Hi all. My first post here. Is there any way to get Darktable to launch faster? It often takes two minutes or more to fully launch on my Windows PC. That’s not exactly an eternity, but it seems like it when I need to process a photo quickly!
Many thanks.
Hi @Ally-007, and welcome!
Windows? 10, 11, or what?
CPU?
Graphics card?
RAM?
From where did you obtain darktable?
Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden
Do you have it set to look for new and updated xmp when it opens… you might need this depending on how you use DT but if not then turning it off should help a little…
Thanks for the tip, Todd. I will have to try that. (I’m not sure if I need that feature, but will probably find out if I switch it off.) 
Thanks for the welcome, Claes! I’m actually using WIndows 7 (64 bit) on that computer. It has 8GB DDR3 RAM (16GB, virtual). The GPU is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. I obtained Darktable and its updates from Darktable.org.
The performance of the medium (HDD or better SSD) where darktable or your picture is stored is a big factor for the startup time.
Do you have the amount of free (available) ram necessary for DT (check your task manager before lauch) ?
On a more general note, DDR3 system with 8GB I’d risk to say that you are closer to the minimum system requirements for DT than the recommended (not that there really are official system requirements ?) That said even for not so up to date computer 2mins is like a lot !
How many images do you have in the library (imported into darktable)?
With only a handful of images, on a midrange Windows laptop, the launch takes a few seconds (slower than on the much more powerful Linux desktop, but certainly well under 20 seconds).
Maybe start darktable with -d all to see what is taking the most amount of time. Data is always better than guessing.
My answer is going off on a tangent but may still be relevant. You are using Windows 7 which is no longer supported it poses an increased security risk when connected to the internet. I converted all my windows 7 computers to Linux Mint and both my very old laptop and 2011 desktop have been resurrected with a new lease of life. They perform faster, especially with DT. Of course changing to Linux may not appeal to you if have Windows based software you need to use. But be very careful with a Windows 7 computer out there on the internet especially if sensitive data such as online banking is being done. One of my employers, the Tasmanian Government and my former Superannuation fund have recently been attacked by Ransomware and sensitive details about me have been stolen.
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Its there to check xmp in case you modified it in another program or edited on another PC with DT… This will scan and check …any xmp newer than the database will be flagged and it will then ask you what you want to do … keep the xmp status or use the database status… If that need is not something you are making use of then you can disable it to save the scanning on the startup…