Offline use delays application launch

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mb
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Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2016 2:05 pm

Offline use delays application launch

Post by mb »

I have a licensed version of TextCrawler3 Pro Edition, but it is running on a machine that is not connected to the Internet.

When I launch TextCrawler it takes a few minutes before appearing, and it seems to be trying to connect to various URLs on the Internet (which will fail).

Is there some way of configuring TextCrawler so that it starts straight away?

Thanks in advance,

mb
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DigitalVolcano
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Re: Offline use delays application launch

Post by DigitalVolcano »

The program shouldn't connect to the internet at all - the only time it would is if you manually request it to check for updates. It has no automatic check.

Could be an anti-virus/anti-malware program checking each time you run something?
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DigitalVolcano
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Re: Offline use delays application launch

Post by DigitalVolcano »

Also the .NET Framework does sometimes take time to kick in when running a program after a boot.
mb
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Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2016 2:05 pm

Re: Offline use delays application launch

Post by mb »

dv,

thanks for your prompt reply!

I have tried launching TextCrawler twice, and the second attempt still takes over three minutes to appear, so I would have thought that .NET would be fully spun up.

Running the Fiddler network debugging tool, TextCrawler seems to be trying to connect to various update and certificate websites such as ctldl.windowsupdate.com and crl.usertrust.com (none of which are available as the machine is on an isolated LAN).

For info, this is on a Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 machine with .NET 4.5.2 installed.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

mb
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DigitalVolcano
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Re: Offline use delays application launch

Post by DigitalVolcano »

Looking at those URLs it is probably relating to Windows checking the digital signature (certificate) of the program.

It looks like a recent update could affect offline systems.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2677070

It's possible that signing TextCrawler with our new SHA-256 certificate may fix the need for Windows to perform this check (It's currently signed with SHA-1, which Microsoft has decided that it wants to make obsolete). I'll get this done in the next update.
mb
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2016 2:05 pm

Re: Offline use delays application launch

Post by mb »

I tried temporarily connecting the machine to the Internet, and the network links seemed to be fulfilled, so TextCrawler launched after only a slight delay.

Further launches no longer tried to connect to the Internet, and even after disconnecting the machine from the Internet and rebooting, TextCrawler launched almost immediately.

Thus we seem to have a workaround, although I don't know whether the certificates will expire at some point (requiring a further Internet connection to renew them).

For info, the machine does NOT appear to have kb2677070 installed (unless it was bundled in with SP1), but it does have the related kb2813430.

Thanks again for your help so far,

Cheers,

mb
Luna18
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Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:46 am

Re: Offline use delays application launch

Post by Luna18 »

mb wrote:dv,

thanks for your prompt reply!

I have tried launching TextCrawler twice, and how to buy phenq at amazon and the second attempt still takes over three minutes to appear, so I would have thought that .NET would be fully spun up.

Running the Fiddler network debugging tool, TextCrawler seems to be trying to connect to various update and certificate websites such as ctldl.windowsupdate.com and crl.usertrust.com (none of which are available review as the machine is on an isolated LAN).

For info, this is on a Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 machine with .NET 4.5.2 installed.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

mb
Well to be honest Thus we seem to have a workaround, although I don't know whether the certificates will expire at some point (requiring a further Internet connection to renew them).
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