How fast does ArcGIS start?

[CoreyAmes]

I have a customer that runs ArcGIS and he is disappointed with how fast it starts. He has a system that is nearly equivalent with one that a colleague has that starts it in 9 seconds and his starts in 19 seconds.  Both systems are Intel Core i7 3.x GHz CPUs, 16G memory, 500G SSDs, and Quadro 600 (K620) video cards. He would like it to start more quickly.  Are there any thoughts on how to shave 10 seconds of start time off?  Thank you.

[CoreyAmes]

Rebecca, I'd love to try this, but the client is gone for a week and I have no idea how ArcGIS works, so I can't get to that Geoprocessing Options box. Further steps would be appreciated.  Thank you.

[JoshuaBixby]

Is this colleague in the same building, on the same network, or are we talking about two people with similar machines at different institutions, or at least on different networks?  What are the individual ping times to ArcGIS Online?  What are the ArcGIS Connection Properties settings on each machine?

Besides the network topology from the client to license manager, which shouldn't be much of an issue with Single-Use licensing, the network topology or performance from the client to ArcGIS Online can make a difference.  The default behavior for ArcMap is to "Always check at the start of a session" for ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Portal availability.

We found in our organization that offices with higher latencies to internet gateways were having slower launch times because of the chattiness between the client and ArcGIS Online at start up.  The differences weren't typically earth shattering, but it could be 4+ extra seconds.  If a local office wide-area network (WAN) was really saturated, it could be 8-10 seconds extra.  By changing from always checking to "Never check," most users saw a speed-up in launch times, but that comes with trade-offs because the user has to remember to manually connect to AGOL before loading any new basemaps or other AGOL maps.

[CoreyAmes]

Joshua,

Thank your for your help.  The client is gone for a week of vacation. I'll try testing your suggestion if I can find where to go to get to that option of Connection Properties. I don't know of his specific needs to load new basemaps, so I'll have to ask him next week. However, I can test it this week and see if it improves the results.  

The colleague is from a different business.  This client is a city administrator. The other works for the county.  I would need you to tell me the IP or domain name to ping for ArcGIS online to get the latency time.  I would not be able to tell you the colleague's connection settings.

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

I'm not sure that I read this above...but are you comparing the start up on new/blank mxd's?  If comparing different, non-default, non-empty mxd files, that would definitely have varying results.  I suspect you already ruled that out, but if not...

[CoreyAmes]

Rebecca, I followed advice to delete the .mxd template and that would recreate a new, blank .mxd template. That should in turn speed up the start, which it did by 2 seconds.  So, that is good, but not good enough for my client. He wants what his colleague has, which is starting in 8 seconds.

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

I wasn't even thinking of the template with that comment...just want to make sure they are testing apples-to-apples.  Are everything else between the two machines the same?  The .mxd they are opening (or just opening the software, not mxd), the mapping of data, the network connection, etc?  We have difference one office to another because of network connections.  Old building, with who-knows-what write running thru the walls to the different offices/network-plugins. 

Can the slow "machine" be move and plugged in using the other machines physical (or wireless) connection?  At least rule out physical network (intra- and inter- net).  Also, on the network, does the IT have different profiles for the different users? How much free hard disk space is on each machine?  SO many different variables that could be involved. 

BTW - personally, I don't think 4-secs is an issue, unless shutting down often.  I just check my email or check on another software while it is working....or just take another sip of coffee.   But I also have multiple monitors, and multiple machines so always something else to do while it's firing up.

[CoreyAmes]

Joshua, I have tried changing Connection Properties to Never Check. That brings me to about 16 seconds to start. Initializing License still takes 8 seconds followed by Initializing Application and Loading Document, each of which takes about 4 seconds.

[WengNg]

Just measured mine and it started in 29 seconds from a fresh reinstall of 10.3 . 

I thought ArcMap's startup performance would be a function of :

• CPU Single Core Speed ( the higher the better !)
• Hard Disk read/write speed 
• Existing connections/folders that ArcMap needs to find 
• Network speed/policies (if any of your stuff is connected to a network)
• Source of license server (where is it reading the license from )
• Intermediate files associated with an ArcMap session (GP results etc)
• Data in the MXD itself 
• Versions of ArcMap??? (Can't be sure of this because I don't have the stats for different installations of ArcMap)

[CoreyAmes]

I thank everyone who has answered so far. The version the client is using is 10.4.1. There is no way I can move this PC to another location. The Core i7 has one CPU that is mostly running during the boot of ArcGIS but it is never taxed to100% for a single core. Most of the time it is not even past 50% during the startup. However, the client wanted to upgrade his CPU, so I now have a 4GHz instead of his 3.4GHz CPU to install. I can let you know if this makes any difference.  Someone asked the start time difference between the first time after a reboot and subsequent times.  The initial start time is about 22 seconds and this drops to 17 seconds on subsequent starts.

My biggest question still remains. His license initialization takes 8 seconds.  Focusing on that alone, what is the License Initialization time for others here?  I feel like that may be the main cause of his delay.  Thanks again for your assistance.

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

Just another link.  This was posted in another thread

How to Make ESRI Desktop ArcMap Faster · ncss-tech/geo-pit Wiki · GitHub 

might have some additional tips.