Solved Faster "Metro" app start times

[slowturn]

I've found a way to make the loading time of Metro apps faster. I've tested this on 2 different laptops, but want to find out if it helps anyone else.

The method is:
1) make a remote desktop connection (RDP) to your Windows 8 machine from another Windows machine (in my case, a Windows 7 desktop).
2) verify that your metro apps are not running in the background already (Check Task Manager)
3) open a metro app and see it open 5 times faster!

For whatever reason, I've found that when opening Metro apps over a remote desktop connection to a Windows 8 machine, they open noticeably faster than if opening them while using the Windows 8 machine locally.

Doing this I saw my metro app load times go from ~10 second down to 2 seconds.

Is anyone else seeing this behavior?

Details on the laptops running Windows 8: One is an Intel core i5 w/ 4GB of RAM and a 7200 RPM drive w/ Intel 4000 integrated graphics. The other is a core i7 w/ 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD w/ Intel 4000 integrated graphics.

Thanks!

 

[davidvkimball]

I've found a way to make the loading time of Metro apps faster. I've tested this on 2 different laptops, but want to find out if it helps anyone else.

The method is:
1) make a remote desktop connection (RDP) to your Windows 8 machine from another Windows machine (in my case, a Windows 7 desktop).
2) verify that your metro apps are not running in the background already (Check Task Manager)
3) open a metro app and see it open 5 times faster!

For whatever reason, I've found that when opening Metro apps over a remote desktop connection to a Windows 8 machine, they open noticeably faster than if opening them while using the Windows 8 machine locally.

Doing this I saw my metro app load times go from ~10 second down to 2 seconds.

Is anyone else seeing this behavior?

Details on the laptops running Windows 8: One is an Intel core i5 w/ 4GB of RAM and a 7200 RPM drive w/ Intel 4000 integrated graphics. The other is a core i7 w/ 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD w/ Intel 4000 integrated graphics.

Thanks!

My brother and I tried this, using an HP Pavilion desktop running Windows 8 and a custom-built desktop running Windows 7. I used remote desktop on Win7 but it didn't seem to make much of a difference in running Metro apps (as far as speed is concerned). We used the same network, and the main users.

Which particular apps did you experience this behavior with?

 

[slowturn]

Thanks for testing this out!
So how fast do your metro apps open when run locally to begin with?

To answer your question, I saw this behavior with every app I tried: Weather, Mail, Stocks, Store, Sports, Bing, and News.

I guess I should be more specific on my test process:
Working locally on the laptops, from the time I click on the app tile to the time the content of the app is displayed, it takes between 8-10 seconds. This is starting the apps without them running in the background already. The loading screen for each app opens pretty much instantaneously, but the content takes another 8-10 seconds to appear.

When I RDP into the laptop and run the same test, the time it takes from clicking the tile until the fully rendered content is displayed is ~2 seconds - a drastically better experience.

Does anyone else have slow (8-10 seconds) Metro app loading times?

 

[mikiep]

Mine were slow but suddenly they are 2 seconds at most.
I noticed last night win8 ran an automatic defrag.. plus I have been watching event logs, admin, system & applications, and fixing little problems and oddities as I see them. Might be one of those little problems speeded it up.

 

[slowturn]

After some more testing I discovered that changing IE 10's Advanced settings to Enable Software Rendering (instead of GPU rendering) made the metro apps load in ~2 seconds! Great! But now my CPU is being consumed doing the display rendering, eating up more battery.

I then recalled that the USB 3.0 docking station I was testing installed a DisplayLink display driver when I set it up originally. So on a hunch, I uninstalled the DisplayLink software and driver (from Add/Remove programs), disabled Software Rendering in IE 10 and rebooted.

And it worked! Metro Apps now load fast! It's a much different experience. So the USB 3.0 docking station driver was at fault. Hope this helps anyone else having a similar issue.

 

[tinkererguy]

slowturn, you've nailed it, that's exactly the fix for me too, using a USB 3.0 docking station, what a strange thing

I went ahead and pointed to this site from my site over here, with an update at the end of the article:
How to enjoy Windows 8 on your Lenovo ThinkPad W520 laptop, with 3 external monitors, and an external keyboard and mouse | TinkerTry IT @ home

I don't seem to have CPU busy issues, so left my DisplayPort driver and NVIDIA drivers in place, all is well now. Thank you!

 

[Shuren Inferno]

thanks it worked