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TCC takes exactly one minute to open (with a licence)

Brian Woodward

Brian Woodward

Sep
13
0
Approx 3 - 6 months ago, I've updated TCC from TCC22 to TCC/34/35/36 (due to continued development).
I've now applied the latest version of TCC: 36.52.88
When I open TCC it takes exactly one minute to open! My colleagues open immediately (two seconds).

When I run specific commands through TCC it also takes an additional minute to process. I haven't been able to locate the exact code that does this because the .btm file is large.

When I run option I can see my version of TCC is registered, but clicking the button 'Show License Info' returns nothing.

If I disable my machine from the internet TCC opens immediately. So, it seems like a connection to something is being attempted, but after one minute of failure, TCC continues.

I do have SentinelOne Antivirus running; I've requested that our support department disable Antivirus for C:\Program Files\JPSoft
(still to be actioned)

Any suggestions on how to fix this would be appreciated.
I've removed the older versions of TCC, I've applied the latest TCC version. I've reinstalled the latest version.
 
Thanks Joe, I was able to get my IT team to disable SentinelOne whilst I continued testing. As SentinelOne is our Antivirus and firewall no Windows antivirus or firewall is running. Disabling SentinelOne meant that no antivirus or firewall was active.
The TCC problem persists.
Please see the attached screenshot; it appears that not only does it take exactly one minute to run at startup, but when I run any piped command that writes to a file, a one-minute delay occurs.
eg.

These commands don't hang:
echo test > c:\temp\text.txt
type c:\temp\text.txt | grep h

These commands hang for one minute:
:: bad tee example, as tee requires a file, but shows that the hang of one minute occurs
echo hello | tee > c:\temp\text.txt
:: good example of the system hanging for one minute
echo hello | tee c:\temp\text.txt

An example of the hang using timers:
1788946228727.webp


This could be a Windows or TCC issue, but I don't know what TCC is doing during these commands, so I don't know how to fix it. Any help would be great.
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26200.8655]

Additionally, I've piped to the d drive, which delays too. This eliminates a bad disk.
 
To see if something in your TCMD.INI file is causing a problem,
start TCC with the /I option,
which signals TCC to not load the .INI file,
execute TCSTART or TCEXIT,
or load plugins.

Ref: TCC Startup Options
Ref: _ININAME TCC internal variable

Run TCCInfo.btm,
available from this link,
Joe Caverly

Post in thread 'When asking a question in the Support Forum'

I've add a subroutine to TCCINFO.BTM that will take the users existing TCMD.INI file,
copy it away from the TCC home folder,
and remove personal info from TCMD.INI,
so that the TCMD.INI file can be attached to a forum message for @rconn to review.

Code: 
@SETLOCAL
@ECHO OFF
if isdir r:\temp set temp=r:\temp

echo    _admin: %_admin %@char[9] %{which _admin}
echo _elevated: %_elevated %@char[9] %{which _elevated}
echo   _parent: %_parent
echo   _conpty: %_conpty %@char[9] %{which _conpty}
echo  _cmdspec: %_cmdspec 
echo     _ansi: %_ansi

:: _contype is...
to provide us with more info about your system.

Joe
 
Hi, I've run tcc.exe /I - it still delayed for exactly one minute.
As a developer, I don't normally have anything in TCMD.ini - only for final tests do I use a production TCMD.ini file. So this issue is happening without a TCMD.ini file. There is no FTP.CFG file present either.

More info. on my system (from running tccinfo.btm):
1788957248669.webp
 
Hopefully @rconn will find what you have reported helpful in resolving the issue.

I note that you are not running TCC elevated,
and are not running TCC as admin.

As a test,
see if you get the same delay when running TCC elevated and as admin.

Joe
 
Brian Woodward said:
Approx 3 - 6 months ago, I've updated TCC from TCC22 to TCC/34/35/36 (due to continued development).
I've now applied the latest version of TCC: 36.52.88
When I open TCC it takes exactly one minute to open! My colleagues open immediately (two seconds).

When I run specific commands through TCC it also takes an additional minute to process. I haven't been able to locate the exact code that does this because the .btm file is large.

When I run option I can see my version of TCC is registered, but clicking the button 'Show License Info' returns nothing.

If I disable my machine from the internet TCC opens immediately. So, it seems like a connection to something is being attempted, but after one minute of failure, TCC continues.

I do have SentinelOne Antivirus running; I've requested that our support department disable Antivirus for C:\Program Files\JPSoft
(still to be actioned)

Any suggestions on how to fix this would be appreciated.
I've removed the older versions of TCC, I've applied the latest TCC version. I've reinstalled the latest version.
Click to expand...

Are you running TCC in a TCMD tab window, a Windows Terminal tab, or as a bare conhost session?

Try starting TCC with the debug option (TCC /...). That will pop up message boxes showing the TCC initialization stages, and should help isolate where the delay is coming from. (If you don't see any message boxes until after 1 minute, then the delay is coming from the Windows loader or from a third-party code injection.)
 
rconn said:
Are you running TCC in a TCMD tab window, a Windows Terminal tab, or as a bare conhost session?
Click to expand...
It would appear he is running it from C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe which is what _parent returns.

