[vlc-devel] VLC startup delay caused by vlc-qt-interface.ini on Windows possible fix?

[Really?]

Hi VideoLAN team,

I’ve been troubleshooting a recurring VLC startup delay on Windows for
several users including myself and seem to have isolated it specifically to
VLC’s Qt interface configuration file.

On my system, VLC will sometimes take approximately *7 seconds to open*.
Resetting the entire VLC profile makes VLC launch essentially instantly, so
I narrowed the issue down further.

The file responsible appears to be:

%APPDATA%\vlc\vlc-qt-interface.ini

I can reproduce the following behavior:

   1. Close VLC completely.
   2. Delete or rename vlc-qt-interface.ini.
   3. Launch VLC.
   4. VLC opens essentially instantly.
   5. Allow VLC to regenerate/use its Qt interface configuration normally.
   6. At some point, subsequent launches return to taking approximately 7
   seconds.
   7. Removing/resetting vlc-qt-interface.ini again immediately restores
   fast startup.

I also tested marking a freshly generated vlc-qt-interface.ini as
*read-only*. Interestingly, doing so caused the ~7-second startup delay
immediately. Removing the read-only attribute restores normal behavior.

This makes it appear that VLC is either:

   - waiting on or retrying a write to the Qt interface configuration
   during startup, or
   - loading some particular state written into vlc-qt-interface.ini that
   causes a substantial delay.

The main vlcrc configuration does not appear to be involved. In my testing,
vlcrc remained unchanged while vlc-qt-interface.ini was being rewritten,
and resetting only the Qt interface file was sufficient to resolve the
startup delay.

System information:

   - Windows 11 64-bit
   - VLC version: [insert version]
   - Issue occurs on repeated normal launches
   - Startup when unaffected: nearly instantaneous
   - Startup when affected: approximately 7 seconds

I can provide both a known-good vlc-qt-interface.ini and an affected/slower
version, or a diff between them, if that would help identify which
setting/state is responsible.

Thanks for looking into it.

Best,
Michael
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc-devel/attachments/20260920/a885ca15/attachment.htm>