.Net - interop assemblies taking 15 seconds to load when being referenced in a function

Question

This is a C# console application. I have a function that does something like this:

static void foo()
{
       Application powerpointApp;
       Presentation presentation = null;

       powerpointApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.ApplicationClass();
}

That's all it does. When it is called there is a fifteen second delay before the function gets hit. I added something like this:

static void MyAssemblyLoadEventHandler(object sender, AssemblyLoadEventArgs args)
{
       Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString() + " ASSEMBLY LOADED: " + args.LoadedAssembly.FullName);
       Console.WriteLine();
}

This gets fired telling me that my interop assemblies have been loaded about 10 milliseconds before my foo function gets hit. What can I do about this? The program needs to call this function (and eventually do something else) once and then exit so I need for these assemblies to be cached or something. Ideas?

Answer 1

It could be the certificate revocation list - the time-out on this is 15 seconds. Is there anything in the event log? Can you check if any network connections are happening during the time-out?

I blogged some details about certificate revocation delay a while ago. Follow the link, I won't cut and paste it here.

Answer 2

15 seconds sounds like a timeout to me. Are you signing your assemblies? We had a problem where the framework wants to check the certificate revocation list when loading, but fails after 15 secs.

HTH

Tim

Answer 3

<runtime>

   <generatePublisherEvidence enabled="false"/>

</runtime>

See here for details

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb629393.aspx

"We recommend that services use the element to improve startup performance. Using this element can also help avoid delays that can cause a time-out and the cancellation of the service startup."

Answer 4

Just guessing, but it is probably the time for PowerPoint to start up after the interop assemblies have loaded.

Answer 5

If method foo() is not called upon application start and you have some other tasks to do before it is called, you can start a separate thread in the beginning to load the assemblies.