Designer Processing time - What Happened to Xara?

Folks,
I have been using Xara since ~2006 and love the program.
Lately however, my current Designer (x17) is acting up significantly. I find when I select the Color Picker, the processing time for any other selected object becomes unacceptable. I have to restart the software in order for it work properly. A similar effect is also occurring when selecting the Web Properties or Page properties. This is not a new problem.

The Web and Page properties slow load occurs all the time and is not solved with a reboot, the color issue is solved with a reboot.

I run a powerful and newer Workstation (Xeon W-2225, 8 processor, 4.1 GHz Core with 64GB EEC RAM). Xara should be lightning speed on my computer, but I find it frustratingly slow and slugish. I had the very same problems with version x17 on my older workstation computer (which was also very powerful and ran previous versions of Xara with no problem and at lightning speed).

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thev, that smacks of incorrect DLL files. Have you Run as administrator since installing?

Acorn

A definite slow-down I have experienced with large sites with a number of Repeating objects is almost any change and Xara runs through some internal heap and the box for Web Properties > Link > Link to Web disappears until the traverse is complete.
This can be 10s of seconds.

I delete the repeating Groups, work on one page and restore the Repeating objects again.

Adding v18.0 / v21.0 into the mix of https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...82684-Timings:

Either Start-up - 4s.

V18.0 File > Page Options - <1s.
V21.0 File > Page Options - 2.5s.

Line gallery > Document brushes - 5s.

V18.0 Utilities > Options - <1s.
V21.0 Utilities > Options - 3s.

Acorn

Acorn,
Thanks for the feedback. I have not run Designer as Admin since installing. Upon your suggestion, I see that I do not have a Right Click menu item for "Run as Administrator" on Designer. I never noticed that before. I am the Admin on my computer, and should have this access. I also was not aware of the decreasing load times on various Designer versions. I do recall that I thought x12 was much more responsive and that response times have been decreasing with version updates. From your other post, I see that Xara is on x21. I guess it's time for me to shell out for another year of updates... I noticed the price went up again this year (due to bundled software...).

If you believe I may have an incorrect DDL file, do you think reinstalling might fix that? It is absolutely possible because I have multiple versions of Designer on this computer, x12, x16 and x17 (which I'm on). I fear I may need to uninstall all of them. I originally wanted multiple version so I could have multiple software instances open (working on graphics or text - where I don't need to worry about file compatibility). Multiple instances seem to only work with my v9, the latest version I have from before the whole SaaS change. I have 4 'x' licenses in total and many computers in my home, it's confusing to keep all the software versions aligned.

In any case, if you agree that the DDL could be the causal factor, what might you suggest? Uninstall everything I have that's under version x?
Many thanks Acorn,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thev

Acorn,
Thanks for the feedback. I have not run Designer as Admin since installing. Upon your suggestion, I see that I do not have a Right Click menu item for "Run as Administrator" on Designer. I never noticed that before. I am the Admin on my computer, and should have this access. I also was not aware of the decreasing load times on various Designer versions. I do recall that I thought x12 was much more responsive and that response times have been decreasing with version updates. From your other post, I see that Xara is on x21. I guess it's time for me to shell out for another year of updates... I noticed the price went up again this year (due to bundled software...).

If you believe I may have an incorrect DDL file, do you think reinstalling might fix that? It is absolutely possible because I have multiple versions of Designer on this computer, x12, x16 and x17 (which I'm on). I fear I may need to uninstall all of them. I originally wanted multiple version so I could have multiple software instances open (working on graphics or text - where I don't need to worry about file compatibility). Multiple instances seem to only work with my v9, the latest version I have from before the whole SaaS change. I have 4 'x' licenses in total and many computers in my home, it's confusing to keep all the software versions aligned.

In any case, if you agree that the DDL could be the causal factor, what might you suggest? Uninstall everything I have that's under version x?
Many thanks Acorn,

---

Theve, don't rush it. That's when mistakes are made.

Run as administrator
There are several routes to getting this right.

1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Designer Pro X\Version Number\
2. Locate DesignerPro.exe > Run as administrator

1. Right-click Desktop Shortcut > Run as administrator

1. Right-click Taskbar icon > right-click Xara Designer Pro ##> Run as administrator

If none of these do not show then you have a MS faux Administrator set-up.
You might have to set up an elevated admin role, as described here: https://www.techrepublic.com/article...in-windows-10/.

