Photoshop CS on Win XP CPU usage

[tim]

I leave Photoshop CS open after I work on an image some times, with no files open, no file browser open, and all the tool bars hidden. Still, photoshop manages to use about 25% of my CPU, doing absolutely nothing.

Has anyone else found this? Background processing could be turned on... but even so it shouldn't be doing this.

[pcasciola]

I use WinXP and CS too. It's definitely the background processing for file browser, which permits Photoshop to scan your machine and generate it's metadata in the background, kind of like that Index Server junk from Microsoft. Turn it off and your CPU will go back to 0% for that process.

[Scottes]

What Phil said. Same thing happened to me, but I was running at 65-80% until I turned off the File Browser.

[dewmuw]

Here's a "DOH!" moment for me! I sometimes think I must be the biggest numpty on this forum - no comments please! :)

[tim]

Yep, that was it alright, thanks guys.

Incidentally I seem to have gone from zero posts to 1000 posts in about two months... that's pretty quick i'd say. I seemed to have perfected the art of talking a lot and saying little ;)

[scottbergerphoto]

In his book, "Real World Adobe Camera Raw", Bruce Frasier recommends turning off background processing in the File Browser>Preferences for that reason.
Scott

[maderito]

In his book, "Real World Adobe Camera Raw", Bruce Frasier recommends turning off background processing in the File Browser>Preferences for that reason.
Scott
A similar suggestion made by others is to close the File Browser when you open an image for editing.

The File Browser has to do its thing: getting thumbnails, creating previews, storing metadata, maintaining the FB database, etc. I tend to let it do just that unless I am actively editing an image.

Once the File Browser has completed its task on a given folder, its work is done until you start working in a new folder. If FB has seen that folder before, it can load the data quickly from the database and not interfere with your work. So I've learned to be patient - open a new folder and let FB complete its work before trying to edit the contents of the folder. Then there's not a competing background processing problem.

Finally - don't store thousands of images in one folder. FB activity is proportionate to the size of the folder.

[Jesper]

I don't remember it exactly, and I don't have my computer with Photoshop CS in front of me now, but isn't there an option somewhere where you can switch off background processing by the File Browser (i.e., it will only make thumbnails while you have it as the active window)?

Edit: Oh, I didn't see Scott's post........ :oops:

[Namagemo]

I'll chime in with my 2 cents worth ;)

I use Thumbs Plus for my photo database (browser) which has the option of setting up a button in the toolbar that will automatically send the selected (highlighted) image to whichever program you assign to it. The program is fairly fast, does just about anything needed relating to photos. Just open it, select the image to be worked on, click the button (in my case PSCS) and PSCS opens with the image ready for processing. I leave T+ open in the background while working in PS. I found the PSCS browser to be way to slow for me. :(

[tim]

I've read that book, but I don't remember him saying that PS CS on XP used CPU when everything was closed with background processing's turned on. No matter, with it off it works fine.

I'll take a look at thumbs plus, thanks namagemo. If it supports CR2 it'd be quite handy.