult with it and work my way up, because it tells me which methods and classes are costing the most in my code.

Upvotes: 1

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