Component Toolbar slows down RAD Studio 2010

In RAD Studio 2010 there is a new IDE feature called Component Toolbar. This feature provides a component palette similar to the old Delphi component palette.

This toolbar provides a nice search box which is able to filter components in the palette based on the search phrase. This toolbar is disabled by default, and is shown when Classic Layout is selected. Here you can see a snapshot of Classic Layout in RAD Studio 2010:

A few weeks ago while I was working with Delphi 2010, I noticed a delay when switching from code view to form designer. The delay was there not only in the complex forms, but also in simple empty forms! It was not a big delay (about 1 second), but since I had to switch between code and form designer view many times, it was really annoying, so I decided to investigate it and find out what is causing this delay.

At first I got suspected to CnPack toolbars in form designer and code view, so I disabled them, but it had no effect on the delay!  Then I went for SysInternals Process Monitor to monitor RAD Studio while switching from code view to form designer. There were many Registry activities regarding to component toolbar. At that time I was thinking about standard Tool Palette in RAD Studio 2010, not the classic component toolbar, because I was not using classic layout.

I tried to hide Tool Palette to see if it fixes the delay, but it didn’t! So I decided to disable its IDE package and see if it fixes the issue. While I was looking into the list of IDE packages in Registry, I found Component Toolbar Package, and I thought this is the package corresponding to Tool Palette. So I removed it from the list of known IDE packages, and restarted RAD Studio 2010; the Tool Palette was still there, BUT the switching delay was gone!

I was wondering if Component Toolbar was not related

to Tool Palette, then what was it related to?! Suddenly I remembered the new classic component toolbar, and switched to Classic Layout. Yes, it was the new classic component toolbar which was using Component Toolbar Package!

Since I don’t use classic view, I simply disabled this IDE package to have a faster switch time from code view to form designer. But still it is weird why this toolbar is being update even when it is not being visible, and why it is making switching from code view to form designer slower. This is definitely a bug in RAD Studio 2010.

How to disable an IDE package:

Here is how you can disable Component Toolbar Package from Registry:

1- Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CodeGear\BDS\7.0\Known IDE Packages.

2- Make a backup by right-clicking on “Known IDE Packages” key, and selecting  Export.

3- Find “$(BDS)\bin\comptoolbar140.bpl” value in “Known IDE Packages” key, and delete it.

4- Run RAD Studio 2010.

Regards