Loading up NT

[Zythyr]

There needs to be a faster and efficient method of loading up NT. Starting it up takes forever, with the annoying splash screen blocking the view off my desktop. Not only that, even after NT loads up, all the chart take forever to load. Then I have to connect to my broker, then the charts start loading again. The charts load up twice!! NT startup is really slow, inefficient and annoying.

[ctrlbrk]

There needs to be a faster and efficient method of loading up NT. Starting it up takes forever, with the annoying splash screen blocking the view off my desktop. Not only that, even after NT loads up, all the chart take forever to load. Then I have to connect to my broker, then the charts start loading again. The charts load up twice!! NT startup is really slow, inefficient and annoying.

Here here! The splash screen thing has been mentioned for a long time, I trust it has been corrected in NT 7. Hopefully the other areas of efficiency you mention have made it in as well. The beta is out soon!

One thing I thought of doing to speed up loading was to create a cmd script that launches NT. The script would hide my workspaces, so NT wouldn't try loading all of them at start up. It would be a blank start up that way (just control center). Then I connect to zen fire, and by then my workspaces are unhidden (script can just use a 10 second delay or so to move them back into the folder).

And please, for the love of mike, let the modal optimization window and "this cannot be aborted window" no longer be modal in NT 7!

Mike

[Zythyr]

Thanks ctrlbrk.

Also, another thing I noticed are the chart windows. If I click on any chart window from my desktop taskbar, it won't pop. I have to right click on it and then click "Restore". It is really annoying.

[Jim W.]

Efficient way to start NT 6.5

Zythyr,

While trying to find the cause of NT6.5.8 locks up on load problem I found an efficient way to start NT 6.5. When I start NT only the Control Center starts with the Default Workspace. No other windows are displayed. Then:

1) select File | Connect | Patsystem to connect to my order entry system.

2) wait for Pats to connect then select File | Connect | Esignal to start my data provider

3) wait for Esignal to connect then select File | Workspace | Open Workspace | workspace name to start my Chart and DOM windows.

NT Shutdown steps that must be followed every time:

1) Before I shutdown NT I click File | Workspace | Close Workspace and when prompted click YES to save my workspace.

2) When I shutdown NT and am prompted to save the Default workspaces I click NO.

The above two steps are important to keep Default.xml the only workspace in your _Workspaces.xml file and Control Center the only window in the Default workspace. Following these steps to shutdown and startup NT the Charts only load once and no modification or moving NT files is required.

If you want to try this you should make the Control Center the only window in your Default workspace:

1) start NT as you usually do then do a backup of NT files. Select File | Utilities | Backup. Be sure that Workspaces is checked then click Run Backup.

2) If you have saved Charts or DOMs in a workspace other than the Default workspace then when all windows are displayed, select File | Workspace | Close Workspace. When prompted to save your workspace click YES.

3) If you have saved Charts or DOMs in the Default workspace then select File | Workspace | Save Workspace as ... and provide a workspace name.

Warning: Continuing without doing step three will result in the loss of all your Charts and DOMs in the Default workspace.

4) if any NT windows other than Control Center are open then close them.

5) close the Control Center window. When prompted to save the Default workspace click YES. Now the Default workspace only contains the Control Center window and Default.xml is the only workspace in your _Workspaces.xml file

I believe that this is the most efficient way to start NT 6.5. Closing your workspace before shutdown and replying NO to save the Default workspace quickly becomes a habit that saves a lot of time on the next NT startup.

Suggestion: Loading all the Chart windows twice is just a waste of precious time during the trading day. It would be nice to have an NT option to startup NT with only the Control Center window displayed. Although it is possible to accomplish this if the above steps are followed exactly every time that NT is shutdown, it should be much easier to do.

Jim

[ctrlbrk]

Suggestion: Loading all the Chart windows twice is just a waste of time. It would be nice to have an NT option to startup NT with only the Control Center window displayed. Although it is possible to accomplish this if the above steps are followed exactly every time that NT is shutdown, it should be much easier to do.

Jim

Hi Jim, I appreciate your post, I will use your technique because I had not thought of it myself!

Yes I agree, there could be a easy software change to make NT much smarter. Like when it first loads, it doesn't know if you want to connect to live data or if it should use it's database data. So instead of doing everything twice, there could be an option to "Ask to connect on startup?" or *even better* "Auto connect on startup"!

Until then, I will do as you've said.

Mike

[Jim W.]

ctrlbrk,

Always glad to share my NT experiences to help other NT users.

Being able to script the NT startup would be great, but it doesn't seem practical with NT 6.5 for those of us who use Pats. Every NT release has useful goodies so I am hopefully looking forward to NT 7.

Jim

P.S. I have made some important updates to my post. Please note them.

[Hungryman]

This is exactly what i'm dealing with as well, 10 minutes to load ninja and another 10 after i connect is extremely annoying. God forbid you try to load ninja and connect without cpu usage dropping to 0 first. I was stuck 40 minutes and still no loading. I have no reset my database to try to fix this still just as slow. The worst part is watching the cpu usage only be 50% and waiting......

[Jim W.]

Hungryman,

Can't be sure from your posts, but if you are using Pats for order entry there are a some things that you can do to improve its connection time:

1) Start Pats first (see my May 9 post). Wait for it to completely finish the connection process and show a green status before doing anything else. I have found that sometimes if I start ESignal before Pats shows connected status then Pats will not connect and NT must be closed and restarted.

2) Remove all old and unused instruments with the NT Instrument Manager. I keep all instruments that I have traded in a Traded list. Not sure if this is required, but at one time my NT Trade Performance Analysis crashed if the database had an Instrument that was not in in an Instrument list. My Default instrument list has only 8 instruments. For me it takes Pats over a minute to start and ESignal about 3 seconds. My Internet cable connection is 9 to 16 Mbps download and 3.5 Mbps upload during the trading day.

3) Not specific to NT, but take a backup and defrag your hard drive weekly.

The above are things that you can try until you get an official reply from NT. The NT support staff who monitor this forum may have comments on the above and additional suggestions.


Jim