Files 15-20 Second Delayed Opening

Jamo · Oct 25, 2023

HI there,
I'm trying to find out an issue that has been occuring where files, mostly PDF and Office File Types, are taking a long delay (15-20 seconds) to open unless we choose the "Unblock" option in the Properties window of the document. Once that document has been opened or the Unblock option is applied, the document opens immediately going forward.

This started to occur about a week ago for 2 users nearby and this week, it's happening to me. I attempted to uninstall AV and the issue remained. Added registry entries to Associations under Policies to add them as "LowRiskFileTypes", and tried to uninstall OneDrive in case that may be caching anything. I also noticed that right-clicking on these documents take a while as well.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!

I am on Windows 11 Pro 22H2 (22621.2428)

Berton · Oct 25, 2023

I've noticed over the years that slowness tends to occur when more programs are added that can work with the same format. In the case of PDF files it has become more apparent when having a PDF program such as Lightning, FreePDF, Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader installed and the ability of Internet Browsers and office-type suites in opening the same files, Windows takes a bit longer to decide which to use regardless of what is set in File Association.

TechnoMage2021 · Oct 25, 2023

For FAST Opening of PDF files, I found out, years ago, that "Foxit reader" was the fastest, hands down.

JFYI

TM

Jamo · Oct 25, 2023

Berton said:
I've noticed over the years that slowness tends to occur when more programs are added that can work with the same format. In the case of PDF files it has become more apparent when having a PDF program such as Lightning, FreePDF, Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader installed and the ability of Internet Browsers and office-type suites in opening the same files, Windows takes a bit longer to decide which to use regardless of what is set in File Association.

We only have Acrobat Pro installed on the machines and obviously disabled Edge's takeover. I also tried doing the re-association and that didn't change the speed of new documents.

LesFerch · Oct 25, 2023

Jamo said:
unless we choose the "Unblock" option in the Properties window of the document.

If these are files that you created locally, or share via a Windows server, they should not be marked as "blocked". That should only happen when a file is downloaded using a browser (and only on NTFS). Are these downloaded files?

If checking the "Unblock" option (which removes the ADS from the file) eliminates the delay, this sure sounds like an AV issue. What AV software do you have?

Jamo · Oct 26, 2023

LesFerch said:
If these are files that you created locally, or share via a Windows server, they should not be marked as "blocked". That should only happen when a file is downloaded using a browser (and only on NTFS). Are these downloaded files?

If checking the "Unblock" option (which removes the ADS from the file) eliminates the delay, this sure sounds like an AV issue. What AV software do you have?

We use Sophos and I removed the AV and the issues persisted. It happens with all files and not ones that are just downloaded or as e-mail attachments within Outlook. I do see one fix that leading me somewhere...if I disable Wi-Fi and Ethernet, the documents open without delay and things are working as expected. I need to pinpoint why that is the case now.

LesFerch · Oct 26, 2023

Jamo said:
We use Sophos and I removed the AV and the issues persisted. It happens with all files and not ones that are just downloaded or as e-mail attachments within Outlook. I do see one fix that leading me somewhere...if I disable Wi-Fi and Ethernet, the documents open without delay and things are working as expected. I need to pinpoint why that is the case now.

Possibly related to OneDrive (or some other backup/sync tool)?

You also need determine why an ADS is being added to all your files that marks them as having come from the Internet. That's not normal.

Jamo · Oct 26, 2023

LesFerch said:
Possibly related to OneDrive (or some other backup/sync tool)?

You also need determine why an ADS is being added to all your files that marks them as having come from the Internet. That's not normal.

Yeah I removed OneDrive from the PC and can't think of any other syncing tools. I'm unsure what's causing that to be added to the files either but it may be coming from Group Policy since it's not just me. (or a recent Windows Update since it's started to happen last week and no changes to GPO were made)

LesFerch · Oct 26, 2023

Check the "Trust Center" settings as per this post.

Jamo · Oct 26, 2023

LesFerch said:
Check the "Trust Center" settings as per this post.

This was already unchecked for me within all Office programs.

LesFerch · Oct 26, 2023

Also check the registry settings documented here.

And here.

Jamo · Oct 27, 2023

LesFerch said:
Also check the registry settings documented here.

And here.

Thanks, I tried these and am having no luck. Would these devices being Hyrbid AZ Domain Joined have something to do with it? Maybe there's a setting or default policy within Azure that controls this? It seems it goes away once I'm not connected to the internet (Wi-Fi or Ethernet).

LesFerch · Oct 27, 2023

Jamo said:
Would these devices being Hyrbid AZ Domain Joined have something to do with it? Maybe there's a setting or default policy within Azure that controls this? It seems it goes away once I'm not connected to the internet (Wi-Fi or Ethernet).

Sounds like something worth checking, but I'm long removed from AD, so I'm not set up to run any tests.

Have you tried asking at techcommunity.microsoft.com?

Seems to be some folks there that might have a clue:

Hybrid-AD joined devices are being blocked