Common.zip slow logon time

[synw]

Hi All,

We have noticed that the Microsoft Office 2016 file "Common.zip" takes more than 20 sec to be loaded :

2021-12-09 13:23:46.811 [INFO ] Importing profile archive 'Common.zip' (\\[redacted]\UEM_PROFILE\[redacted]\archives\Microsoft Office 2016\Common.zip)
2021-12-09 13:23:47.010 [DEBUG] ImportRegistry::Import: Calling '"C:\WINDOWS\REGEDIT.EXE" /S "C:\Users\[redacted]\FLX25C7.tmp"' (RPAL: l=0 (D/E), r=0)
2021-12-09 13:24:07.119 [DEBUG] Read 408 entries from profile archive (size: 24722533; compressed: 4229628; took 20304 ms; largest file: 19057182 bytes; slowest import took 123 ms; registry took 1094 ms)

Is it possible to load this file later (DirectFlex)?  If yes with which process(es) as trigger?

or

Is it possible to reduce the size (.reg file is +/- 19 MB)?

Thanks for your help!

[Ray_handels]

It is not really best practice to set Office applications to Flex because it is integrated with the OS to much to do that.

Did you check waht info is stored within the common.zip file? Are these the shared office settings? You could try to check and see if it is possible to exclude certain paths but looking at our config I don't see those large files in our environment. I'd suggest looking into the .zip file to see what is the cause of the large file.

[synw]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for your quick reply.

The main info is located under the registry file : Flex profile.reg = 18 MB

A lot of Hex info under (Appname varies)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\AppName\ConfigContextData

We use the standard ini file :

[IncludeRegistryTrees]
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\FirstRun
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Microsoft Office 2016
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Registration
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\User Settings
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VBA

[IncludeFolderTrees]
<AppData>\Microsoft\AddIns
<AppData>\Microsoft\Bibliography
<AppData>\Microsoft\Office
<AppData>\Microsoft\Proof
<AppData>\Microsoft\Spelling
<AppData>\Microsoft\UProof
<AppData>\Microsoft\Templates
<LocalAppData>\Microsoft\Office\ONetConfig

[ExcludeFolderTrees]
<AppData>\Microsoft\Templates\LiveContent

[Information]
Title = Shared_20151028
Description = Shared Office settings

Thanks for your help!

synw

[synw]

Typo :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\FirstSession\Appname\ConfigContextData

and also

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\Ecs\Appname\ConfigContextData

With Appname = Word, Excel, Outlook, OfficeClickToRun, officeinventoryagent, protocolhandler, etc...

Thanks

[Raymond_Handels]

We seem to have the exact same configuration but don;t have that lareg files. Mine for example is only 400kb large. What happens if you remove the zip file and recreate it? Is it still this big or is it created a lot smaller?

[synw]

Hi Raymond,

Thanks for your reply.

I've deleted, rebooted and the file keeps the same size.

I've noticed that all the users haven't such large zip file (generally < 500KB) and for +/- 10% of the users this increase to more than 10 MB.  I've to figure out why because normally the ini file is the same for everybody.

Anyway, thanks for your help!

synw

[synw]

Hi Raymond,

Are you using the same common.ini file ?

[IncludeRegistryTrees]
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\FirstRun
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Microsoft Office 2016
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Registration
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\User Settings
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VBA

[IncludeFolderTrees]
<AppData>\Microsoft\AddIns
<AppData>\Microsoft\Bibliography
<AppData>\Microsoft\Office
<AppData>\Microsoft\Proof
<AppData>\Microsoft\Spelling
<AppData>\Microsoft\UProof
<AppData>\Microsoft\Templates
<LocalAppData>\Microsoft\Office\ONetConfig

[ExcludeFolderTrees]
<AppData>\Microsoft\Templates\LiveContent

[Information]
Title = Shared_20151028
Description = Shared Office settings

[mrkasius]

Hi synw,

Do you use Modern Comments? If I'm not mistaken, this registry location is partially used for that feature.

[synw]

Hi,

Not in Office 2016 (I don't think it is even available) but I also take part of the M365 PoC where modern comments is present.

Do you think the M365 settings are saved in the common files of the Office 2016?

Thanks for your help!

synw

[mrkasius]

Yes, I think so.

[synw]

OK

Do you know what will be the consequences if I exclude these registry hives from the saved settings?

synw

[mrkasius]

Honestly, I don't know. I would suggest cloning the existing common.ini, making changes to the cloned common.ini, and doing some trial and error with Conditions.

[synw]

OK, many thanks to all for your help!

Kind regards,

synw

[Ray_handels]

Hmm, wrond account i logged in with :).

If you exclude soemthing from DEM the only downside is that it will not be placed back when you log in again, that's about it. Depends on how important the info is.

[DEMdev]

Hi @synw,

I don't know much about application-specific settings so I can't help with tweaking the config file, but I do want to point out that trying to limit the size of the .REG data might not result in noticeable performance improvements for you:

2021-12-09 13:24:07.119 [DEBUG] Read 408 entries from profile archive (size: 24722533; compressed: 4229628; took 20304 ms; largest file: 19057182 bytes; slowest import took 123 ms; registry took 1094 ms)

Importing that 18 MB .REG file took just over 1 second. The other 19 seconds were consumed by importing those 400 other files. Maybe there's something you can tweak there? Any on-access scans getting in the way here, possibly?