Delphi 7 is a lot slower on Windows 10 (compared to Win7)

[Yaron 53]

I know Delphi 7 is old, but I have projects that I maintain and once I upgraded to Windows 10, compilation/running is a lot slower compared to Win 7 (on the same machine).

 

I believe it may has something to do with the real-time virus protection (which I disabled in Win7 and is very hard to disable in Win10), but there may be other factors I'm not aware of.

 

Does anyone have any tips to speed things up?

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

If you have admin rights, you can exclude paths from the RTVP.
There also is https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15078/windows-10-make-older-apps-or-programs-compatible

[Yaron 53]

I've added the entire Delphi folder and my entire development partition (all my projects are on a separate drive) to the Exclusion list, but it didn't have an impact on the compilation/execution slowdowns.

 

I tried the compatibility troubleshooter which suggested running as Win XP SP3, but when doing so, I couldn't even run my applications from Delphi, it just froze.  Trying Win7 compatibility now to see if it works any better (at least apps run).

[rvk 33]

Do you see the cpu for "Antimalware Service Executable" process skyrocketing when you compile in D7?

 

Did you try disabling some of the "Exploit protection"-settings (i.e. CFG and DEP) of Defender?

(Setting > Security > App & Browsercontrol > "Exploit protection settings" at the bottom)

If that works you can enable it again and only exclude your processes from it.

 

[Arnaud Bouchez 407]

I don't see Delphi 7 being slow on Windows 10, with the built-in antivirus/antimalware.

I installed it in a c:\Progs\Delphi7 folder, not in the default "c:\program files" sub-folder.
Ensure you installed https://www.idefixpack.de/blog/ide-tools/delphispeedup/ tool.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Arnaud Bouchez

[Yaron 53]

@rvk Thank you, I've disabled exploit protection for "c:\Program Files (x86)\Borland\Delphi7\Bin\delphi32.exe" and my app's executable to see if it helps.

 

@Arnaud Bouchez I wasn't ware of delphispeedup, I'll give it a shot.

 

And by "slow", I mean about 50% slower compile times and longer load time when running the app from within Delphi.

[aehimself 396]

By any chance you are running it in a virtual machine?

Edited August 31, 2020 by aehimself

[dummzeuch 1505]

I have not noticed any slow down in D7 compile speed when i upgraded my development computer from Windows 8.1 to 10.

What stands out about your installation though is that it is located under "program files (x86)". Mine isn't because D7 writes to its installation directory. So maybe that has something to do with the slow down you experience?

[Yaron 53]

@aehimselfnot using a VM

 

@dummzeuchI changed the folder permission to allow full control to the user-account, had the same setup in Win7.

[dummzeuch 1505]

3 hours ago, Yaron said:

I changed the folder permission to allow full control to the user-account, had the same setup in Win7.

Program Files is handled special by Windows 10, so changing the permissions might still not be the same as using a different directory.

I'm not saying that's the cause, but it might well be it.

[David Heffernan 2345]

8 hours ago, dummzeuch said:

D7 writes to its installation directory

What does it write there? 

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

It's been a long time, but IIRC it was some config files.

[dummzeuch 1505]

Some configuration files, as Lars said.

 

Edit:

I just checked:

It's the .dst files which store the desktops and a delphi32.dsk file which stores the recently used files and other information.

Edited September 1, 2020 by dummzeuch

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

Did it also attempt to take some liberties with regards to HKLM?

[Arnaud Bouchez 407]

2 hours ago, Lars Fosdal said:

Did it also attempt to take some liberties with regards to HKLM?

Not that I have seen.

You can run Delphi 7 with non-admin rights, as soon as you install it not in "c:\program files".
This did not change since Vista.

[David Heffernan 2345]

Doesn't virtualization take care of all of this? Or does the D7 IDE have an app manifest?

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

Windows 7 was released in 2009, and Delphi 7 was released in 2007.  I guess it was not Windows 7 ready/aware.

[David Heffernan 2345]

37 minutes ago, Lars Fosdal said:

Windows 7 was released in 2009, and Delphi 7 was released in 2007.  I guess it was not Windows 7 ready/aware.

UAC, virtualization, etc. was introduced with Vista in 2006

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

It seems it still was a manual process to create manifests for D7: https://readmydamnblog.com/2010/02/12/creating-a-delphi-7-application-that-triggers-uac/

I have no idea if D7 itself had a manifest.

[dummzeuch 1505]

53 minutes ago, Lars Fosdal said:

I have no idea if D7 itself had a manifest.

I'm pretty sure it didn't. If was released only a few months after Windows XP.

[dummzeuch 1505]

1 hour ago, Lars Fosdal said:

Windows 7 was released in 2009, and Delphi 7 was released in 2007.  I guess it was not Windows 7 ready/aware.

Delphi 7 was released in 2002! You're thinking about Delphi 2007.

Edited September 1, 2020 by dummzeuch

[Sherlock 663]

1 minute ago, dummzeuch said:

I'm pretty sure it didn't. If was released only a few months after Windows XP.

Well it did have the TXPManifest Komponent. But I don't believe they really used it themselves.

[dummzeuch 1505]

2 hours ago, David Heffernan said:

Doesn't virtualization take care of all of this? Or does the D7 IDE have an app manifest?

Maybe virtualization is causing the slow down the original poster is talking about?

 

I never install anything to program files, that wants to write to its installation directory. Virtualization has bitten me to many times.

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

10 minutes ago, dummzeuch said:

Delphi 7 was released in 2002! You're thinking about Delphi 2007.

OMG! Yes. 

[David Heffernan 2345]

FWIW, I have always installed Delphi, even as far back as D6 under program files. Once Vista and UAC arrived, I recall having to add a couple of permissive ACLs onto a couple of files, but it was pretty trivial. And had the benefit of keeping my machine nice and tidy.

 

I understand that people have different preferences, but I just wanted to point out that installing under program files is not as terrifying as it can be made out.

Edited September 1, 2020 by David Heffernan