Vista 64 + RAD Studio + Adobe Type Manager = 9 second delay

Since last weekend my RAD Studio 2007 and 2009 has started to have a 9 seconds delay where the whole computer stands still. The crAppStart mouse cursor’s animation (rotation of the circle) was freezed and my hard disk was hard at work. That is something I don’t like at all. So I analyzed what updates and applications I have installed last weekend.

1. Vista updates
2. Acrobat Reader 9 + updates

But what have those two things to do with RAD Studio. On the first sight, nothing. I started (good old) ProcessMonitor to see what is happening in those 9 seconds. The I/O information I got was continuously, no leap. But the registry information had this 9 seconds leap. With the last registry access’s time stamp I was able to identify the last I/O entry that was listed before the 9 seconds delay starts. It was reading from the “Windows\System32\atmfd.dll”. And that happend after the IDE (coreide.bpl) created a font file in the %temp% directory. The next thing Vista does is reading about 1500 *.cat files from the Windows\System32\catroot directory. And that takes 9 seconds.

The interesting question now is what atmfd.dll is. Looking at the file information shows me that it is the “Abobe Type Manager” Version 5.1.2.227 (modify date: 2009-06-15). And from my Windows 3.1 knowledge I know that ATM is for fonts what makes sense because the IDE loads the editor line-end font. (But the last time I needed ATM was in Windows 3.1. Adobe should get rid of this antique software and use TrueType fonts which are standard for ages.)

With that information I searched the registry for atmfd.dll. And what I found was that Microsoft has added the atmfd.dll to the compatibility list: “amd64_microsoft-windows-gdi_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16870_none_03bfc9ae15f5fb76”. And now it becomes clear why Vista loads all those *.cat file. It looks for a file that contains the required compatibility information.

Because I don’t need the Adobe Type Manager and Acrobat Reader also works without it, I decided to uninstall it. But there is no installer. So I ended up disabling it by removing it from the “Font Drivers” list which only contained one item, the “Adobe Type Manager”.

Solution:

1. Open regedit.exe
2. Navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Font Drivers
3. Make a backup of the “Font Drivers” key
4. Delete the “Adobe Type Manager” entry
5. Navigate to HKLM\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Font Drivers
6. Make a backup of the “Font Drivers” key
7. Delete the “Adobe Type Manager” entry

Now RAD Studio starts as fast as it has before without the additional 9 seconds delay.