What's the point of 'Use all formats available'=OFF ?

[Olivier_G]

I haven't been able to mesure any startup speed/memory difference when turning it ON and OFF (in Options>General>Startup).

Has anyone experienced any improvement by unchecking that option?
...If not, I believe we should remove that setting (ie: permanently ON).

[xnview]

I haven't been able to mesure any startup speed/memory difference when turning it ON and OFF (in Options>General>Startup).

Has anyone experienced any improvement by unchecking that option?
...If not, I believe we should remove that setting (ie: permanently ON).

Perhaps on old computer? And perhaps less crash?

[Olivier_G]

I had a deeper look at that option:

-> Saving list is reduced from 63 to 50 filetypes.

-> Performance
(CPU application time and Private memory measured with Process Explorer; HD timing measured with FileMon, which gives a good estimation of real duration)

OS restart, then lauching XnView Browser in a folder with 36 large Thumbnails of various images, videos (+other files non listed) already in cache (two measurements each):

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              CPU      |    HD    |   RAM
WITH     0.640s-0.687s | 2.3-2.4s | 16 320 KB
WITHOUT  0.640s-0.687s | 2.3-2.4s | 16 320 KB

Same folder, but XnView had already been started before:

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           CPU  |   HD  |   RAM
WITH     0.640s | 0.78s | 12 792 KB
WITHOUT  0.608s | 0.86s | 12 792 KB

Single XnView cycle:

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start Browser in empty folder
           CPU  |   HD  |   RAM
WITH     0.453s | 0.69s | 7 636 KB
WITHOUT  0.406s | 0.70s | 7 636 KB

enter folder with 2500 photos (6MP 99%JPEG 1%RAW) unCached
          CPU  |   HD    |   RAM
WITH    7mn41s | 11mn16s | 390 824 KB
WITHOUT 7mn42s | 11mn21s | 390 824 KB

re-enter folder cached
          CPU  |  HD   |   RAM
WITH     10.0s | 18.2s | 366 216 KB
WITHOUT  10.0s | 18.3s | 366 216 KB

enter 1st mix folder unCached
          CPU  |  HD   |   RAM
WITH     17.8s | 29.3s | 19 276 KB
WITHOUT  17.8s | 28.4s | 19 836 KB

re-enter folder cached
           CPU  |  HD   |   RAM
WITH     0.312s | 0.27s | 19 808 KB
WITHOUT  0.437s | 0.28s | 20 356 KB

Bottom-line: RAM is identical, CPU and duration HD is extremely close and balanced (probably due to small environment differences).
The Save filetypes reduction exists but becomes quite negligeable with Favorite savelist (which should be improved, though).

=> I think this option should be removed (=always on). More opinions?

Edit: I believe Alpha/Beta is an efficient way to test a change (stability...) on a larger scale, without as much commitment as in a final version.

[Olivier_G]

Not implemented in 1.90 Beta 1...
(and not a single comment on my lengthy tests... )

[marsh]

Has anyone experienced any improvement by unchecking that option?

Yes. I confirm that program seems more stable. It also makes some options panels less crowded. And, you might not want some extensions seen as images? (ex: ".cat").

[XnTriq]

=> I think this option should be removed (=always on). More opinions?

I have to confess that I never fully understood the purpose of this setting in the first place. Whenever I install XnView from scratch and go through the configuration process, this proves to be one of the major stumbling blocks for me, because I either don't remember or can't figure out what this is good for. Judging from the posts we get in the “General Support” forum I'm not the only one who gets confused by this option.

I'm convinced that it had its justification at some point, but now that we have the raw numbers in terms of performance I support Olivier's proposal to remove it in Beta #2.