XDA versions
The latest Magix version is Xara Designer Pro X 18.0.0.61642 DL x64 Mar 18 2021.
This is different to Xara's separate one, Xara Designer Pro+ 21.0.0.61527 SL x64 Mar 9 2021.

The first is accepted though a new purchase or Upgrade through Magix.
The second can be bought or negotiated with Xara as a conversion form a Magix one. Xara's offering is a pure subscription model.

DLL
I only suspect a bad DLL set-up. Its proof or otherwise is a Run as administrator.
I would NEVER uninstall a version as a re-install will probably bump you back into the purchase version.
I have around a dozen versions all running happily; some need a permanent Run as admin tweak.

I hope this clears things up for you.

Acorn

Thanks Acorn,
I was able to 'Run as Administrator' and can confirm that the same odd and slow effects are not occurring when run as admin. When I close the Designer Instance as admin and re-open Designer the standard way, I am also no longer seeing the negative effects; however, it took a number of hours of running the program to see some of the slowing effects (hence why I suspected a cache issue originally). I will experiment with this over the next few days to see if the effects come back and if Running as Admin helps the situation.

I'm not sure why "Running as Admin" would have any effect one way or another, but am grateful for the work-around/solution.

Considering there is a different effect when Run as Admin, do you still suspect a bad registry file?
Thank for your help Acorn,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thev

Thanks Acorn,
I was able to 'Run as Administrator' and can confirm that the same odd and slow effects are not occurring when run as admin. When I close the Designer Instance as admin and re-open Designer the standard way, I am also no longer seeing the negative effects; however, it took a number of hours of running the program to see some of the slowing effects (hence why I suspected a cache issue originally). I will experiment with this over the next few days to see if the effects come back and if Running as Admin helps the situation.

I'm not sure why "Running as Admin" would have any effect one way or another, but am grateful for the work-around/solution.

Considering there is a different effect when Run as Admin, do you still suspect a bad registry file?
Thank for your help Acorn,

---

No, nothing to do with the Registry. The possible issue was a Firewall or running applicatio stopped the DLLs from being relinked to newer ones and so you XDA has been having a fight with itslef.

I always Run as admin and restart my device before panicking.

Acorn

Update,
The "Run as Admin" seemed to work for a bit, but it may have just been the resetting the program that could have sped thing up temporarily.

I updated to version 18 and the issue is still occurring. Whenever I select the "Link Properties" or Colour Selector" it looks like the Display Resolution is changing. This resolution change could definitely slow things down, but I don't know why Xara is charging the Resolution on me.

I am running x2 - Quadro P620's with x3 - 32" monitors. I have 2 other 27" monitors, but disabled them to see if there was any positive effect, but there was non. The System is: W-2225 CPU @ 4.10GHz w/ 64Gb RAM

Any assistance is greatly appreciated, this issue is driving me nuts...

SOLVED

Folks,
I think I may have found the source of the issue. I uninstalled v12 of Designer X and all seems to be working as expected. I ended up paying to renew the Update Service (updating software being a tool in troubleshooting that DRM licensing doesn't make easy/cheap); but v18 was even worse, far more worse than 17, practically unusable.

Grasping at straws, I was starting to methodically uninstall all versions of Designer X, starting at v12 (earliest version on this computer). I opened the newly installed v18 and all was back to normal lightning speed. I tested v17 and it too seemed to have been corrected. I would have paid for the update at some point anyway, just not until a useful feature was added...

My plan was to uninstall all versions, find and clear out any residual files/folders, then start reinstalling with the latest version (v18) - And perhaps just install 18 and 17 if they played nice together. But I didn't need to go very far, v12 uninstall solved the issue completely. If the issue returns and this ultimately wasn't the solution, I'll respond to this thread for the record.

In any case, happy to have solved the problem. Man, it was a frustrating problem. I can't believe I lived with those issues for so many months with such a simple fix.
Hope this thread helps the community, updated the Thread title for others with similar issues to find easier.

TheV

@Thev, great it's solved and thanks for the update.

I have every version back to v10 still installed in both XWDP & XDPX.

The problem I had was some would not open at the same time as some others so I set the awkward ones as always Run as administrator and this solved it for me.
I asked Xara about this and never got an answer other than you can't do it. It took me 6 months.

So welcome to the We'll get there Ourselves Club.

Acorn