VS2010 takes 5 seconds to simply open any XAML files (!)

Question

Visual Studio 2010 - release - takes about 5 seconds to open a xaml file.

It does it on some machine, not all of them!

.cs files open instantly. It only happens to XAML.

We tried the following, unsuccessful:

• Run VS as Administrator
• import user settings from a machine that didn't have the problem
• clear the borked registry using ccleaner
• turn off design view in the settings when xaml opens
• Open As xaml files with VS xml editor
• change IE settings to ignore certificate verifications (?)

Anyway, we're pretty desperate.

I have Quad core i7 1.73ghz with 8 gig of ram and SSD harddrive! It's definitely a bug or something fishy, because the system runs bullet fast!

Any help greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Looking on the connect website for xaml bugs there seem to be an awful lot of bugs complaining about the performance when interacting with xaml files. This one is particularly interesting: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/553236/visual-studio-2010-cpu-50-when-xaml-editor-is-open

Here is an excerpt:

Having looked into this issue further with my colleagues, we believe that the behavior you are seeing is likely to be a transient CPU usage increase to around 50% for a very short time when a XAML file is first opened. This behavior should not be preventing you from interacting with the XAML editor, and is considered normal "by design" behavior as we construct the designer for that XAML.

Answer 2

If you're up for it, you can create a performance trace using the VS 2010 Diagnostic Tool extension. If you send me an email (noahric AT msft), I can get you instructions and place to upload generated ETW traces.

You can also open your own bug on Connect, and they'll probably/hopefully have you supply the same information. That will get you in contact directly with the cider (xaml designer) team, which I can try to do but can't exactly promise :)

Answer 3

Hi All

It is hard to diagnose this sort of issue without a little more detail.

1.Do you see the same sort of issue opening all XAML or just particular XAML files (i.e. is it a project-specific issue or a machine wide issue)?

2.Are the machines where you see this issue by any chance fresh installs of VS (we have seen lots of reports where the problem “goes away” after VS finishes NGen’ing its assemblies after installation)?

3.Have you tried interacting with the XAML earlier (see amurra's point earlier)? It may be that the CPU is still spinning but you are unlocked for editing.

Thanks Mark Wilson-Thomas Program Manager, WPF & Silverlight Designer, Visual Studio

Answer 4

Ok we found the problem!

We had missing references to some DLL's on those machine.

Those machines didn't have DevExpress installed, yet the solution was using devexpress in the reports projects.

I noticed the difference as soon as DevExpress got installed. So the problem was silently missing dll's to some third party.

Xaml files open instantly now.

Thanks all for the genuine help and apologies as it wasn't directly related to VS2010. I hope it will help people with the same issue in the future.