Launchbox / BigBox slow fixes.

[-McFly-]

I've been on this quest for a few years, the more I add the slower and less responsive my whole system becomes. From browsing these forums and Googling a lot as well as trial and error I'm going to stick my neck out and give you my tips on how to speed up your system.

1. In LB - Tools / Clean Up Media. Do as much as you're comfortable with, this will delete a lot of files, which in turn will speed up your build. I started with Images only before doing Videos / Manuals / Music. 

2. Defragment ALL your drives, including your C:\ drive. This may sound obvious but I've found significant speed improvements doing this. I use smart defrag, it's not the Windows one but I find it to be better overall. Start with quick then do defragmenting & prioritizing files if you choose this method.

3. Use SymLinks where you can, especially when you have drives not directly connected to your LB PC. Videos and images should be on your main LB PC, if possible.

4. If you can't put your Videos and Images on your LB PC, I suggest making sure that the ethernet connection between your main LB PC and your other computer is at least CAT 6 shielded cable. If you want to go further, use fiber (Fiber NIC/port on your LB PC -> Fiber switch-> Other PC Fiber NIC/port.) This may seem extreme but it all adds up.

5. Use an SSD drive for your main Launchbox install. If possible, use SSD's for everything... expensive I know but this is about speed and responsiveness. If you can, install LB on an NVMe drive to increase responsiveness even further.

6. Make sure you're running the fastest PC you can with all the driver and updates installed, including all the video drivers, Direct X (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35), Windows, etc.

7. Buy a faster Video Card, bigger CPU and more Memory. This makes a huge difference. You know this, just adding it here before someone else does  Ultimately, the better your system performs, the better LB and BB perform.

7. After adding or removing platforms or games, repeat steps 1 & 2.

8. I found that on a system that only runs LB / BB, if you have the computer boot straight into either LB or BB without loading Windows Explorer, it's much faster. I did this by editing the registry - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon change 'Shell' to your Launchbox.exe / BigBox.exe location. I saved (exported) this key before changing to allow changing back to explorer.exe easier later. (You only need the specific line regarding this key, everything below the headers can be removed except the specific 'Shell' line) When you boot with this option, bringing up Windows Explorer can be done using Task manager - File - Run New Task and typing 'explorer' (without the quotes). I saw a significant improvement doing this. (I've attached my 2 registry files as examples. If you use these, remember to change the Launchbox / BigBox paths to your own paths.)

 

Feel free to add any speedup tips you've found yourself, or comment on whether these tips helped you.

 

Play on!

Mikie.

shell startup BigBox.reg shell startup Explorer.reg

Edited June 20, 2021 by Mcfly 2019

[C-Beats]

Thanks for the tips, I do want to point out though that doing number 8 exactly the way worded, explorer will not be started which (last I knew) means some functionality inside of Big Box will stop working, namely Volume Up/Down automation.

[-McFly-]

4 hours ago, C-Beats said:

Thanks for the tips, I do want to point out though that doing number 8 exactly the way worded, explorer will not be started which (last I knew) means some functionality inside of Big Box will stop working, namely Volume Up/Down automation.

Yes, this is true.  You won't see the start button but you can open files and folders. There are ways around the volume controls using 3rd party apps like EarTrumpet but this might not be to everyone's taste. Thanks for pointing this out!

[CriticalCid]

So far, a lot of good points you brought up here. But there’s one thing that I can’t leave unchallenged. You should only defrag mechanical drives! Never defrag a SSD drive! Because of the substantial difference on how mechanical and SSD drives work you won’t get any performance benefits from defragging them. Instead, you actively harm your drives health cause of the wear and tear you produce with the defragmentation process.

Here’s a good article that describes everything in more detail: https://helpdeskgeek.com/help-desk/should-you-defrag-an-ssd/