Having the same issue on Windows 10. Did some testing with different Geany versions, different install and file locations and two different machines:
### Geany versions - 1.37.1 --> slow - 1.37 --> slow - 1.36 --> slow - 1.36 **portable** --> fast - 1.35 --> fast
``` 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Geany 1.37.1, German_Germany.1252 22:28:45: Geany INFO : GTK 2.24.32, GLib 2.66.2 22:28:45: Geany INFO : OS: Windows 10 1909 22:28:45: Geany INFO : System data dir: C:\Program Files (x86)\Geany\data 22:28:45: Geany INFO : User config dir: C:\Users\lupus\AppData\Roaming\geany 22:28:45: Geany INFO : System plugin path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Geany\lib\geany 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Arduino (63). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Clojure (64). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype CUDA (65). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Cython (66). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Genie (67). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Graphviz (68). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Groovy (69). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype JSON (70). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Kotlin (71). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Nim (72). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Scala (73). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype Swift (74). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype TypeScript (75). 22:28:45: Geany INFO : Added filetype AutoHotkey (76). 22:28:45: GLib-GIO DEBUG : _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation winhttp (GWinHttpVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’ 22:28:46: Geany INFO : unknown : None (UTF-8) ```
``` 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Geany 1.35, German_Germany.1252 22:28:40: Geany INFO : GTK 2.24.32, GLib 2.60.1 22:28:40: Geany INFO : System data dir: C:\Program Files (x86)\Geany_135\data 22:28:40: Geany INFO : User config dir: C:\Users\lupus\AppData\Roaming\geany 22:28:40: Geany INFO : System plugin path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Geany_135\lib\geany 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Added filetype Arduino (61). 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Added filetype Clojure (62). 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Added filetype CUDA (63). 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Added filetype Cython (64). 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Added filetype Genie (65). 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Added filetype Graphviz (66). 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Added filetype JSON (67). 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Added filetype Scala (68). 22:28:40: Geany INFO : Added filetype AutoHotkey (69). 22:28:40: GLib-GIO DEBUG : _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation winhttp (GWinHttpVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’ 22:28:40: Geany INFO : unknown : None (UTF-8) ```
``` 11:32:03: Geany INFO : Using alternate configuration directory <----- PORTABLE 11:32:03: Geany INFO : Geany 1.36, German_Germany.1252 11:32:03: Geany INFO : GTK 2.24.32, GLib 2.60.6 11:32:03: Geany INFO : System data dir: F:\PortableApps\GeanyPortable\App\Geany\data 11:32:03: Geany INFO : User config dir: F:\PortableApps\GeanyPortable\Data\settings 11:32:04: Geany INFO : System plugin path: F:\PortableApps\GeanyPortable\App\Geany\lib\geany 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Arduino (61). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Clojure (62). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype CUDA (63). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Cython (64). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Genie (65). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Graphviz (66). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Groovy (67). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype JSON (68). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Kotlin (69). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Nim (70). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Scala (71). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype Swift (72). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype TypeScript (73). 11:32:04: Geany INFO : Added filetype AutoHotkey (74). 11:32:04: GLib-GIO DEBUG : _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation winhttp (GWinHttpVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’ 11:32:04: Geany INFO : unknown : None (UTF-8) ```
Notice the different GLib versions. GTK is identical.
### Slow vs. fast With "slow" I mean the longer load times for opening (new) files, which I first realized after upgrading from 1.35 to 1.37. With "fast" I mean the normal load times from 1.35.
As already mentioned, the problem is not the startup time of Geany itself, but the time to open a file. This applies to opening a text file from an arbitrary location on disk, but also **opening a new and empty file** via `ctrl+n`.
In my opinion, there is nothing special about opening sessions/projects, except the fact that sessions usually include multiple files, which means one slowdown per file in the saved session.
### Plugins and settings Tried with plugins and with deactivating all plugins via settings -> general menu. No difference. Tried with and without `files.save_config_on_file_change`. No difference.
### Location and machine Staying on the same machine (tested at work), it makes no difference if I run Geany (or load files) from the local SSD, HDD, USB flash drive or network share. At least the Geany/file location impact is much smaller than the difference between the slow and fast Geany versions. On the machine at home I did not test with different install locations, but expect the same result.
My machine at home shows faster startup/load times in general. The slow/fast version difference is still noticeable, albeit less pronounced.
### Portable version This really puzzles me. It was the last test I did. Before, I was sure hat something must have changed between 1.35 and 1.36 (untouched by changes introduced in 1.37 and 1.37.1). But than I discovered that [PortableApp's 1.36 version](https://portableapps.com/apps/development/geany_portable) has the fast load times from 1.35 and not the slow ones from 1.36 non-portable!
Unfortunately, it seems like they don't offer 1.37 or 1.37.1 yet and 1.34 not anymore. 1.33 is still available, but I did not test it, because I expect fast times as with 1.35.
So far, I only tested 1.36 portable at work, but will test at home later.
The big question is: Why do 1.36 portable and non-portable behave differently? With the portable version, one does not start Geany directly, but with a launcher executable `GeanyPortable.exe`. The launcher does some "portable magic" beforehand, than loads `geany.exe`, and does some cleanup afterwards (as far as I understand the portable apps system).
Anything else I can do to narrow down the problem?