Why does picture manager start up so slowly?

[abqjim]

After one of the most recent Microsoft automatic updates, my (Office) Picture
Manager seems to take quite a bit longer to start up than it used to. Any
connection to the update? Any remedy available?

 

[ChiefEngr]

I'm not glad you are having the problem, but I am glad that it isn't just me!
I don't know when it began, but if I double click a filename that is
associated with Picture Manager (like a .JPG), I get Picture Manager's splash
screen and it sits there for well over a minute doing absolutely nothing. No
disk activity, no network activity, it's not trouncing through memory, and it
doesn't seem to be sucking up any CPU cycles as reported by Task Manager. It
just sits there!

If anyone has any clues, please let us know!

Thanks!

 

[ChiefEngr]

I found this posting which refers to the slow startup issue on a google group
at the following link:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.design.gallery/browse_frm/thread/9f79381e38a4902

It suggests that if the most recently used list (MRU) points at network
shares that are no longer reachable, Picture Manager will spin its wheels
while it waits for them to time out. It identifies a .cag file that can be
edited to remove references to MRU entries that are no longer reachable. One
of the posters to this thread points out that the fact that Picture Manager
(a 2003 product) sufferers from a start-up issue with not-found network
shares (a problem from Win95/Win98 days) is unacceptable. One of the MS-MVP's
suggests an alternate free viewer at http://www.irfanview.com and cautions
that you should get all the 'plug-ins' since some file types will require
them.

When I editied my .cag file, picture manager was much more responsive.

Good luck!