Issue 445113 in chromium: Creating Chrome AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Status: Unconfirmed
Owner: ----
Labels: Type-Bug Pri-2

New issue 445113 by loosus...@gmail.com: Creating Chrome AppData Folder for
New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

Chrome Version : 39.0.2171.95 m

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Create a new Windows user.
2. Login to Windows using the new user.
3. Open Google Chrome.

What is the expected result?
Chrome should quickly open.

What happens instead?
Chrome has to create a new AppData folder for the user, which takes time.

Here's the deal: until recent Chrome versions, we would put Windows in
Audit Mode (pre-Sysprep), install Chrome, customize the settings to how we
needed them to be, set the Sysprep setting "CopyProfile" to true so that
the settings would copy to C:\Users\Default, and then run Sysprep. All new
users would get our Chrome settings; it worked great.

Well, the Chromium folks recently decided to stop recognizing settings
copied from C:\Users\Default, which totally screwed up our deployment
strategy to the point that we seriously considered dropping Chrome from
deployment. Chrome will display a message indicating that the settings are
corrupted; this is by design.

To get around the issue, just before we run Sysprep, we delete the Chrome
AppData folder so that the Chrome AppData folder doesn't get copied to
C:\Users\Default. Of course, that means that we have to use the
master_preferences file to set default settings for new users. The
master_preferences file seems to be working.

In addition to this being a huge inconvenience for us and making Chrome the
odd one out within our standard deployment flow, it also creates a new
problem: it takes a bit longer to open Chrome because the AppData folder
for Chrome has to be created for each new user. In an academic
environment, this can be a nightmare. We use DeepFreeze to prevent any
permanent changes to the hard drive from being made (all changes to the HDD
are wiped out after a reboot), so *all* users are always new users, even if
they have logged into the computer before. We don't use roaming profiles.
And really, it would be an issue even if we didn't use DeepFreeze because
the chances of a student ever using the same computer twice is extremely
low.

We don't have this issue with Firefox or other programs because the AppData
folder has already been created for the user.

Can some type of work-around be created? Could there be a setting that we
could set where no AppData folder even needs to be created (since these
users are transient and non-permanent, anyway)? Maybe have whatever would
be stored in AppData to be stored in RAM? But we would still want Chrome
to act 100% the same otherwise because we still need extensions, bookmarks,
apps, etc. -- all the standard Chrome features. We don't want a different
experience for these users.

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[chro...@googlecode.com]

Updates:
Cc: bar...@chromium.org a...@chromium.org
Labels: Cr-Enterprise TE-NeedFurtherTriage

Comment #1 on issue 445113 by a...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

cc'ing bartfab@ for further inputs on this & adding TE-NeedFurtherTriage
for any suggestion on Workaround.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Updates:
Labels: OS-Windows

Comment #2 on issue 445113 by durga.be...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome

AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

(No comment was entered for this change.)

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Updates:
Cc: pasta...@chromium.org
Labels: Cr-UI-Browser-Preferences-Protector Enterprise-Triaged

Comment #3 on issue 445113 by atwi...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome

AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

+protector folks, in case they have some insight into how to get the
original approach (copying from \Users\Default) to work.

Julian, any ideas about "AppData in RAM", since you looked into something
like this for ephemeral mode? Maybe they can setup a ramdisk, then use
--user-data-dir command line flag for Chrome to point Chrome at a directory
on that ramdisk?

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #5 on issue 445113 by bar...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

While this is only tangential to the problem at hand, the weapon of choice
for configuring Chrome is policy (GPO), not injected preferences or
master_preferences.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #6 on issue 445113 by loosus...@gmail.com: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

We have used Group Policy for this, but using it college-wide is entirely
unrealistic. We are absolutely not going to create a policy for all the
different configurations that professors and librarians want. It's a pain.
This only makes sense for employee machines, where we are using it (and
having some issues with some preferences applying, by the way). In
addition, the ADM supports nowhere near as many preferences as
master_preferences.

If Chrome ever drops master_preferences support, we will stop deploying
Chrome. Already, we are making an exception for Chrome by not deploying it
the way we deploy 99% of our other apps. Not to mention that we were
totally caught off guard by this change. If it becomes much more of a pain
point, we're done.

AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #7 on issue 445113 by bar...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

If there are settings you need to configure but cannot find policies for,
we would like to know. Please file feature requests in the bug tracker.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Updates:
Labels: -TE-NeedFurtherTriage TE-NeedsFurtherTriage

Comment #8 on issue 445113 by ranjit...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome

AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

(No comment was entered for this change.)

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #10 on issue 445113 by bar...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome

AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

As noted in #7, we would like to hear what master_preferences settings you
need that are not covered by policy. Policy remains the way to manage
Chrome.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #11 on issue 445113 by loosus...@gmail.com: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

That is a separate issue. I would really like to keep this one focused on
the slowness regression you guys created when you disabled the ability of
administrators to deploy Chrome with settings preset in the default Windows
profile.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #12 on issue 445113 by bar...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome

AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

Deploying Chrome with settings present in the profile was never a supported
configuration. Managed settings should be pushed through policy. Hence, the
two really are quite related and the correct answer to the problems you are
facing is policy.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #13 on issue 445113 by loosus...@gmail.com: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

Well, if you don't mind this ticket going off-topic, then here:

To be fair, with you guys, nothing is really "supported." It's just there
until it's gone, so we never really know what to expect or what's coming
next. To my knowledge, there was no official bulletin or roadmap with this
recent change listed; please correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe it's my own
fault that I was using something that worked and -- then -- didn't.

I mean, to make the point, what else is not "supported?" Do you guys
support Web browsing? If so, where is that explicitly written? Do you
guys support the pop-up blocker feature? If so, where is that explicitly
written? Do you guys support the ability of users to zoom in and out of
Web pages? If so, where is that explicitly written, or should my users not
get too used to zooming into Web pages?

Can we please get a list of all the features in Chrome that currently work
just fine but are not supported by you guys? If so, that'd be great. That
way, we'll know what to not get comfortable using before the rug is pulled
from under us.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #14 on issue 445113 by loosus...@gmail.com: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

As an aside: whether we use Group Policy or whether we use
master_preferences is irrelevant to this ticket. If I use
master_preferences, the first run of Chrome is slow. If I use Group
Policy, the first run of Chrome is slow. It's entirely unrelated.

We are already jumping through the unnecessary hoops that you guys have put
in front of us. That's a problem in and of itself, but we *are* jumping.
The slowness issue is a separate issue that we previously did not have, and
neither Group Policy nor master_preferences fixes it.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Updates:
Cc: sas...@chromium.org

Comment #15 on issue 445113 by atwi...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome

AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

One idea would be to go back to your approach of copying the AppData folder
- instead of deleting the AppData folder, only delete the "Local State"
and "Preferences" files. That way, Chrome only has to create Preferences,
not the entire AppData and that may be much faster. I forget if this was
suggested previously - is this approach feasible?

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Updates:
Cc: tna...@chromium.org

Comment #16 on issue 445113 by tna...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

loosus456: How long does it take to start Chrome when the AppData folder is
not present and how does it compare to earlier releases when the AppData
folder still could be pre-provisioned?

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #17 on issue 445113 by loosus...@gmail.com: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

AtWilson, for some reason, that doesn't seem to work for me. Maybe I'm
doing something wrong. Also, is that explicitly supported? Not using
supported features is what got me here to begin with.

tna, it took about 3 to 7 seconds to load before. Now, it takes between 7
and 10 seconds, depending on the hard drive's age. That may not sound like
much, but it's noticeable enough that librarians think we've broken
something.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #19 on issue 445113 by bar...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome

AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

An effort has started to identify the source(s) of slow browser start-up.
Feel free to start bug 450033 to be informed about progress.

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #20 on issue 445113 by g...@chromium.org: Creating Chrome AppData

Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

I think the issue is that you're going through First Run whereas before you
wouldn't have to.

Issue 366116 IMO is a big contributor to first run slowness, could you do
the following to check whether this is true in your case and prioritize
issue 366116:

Merge the following JSON into your master_preferences file:

{
"distribution": {
"import_bookmarks": false,
"import_history": false,
"import_home_page": false,
"import_search_engine": false
}
}

Thanks,
Gab

[chro...@googlecode.com]

Comment #22 on issue 445113 by asmallw...@schools.nyc.gov: Creating Chrome

AppData Folder for New Windows User is Slow
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=445113

Which version of Chrome did this work correctly with?

If I could install that version, then sysprep the workstation, the profile
settings should copy correctly, then Chrome will autoupdate whenever it can.