# Solved: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Slow On Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate



## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

I've just installed Adobe Photoshop CS3 on a fresh-install of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate on my laptop computer, and now, Adobe Photoshop CS3 is running incredibly slowly.

Even hovering over the buttons in the palette, it can take up to five seconds to show the 'bevel' hover effect on the buttons prior to clicking. Opening new documents, new layers, et cetera, all takes way too long.

My laptop is 2.27GHZ, 2GB RAM computer with a 4.1 Windows Experience Index...so, it shouldn't be running this slowly.

I did a search and found that some people with the same problem were able to run Adobe Photoshop CS3 in compatibility mode under Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2), but this solution didn't work for me.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

Anyone?


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## slipe (Jun 27, 2000)

You might ask here - sometimes Adobe techs jump in: http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.ee6b366/


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

Thanks, I'll give that a go.


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

I wasn't able to find anything there that really helps...does anyone have any suggestions?


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## slipe (Jun 27, 2000)

Since you have plenty of RAM the only other slowdown I can think of would be CPU use. Ctrl+Alt+Del to get into Task Manager. I guess you have to choose All Programs and give authority in Vista. Go to the Performance tab while running Photoshop and look at your CPU usage.

My taskbar is full. I currently have two image editors open (Photoshop and PSP) plus three instances of Irfanview, Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer and a game. My CPU use hovers between 2% and 6%. If I run a Photoshop plug-in my CPU use goes up to around 60% while the filter is processing and drops back below 10 when it finishes. And yes I close everything down if I&#8217;m going to do anything serious in Photoshop, but I wanted to make sure it was stressed a little.

If your CPU use is over around 10% when you aren&#8217;t doing anything you have to find out what is using the cycles. If you choose &#8220;All Programs&#8221; in Task Manager your Processes tab should tell you what is using the cycles. If it is Photoshop I don&#8217;t know what to tell you &#8211; it shouldn&#8217;t be using cycles if it is idle. If it is something else you can usually deal with that. It could be a virus, trojan or just lots of adware and spyware. With a new build I doubt you have much of that unless you did an install that saved stuff from XP. It could be an errant program or process. 

You can get a better idea of what is using CPU cycles by going to View > Select Columns when it Processes. CPU Time gives you a readout of all CPU use since you booted. I also have Memory Usage, Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory Size checked to keep track of what programs might be misbehaving.


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

Thanks for the detailed response.

My CPU usage while running Adobe Photoshop CS3 seems to vary (for no apparent reason) between 8% and 30%.

I followed the other steps that you suggested, and everything else seems okay. The three biggest users of Memory (Private Working Set) are Adobe Photoshop CS3 (50,992K), Host Process For Windows Services (49,524K) and Microsoft Office Outlook (29,348K).

As for CPU Time, the three biggest users are System Idle Process, Windows Sidebar, and NT Kernel & System.

There is no adware or spyware on the computer, as it's a very fresh install, and has plenty of security software. Also, apart from this problem with Adobe Photoshop CS3, I haven't been having any difficulties.


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## slipe (Jun 27, 2000)

Its nice to have someone actually read and respond to a post.

Im not very experienced with laptops. Maybe there is something in the system that uses more CPU cycles. But 830% would be very high use for idle in a desktop. Mine varies between 1-4%, also for no apparent reason. I probably install something every week, and Im a let sleeping DLLs lie kind of guy who never uninstalls anything unless it is absolutely necessary.

I do keep my startup cleaned out though. I use the extensive list on this site and the list should be the same for Vista. http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php It is a little different getting to the Configuration Utility in Vista. http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_vista.html The Run command is also available in Accessories if you want to go that route to msconfig. I keep the Services cleaned out as best I can. I see sites for Vista Services which probably vary from XP.

What is important is your Peak Memory Usage after a slowdown. Peak memory use for Photoshop on my computer is usually up around a half-Gig and I have only a Gig of RAM. A large VM Size for Photoshop in Task Manager doesnt necessarily mean you ran yourself out of RAM. Photoshop uses a lot of virtual memory even when it has plenty of RAM available.

Go to Edit > Preferences > Memory and Image Cache. With 2 Gigs of RAM you should have your memory allocation up around 80% IMO. That is only the percent Photoshop can take of what isnt being used when it opens  not of the total memory on the computer.

I dont think you want Private Working Set for Task Manager. I think you want All Programs. I looked up the Vista Task Manager before my previous post and it only looked like my XP task manager with All Programs selected. It says you have to give administrator permission to get All Programs, but you evidently arent going to find out what is using all those CPU cycles in the private working set.

This is a screenshot of my Task Manager Performance page. Some of the little blips up to 5% probably came from my writing this in Word. Look at the Processes. Im showing 49 running. All 49 show in my Processes page. If you are showing more processes running in Performance than are showing on the Processes tab you should probably open Task Manager in All Programs. Fortunately for me XP doesnt clutter the problem with a useless choice, but Ill have to learn Vista eventually.


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

Thank you for your reply.

In Adobe Photoshop CS3, there isn't a 'Memory And Image Cache' settings panel, but there is a 'Performance' settings panel which has the options I believe you are talking about.

At the moment, it is set to use 1010MB (60%) memory usage - should I change this to 80% as you suggested?

Thanks for the other information, too...I'll try that once I know about what I've asked above.


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## slipe (Jun 27, 2000)

You will notice the actual memory used by 60% varies with what is running when you start Photoshop. I am at 80% with only a Gig of RAM and haven&#8217;t had any problems multi-tasking. I would go up to at least 80% with your RAM and probably higher.


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## wilson44512 (Mar 25, 2006)

maybe photoshop needs updating? have you updated it yet after you installed it?


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## gamerbyron (Apr 9, 2007)

updates don't really make adobe more faster, i have one with no updates and no problems at all


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

I do keep it updated with all of the latest updates from Adobe, but I'm still having the same problems unfortunately.

It's really becoming a problem, as this computer has normally been my "work-horse" for graphic production.

If anyone can suggest anything else, I would really appreciate it.


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## maspin (Aug 13, 2007)

hope this helps:
http://cha2e.com/2007/07/19/adobe-c...new-window-opening-image-of-any-type-or-size/

seems like offline printers impact performance...


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

That did the trick! I had to remove my network printer, but that's okay...thank you for the help!


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