Multi Commander startup time is about 70 seconds

[Barney63]

New MC user here, Multi Commander startup time is about 70 seconds, both installed and portable version. OneDrive is installed and active. Any ideas?
Windows 11, all updates.

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2026-08-07 10:18:53.311 Use extra UI thread for progress dialogs : 0
2026-08-07 10:18:53.316 Failed to read the key mapping file : CustomKeymappings.xml
2026-08-07 10:18:53.375 Copied templete config file : "C:\Program Files\MultiCommander (x64)\Config\Scripts\Examples\Examples.zip" to (cutted...)
2026-08-07 10:20:04.045 OneDrive folder not found : ""
2026-08-07 10:20:04.045 OneDrive folder not found : ""
2026-08-07 10:20:04.062 Dropbox appdata folder not found : "C:\Users\Bernd\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox"
2026-08-07 10:20:04.062 GoogleDrive folder not found : "<empty>"
(cutted...)

[Mathias (Author)]

in core setting for logging.. for application log , change loglevel to full.. and you will se in more details in the log., often it is becuse it tries to get information about remote devices that is not reachable.

[Barney63]

Thank you.

P:, W:, and X: are mapped network drives belonging to PCs that are only in use intermittently and are powered off when Multi Commander starts up.
P: causes a startup delay but is not displayed as "offline" within MC; this only happens with W: and X:.
When I bring P: online, W: then causes a startup delay. It seems Multi Commander generally struggles with offline network drives and consequently skips the subsequent offline drives?
I also currently use Total Commander, which does not exhibit this behavior; it always starts quickly and immediately displays P:, W:, and X: as offline drives.

If P: ist offline, it delays startup:

2026-08-08 10:22:06.737 [Device Manager] - Starting to get device information for drive : P
2026-08-08 10:22:30.442 [Device Manager] - Get Device Icon for : P:
2026-08-08 10:22:30.457 [Device Manager] - Processing 'P:\' done
2026-08-08 10:22:30.457 [Device Manager] - Starting to get device information for drive : W
2026-08-08 10:22:30.459 [Device Manager] - Get Device Icon for : W:
2026-08-08 10:22:30.480 [Device Manager] - Processing 'W:\' done
2026-08-08 10:22:30.480 [Device Manager] - Starting to get device information for drive : X
2026-08-08 10:22:30.483 [Device Manager] - Get Device Icon for : X:

If P: ist online, now following W: delays startup:

2026-08-08 10:54:36.906 [Device Manager] - Starting to get device information for drive : P
2026-08-08 10:54:36.907 [Device Manager] - Get Device Icon for : P:
2026-08-08 10:54:36.916 [Device Manager] - Processing 'P:\' done
2026-08-08 10:54:36.916 [Device Manager] - Starting to get device information for drive : W
2026-08-08 10:54:57.930 [Device Manager] - Get Device Icon for : W:
2026-08-08 10:54:57.944 [Device Manager] - Processing 'W:\' done
2026-08-08 10:54:57.944 [Device Manager] - Starting to get device information for drive : X
2026-08-08 10:54:57.946 [Device Manager] - Get Device Icon for : X:

Can I change this behavior regarding network drives via configuration?

[Mathias (Author)]

MC does not handle the network it self. It is all done by Windows. and sometimes Windows does not know if it is available until it tries to access it. and it takes a while before it times out.

[Barney63]

Other applications display the drives, and the timeout (typically 5 seconds for network drives, not 40 seconds) only occurs when the drive is selected. No Windows application I am aware of takes 40 seconds simply because there are disconnected network drives.

[Mathias (Author)]

Normally the timeout is not 40s.. not sure why it is that long for you. MC has no control over it.

[Barney63]

Sorry for being a bit persistent here; I’d really like to use MC in the future.

I have now tested older versions of MC (portable 64-bit version).

The last version (and all older ones) that starts up quickly, as expected, is MultiCommander_x64_Portable_(15.5.0.3102). All subsequent versions exhibit this long delay.

MultiCommander_x64_Portable_(15.5.0.3102):

Code: [Select]

2026-08-17 08:47:23.310 Initialization of Core started.
...
2026-08-17 08:47:23.790 Loaded config file : d:\temp\MultiCommander_x64_Portable_(15.5.0.3102)\Config\Modules.xml
...
2026-08-17 08:47:24.193 [Device Manager] - Starting to get device information for drive : W
2026-08-17 08:47:24.195 [Device Manager] - Get Device Icon for : W:
2026-08-17 08:47:24.203 [Device Manager] - Processing 'W:\' done
...
2026-08-17 08:47:25.857 Show Main Window

MultiCommander_x64_Portable_(15.6.0.3119):

Code: [Select]

2026-08-17 08:47:24.787 Initialization of Core started.
...
2026-08-17 08:47:25.546 Loaded config file : d:\temp\MultiCommander_x64_Portable_(15.6.0.3119)\Config\Modules.xml
...
2026-08-17 08:47:26.380 [Device Manager] - Starting to get device information for drive : W
2026-08-17 08:47:46.435 [Device Manager] - Get Device Icon for : W:
2026-08-17 08:47:46.461 [Device Manager] - Processing 'W:\' done
...
2026-08-17 08:47:47.644 Show Main Window
That is why I still don't believe that Windows 11 (current version) is to blame here.

[Mathias (Author)]

There is no change between 15.5 and 15.6 that has anything to do with the startup.. Running them after each other will affect startup time since Windows will cache result for devices. and timeouts will be less.

There is NO API call in windows that say if a network device really is there or not. Windows will have to try to access it before it can say that.

[Barney63]

Okay. For anyone else facing the same issue: I found a workaround; however, other applications (Explorer, Total Commander, Salamander ) now no longer visually distinguish between connected and offline network drives, because the connection is only established at the moment of access—specifically, when I click the drive letter within the application.

Registry tweak to address the delay

• Press Win + R, type `regedit`, and press Enter.
• Navigate to the following path: `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider`
• Look for the DWORD (32-bit) value named `RestoreConnection`.
• If the value does not exist, create it by right-clicking -> New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value and naming it exactly `RestoreConnection`.
• Double-click `RestoreConnection` and set the value to 0 (zero).
• Restart your computer.

Note: With this setting, the network drive will no longer connect in the background during system startup (or application startup); instead, it connects only when you actively access it in File Explorer.

All versions of MC now exhibit the same startup behavior...

[Barney63]

One more thing occurred to me: I reverted the registry change and launched MC v15.5 and v15.6 again. And bingo—fast starting v15.5 correctly distinguishes between online and offline network drives and displays them correctly. That doesn't happen in v15.6. It shows W: incorrectly as connected and did not show X:. There is a fundamental difference here.

[Mathias (Author)]

Sorry. No there is no difference in the code for this. code for this is exactly the same in 15.x and even in 16.x  But Windows it self should cache device status.

You can turn off device in core settings > FileSystem > Tweaking.
Under Hide Device. then MC will not probe any of them.