Joe
 
rconn said:
Are you running TCC in a TCMD tab window, a Windows Terminal tab, or as a bare conhost session?
Click to expand...

_conpty returns 1,
so TCC is running in a Windows pseudoconsole (ConPTY)

Joe
 
Hi for these tests in Windows 11, I opened up CMD (as user not admin), then called TCC.exe /I or TCC.exe.
Either running as admin or as a regular user results in the same one-minute delay.
Running tcc.exe directly from desktop shortcut, or from C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe (user or admin) causes tcc.exe to take one minute before opening.
So, no matter how I open tcc.exe it takes one minute under normal operation.

The below screen capture shows the admin window invoking tcc.exe, where it gets to before providing a cursor: "Registered to BRIAN-GEEKOM" - no path returned yet, and no cursor in the top admin window. Bottom window shows tcc as user - it took one minute to get a cursor.
1788961723392.webp

Then, after one minute:

1788961755142.webp

(The additional enter: in admin window - my key press by mistake).

With the internet disabled on my machine from cmd (admin or user) tcc opens immediately. (Screenshot not very useful):

1788962396262.webp
 
I confess I don't understand the problem. But I do wonder whether the USB (portable) registration option might work around it.
 
Well, I have also experienced a similar effect – although it was a long time ago (definitely BEFORE v36).

And yes, I am almost certain it was during the licence check at startup. However, it did not take a full 1 minute, though it certainly took several seconds, so it was noticeable.
 
TCC does not try to access the internet at startup to check the registration.

However, TCC does try to validate the authenticode signature on TCC.EXE and TAKECMD.DLL, by calling WinVerifyTrust., which in turn calls Windows' certificate-chain engine. If there is a missing local intermediate/root certificate, Windows then invokes Authority Information Access (AIA) over the network when building the chain (e.g., because the file is signed with a certificate whose full chain isn't already cached locally). That AIA fetch is a network call that can block for a long time when connectivity is present but slow/unreachable (e.g., DNS resolves but the endpoint doesn't respond, or a firewall silently drops the request instead of rejecting it).

I have made a change for the next build to force a timeout after 3 seconds, which will at least make the delay more tolerable. Since you said your coworkers do not have the problem, check your certificate store to see what you're missing (intermediate and/or root certificate). You might also ask your network admin whether your firewall is blocking the certificate check.
 
rconn said:
Which means TCC is either running in a TCMD tab or a Windows Terminal tab.
Click to expand...
My tccinfo.btm includes code to check for Windows Terminal.

Code: 
set WT=N
if defined WT_PROFILE_ID set WT=Y
if defined WT_SESSION set WT=Y
if %WT=Y echo Windows Terminal

I will update the code to include;

Code: 
if %WT=N echo Not running in Windows Terminal

Is there a method to determine if TCC is running in a TCMD tab?

Joe
 
Okay, so I can check the signature of the files and they seem fine using sigcheck (system internals Windows commands):
1789123473466.webp


Also, by using PowerShell:

1789123535738.webp


and:

1789123560755.webp
 
On my Windows 10 system,
I type the following;

Code: 
TCC.EXE /...

On my system,
it displays several dialogs in succession;

1789124404061.webp


1789124453400.webp



1789124493573.webp


1789124509297.webp


1789124525149.webp


Those are the first five dialogs displayed.

The forum software only allows 5 images to be attached per message.

When a dialog is presented,
pressing Ctrl-C copies the dialog contents to the clipboard.

Here are the remaining dialogs displayed as such.

Code: 
---------------------------
DEBUG
---------------------------
TCC: Initialize system variables
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

Code: 
---------------------------
DEBUG
---------------------------
TCC: Parsing command line (/c  ffind /kvmt"C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin")
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

Joe
 
Joe Caverly said:
On my Windows 10 system,
I type the following;

Code: 
TCC.EXE /...

On my system,
it displays several dialogs in succession;

View attachment 6248

View attachment 6249


View attachment 6250

View attachment 6251

View attachment 6252

Those are the first five dialogs displayed.

The forum software only allows 5 images to be attached per message.

When a dialog is presented,
pressing Ctrl-C copies the dialog contents to the clipboard.

Here are the remaining dialogs displayed as such.

Code: 
---------------------------
DEBUG
---------------------------
TCC: Initialize system variables
---------------------------
OK  
---------------------------

Code: 
---------------------------
DEBUG
---------------------------
TCC: Parsing command line (/c  ffind /kvmt"C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin")
---------------------------
OK  
---------------------------

Joe
Click to expand...
I've run TCC.EXE /... from c:\program files\jpsoft\tcc36\
I, too, got the GUI pop-ups. Exactly the same text as yours.
But after the DEBUG pop-up that states TCC: Parsing command line (/..)
no other pop-up appears; it waits 1 minute, and I get a prompt.
So, the minute bug occurrs with no further outputs.
 
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