Solved Has Anyone Noticed That MS Programs Load faster Than 3rd Party Ones?

Poorly written programs can take longer to load and execute than well written programs.

Kees said:

That's why I start eMClient with system start...
This appeared to be the solution for that: start it at systemstart by placing a shortcut in the folder:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

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Same. Kind of a convoluted workaround but it works. You'd think they'd have a setting for that!

dalchina said:

Many things demand proper understanding before use.

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Yeah..., I can think of OneDr, One other thing!!!

dalchina said:

That's why so many things come with instruction manuals.

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Instruction Manuals are always sold out, or in a foreign language, or, so tiny I can't read 'em anyway!!!

NO, I haven't seen this either.

TraderGary said:

Poorly written programs can take longer to load and execute than well written programs.

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True dat!!! If we lived in a perfect world, we wouldn't know each other, would we!

Edwin said:

Is your Outlook a Startup item?

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My Classic is not, just clicked it and 2 seconds to open.

Ever since I switched from a HDD to a SSD, Thunderbird loads real fast.

Sorry I have been gone. Out of town on business.

I can assure whomever asked that I have not been smoking catnip.

I was thinking that it might be a thing that software compiled with an MS compiler loads faster that those compiled with another one. There is a reason for my thinking, based on years of fiddling with MS compilers. An MS compiler on a Windows machine will pull resources from Windows natively, making it unnecessary for the OS to load that particular resource. Another compiler may not optimize that way and not pull in the resources and libraries at compile time, resulting in a longer load. Just a theory though.

I have found a stop watch and I will be timing my load times on a few apps. I will post what I get if it is relevant. My PC at work, which is identical, does not suffer from this problem.

If your using office 365 it probably would load faster , a locally installed office suite I can attest .... no

I'm a Microsoft 365 subscriber and my current version of Microsoft Office is 2604 (Build 19929.20090), released April 21, 2026. My Office apps are installed locally and load instantly on both my System One and System Two computers.

Office will seem to open faster same reason photoshop opens faster than gimp.

Office and adobe have services running in the background as well as startup items that speed up the loading.

Gimp and paint net don't use that.

Libre office, the most popular open source office suite has an autorun as well.

Also depends on how much ram you have and if your ssd has dram cache or not.

Lots of factors at play. But generally its because of startup services and background loading.

This is why edge loads quicker, because it has tons of background services to enable it to launch quickly.

This is also why microsoft recently preloaded file explorer as well so it feels a bit faster.

It would be better to optimize things more vs just bandaiding it by preloading, but it is what it is. Some heavy apps it makes perfect sense of course.

Catnip said:

I have noticed lately that more often than not, when I load an MS program like Visual Studio 2026 Pro or Word/Excel, that they load almost instantaneously. These programs are huge. Yet, when I load a really small program like Paint.NET, it can take two to three seconds. Other 3rd party apps take between 2 and 5 seconds to load to a log in or start screen. Heck, OrCAD takes 5 1/2 minutes to load, but that may be another problem. Look away, look away... One the other hand, VS 2026 Pro takes about 1 second to pass the start screen and ask what you want to do. If I am paying attention, I can be into VS, with my code loaded in less than six seconds. That's only 3 seconds more than Paint.NET, yet VS is an ungodly amount bigger.

Is this some perverse way for MS to punish us for using 3rd party, side-loaded programs? I wonder if I got Paint.NET from the MS Store if it would load faster than my regular old installed copy?

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I was curious of Copilot answer:

Short answer: No — Windows is not punishing third‑party apps. Microsoft apps load faster because they are heavily optimized, pre‑warmed by Windows, and integrated into system components in ways third‑party apps generally are not. Paint.NET from the Store might launch slightly faster due to packaging differences, but the effect is usually small. Windows 11 Forum

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Why Microsoft apps feel “instant”​

Several technical factors give Microsoft‑built apps a natural speed advantage:

1. Deep OS integration​

Apps like Word, Excel, and Visual Studio use Windows components that are already loaded in memory (COM libraries, .NET runtime, DirectWrite, system UI frameworks).
This means less work at launch, because much of what they need is already resident.

2. Aggressive pre‑loading and caching

Windows pre‑loads and caches parts of Microsoft apps because they are used by hundreds of millions of users.
This includes:

• Prefetch/Superfetch (SysMain) heuristics
• ReadyBoost‑style caching
• Shared DLLs already in memory

This is not favoritism — it’s usage‑based optimization. Windows optimizes what you run most.

3. Highly optimized startup paths​

Microsoft invests heavily in startup performance.
Visual Studio, for example, uses:

• On‑demand extension loading
• Deferred tool‑window initialization
• Lazy loading of subsystems

These design choices are documented explicitly in Microsoft’s own performance guidelines. Github Microsoft Learn

4. Store apps sometimes launch faster​

Microsoft Store apps use the MSIX packaging format, which provides:

• Clean dependency isolation
• Faster registration
• Better caching behavior
• More predictable disk access patterns

So yes — Paint.NET from the Store can launch slightly faster than the classic installer version. But the difference is usually measured in fractions of a second, not dramatic leaps.

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Why third‑party apps can be slower​

1. They load more dependencies at startup

Many apps load:

• Custom frameworks
• Plugins
• Large UI libraries
• Hardware drivers (e.g., OrCAD)

These must be read from disk and initialized every time.

2. They don’t benefit from OS‑level pre‑warming​

Windows doesn’t pre‑load their DLLs unless you run them constantly.

3. Some apps do expensive work before showing UI​

Examples:

• License checks
• Plugin scanning
• Hardware enumeration
• Network calls
• Loading large resource files

This is why OrCAD taking 5½ minutes is not surprising — EDA tools often load gigabytes of libraries and device models.

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Is Microsoft slowing down third‑party apps on purpose?​

No.
Even users in the thread you referenced report that third‑party apps load just as fast on their systems, suggesting the issue is environmental rather than intentional. Windows 11 Forum

Windows does not contain any mechanism designed to penalize non‑Microsoft software.

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Should you switch Paint.NET to the Store version?​

If you want to experiment:

• The Store version may launch slightly faster due to MSIX packaging.
• It also updates automatically and is sandboxed more cleanly.
• But don’t expect dramatic improvements — maybe a few hundred milliseconds.

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Aha! I knew it was optimization. I should have figured that out in the first place.