Microsoft KB Archive/255027

= Visio5: How to Speed Up the Display of the File and Tools Menus =

Article ID: 255027

Article Last Modified on 8/5/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Visio 5.0 Standard
 * Visio 5.0 Professional
 * Visio 5.0 Technical
 * Visio 5.0 Enterprise

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This article was previously published under Q255027



SYMPTOMS
When you run Visio and click the File or the Tools menu, the menu may take an unusually long time to display.



CAUSE
Visio dynamically builds submenus of the File and the Tools menus. When you click the File or the Tools menu, Visio looks for installed files in the Visio folder, typically found on a local hard disk. In most cases, performance improves after you click the File and the Tools menus once. If not, clicking the menus can continue to be slow for a number of reasons:


 * If Visio is running on a network, it can take longer to find the installed files. The time it takes depends on the network and the Visio edition that you are using.


 * If one or more of the installed files are corrupted or cannot be located, Visio responds as if the submenu is out of date and rebuilds the submenu each time that you click it.


 * If the installed files are located on a floppy disk or CD-ROM, Visio takes longer to check the drive because floppy and CD-ROM drives are slower than most local hard disks.



RESOLUTION
You can fix this problem by using one of the following workarounds.
 * First, try deleting the Visio.bin file, found in the Visio\System folder. This causes Visio to re-create this file the next time that you start Visio. Although this may take a while initially, it resets the list of installed files so that the submenus do not have to be rebuilt each time that you click one of them.


 * If the menus are still slow to display after you delete the Visio.bin file, follow the procedure below to add a Visio.ini setting that tells Visio not to build dynamic submenus. This setting allows Visio to display the menus more quickly.

Procedure
This procedure adds a setting to the Visio.ini file that changes the way Visio displays the File and the Tools menus.

NOTE: If you have not done so already, install Service Release C for your version of Visio 5.0. The following files are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

Download Vis5X25C.exe now (for the U.S. version of Visio 5.0)

Download IE5X25C.exe now (for the International English version of Visio 5.0)

For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591 How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help to prevent any unauthorized changes to the file. To add the Visio.ini setting:

 Quit Visio if it is running. Open the Visio.ini file in a text editor, such as Notepad or WordPad.

NOTE: If you are running Visio from a network, the location of this file depends on how your network administrator set up the Visio file structure. If you are not sure where the file is, see your network administrator for help, or see "About the Visio.ini file" in the Network.txt file in the Visio folder. Add the following setting to the [application] section of the Visio.ini file:

DontBuildFileListMenus=1

Do not add spaces to the left and right of the equal sign. Save and close the file.

By default, DontBuildFileListMenus is set to 0 (false) and Visio displays all menu and submenu items. If you change the setting to 1 (true), Visio displays only the built-in top section (above the dividing bar) and omits the list of solutions from the following submenus:
 * File > New


 * File > Stencil


 * Tools > Macro

This setting allows Visio to display the menus more quickly because the solutions do not appear on the submenu. You can view them by opening a dialog box instead.

To view the solutions in a dialog box, use these menu commands:


 * On the File menu, point to New, and then click Browse Templates.


 * On the File menu, point to Stencil, and then click Open Stencil.


 * On the Tools menu, point to Macros, and then click Macros.

NOTE: You can also click the corresponding toolbar buttons.

Keywords: kbgraphxlink kbfile kbprb KB255027

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