I use Dreamweaver for my Contextures website, and leave that program open all the time. The main reason for leaving it open is because Dreamweaver takes a long time to start again, after it’s been shut down. And over time, it takes longer and longer – up to several minutes. I finally found a solution to that problem, and am posting it here, so I can remember the fix for next time!
Long Time to Start
I’ve used Dreamweaver for years, and have been putting up with its “long time to start” problem forever. Because I leave the program running, it’s only an issue once a month or so, if I reboot, or if Dreamweaver crashes (like it did today).
Finally though, I’d had enough, and did a Google search to see if there was a solution. After many dead ends, I found the solution in Stack Overflow. Why didn’t I look there first? That’s my go-to place for Excel programming problems.
Check the Registry
It can be hard to find solutions to problems like this, because everyone describes it differently. I say it’s taking a long time to start, but other people say that Dreamweaver is hanging or Dreamweaver is freezing.
Anyway, a few searches led me to this thread in Stack Overflow, where there were a few suggestions, including “run it as administrator”, and “kill all the Dreamweaver processes”.
The solution that I tried recommended deleting a bunch of temporary files in the Registry.
And what I discovered is that DW generates millions of queries to registry key HKCU\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Dreamweaver CC 2015\Temp File List.
Over the time Dreamweaver accumulates here thousands empty entries like pathXXX and infinitely loop over them when starting.
So, removing all this entries makes DW start in 3 seconds
The explanation made sense, and when I checked my Registry file, there where many, many of those files.
Delete Registry Entries
To fix this problem, here are the steps that I followed.
WARNING: As always, make a backup of the Registry, before making any changes, and try this at your own risk!
1. Before You Start
- Close Dreamweaver
- Make a backup of the Registry file — there are instructions on the Microsoft website
2. Open the Registry Editor
- To open the Registry Editor, press the Window key on your keyboard, then type reg
- In the list of matching items, select the Registry Editor, and press Enter
- If a confirmation message appears, asking if you want to allow this application to make changes, click Yes
3. Find the Registry Entries
Next, you’ll find the Temp File List key, where the unnecessary entries are stored
- In the Registry Editor, find this key in the list at the left:
- Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Dreamweaver CC 2015\Temp File List
- Click on that key to select it
- On the right side, you’ll see the key’s contents, with “(Default)” at the top, then a long list of entries whose names start with “path”. The screen shot below shows a few of the “path” files in my Registry – there are many more below that!
3. Delete the Registry Entries
The final step is to delete those unnecessary entries in the Temp File List key
- Near the top of the list, click on the first “path” entry, to select it
- – Do NOT select the “(Default item)”.
- Then, scroll to the bottom of the list
- Press the Shift key, and click on the last “path” entry, to select all the entries down to that point
- On your keyboard, press the Delete key, to delete the selected entries.
- A confirmation message will appear – “Deleting certain registry values could cause system instability. Are you sure you want to permanently delete these values?”
- Click the Yes button, to confirm that you want to delete the values.
- Close the Registry Editor
Open Dreamweaver
After you delete the unnecessary entries, open Dreamweaver again, to see if that solved the problem.
Hopefully, the fix worked, and Dreamweaver opens in a few seconds, instead of a few minutes!
Keep these instructions handy though. You’ll have to delete those unnecessary Registry entries occasionally, when Dreamweaver takes a long time to start again.
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Dreamweaver Takes a Long Time to Start
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I am using ver. 8 with the same issue. However, when I went into the Temp File List, it has only one entry.
This worked great, even though there were only a couple of those Temp files in the registry. Opening time dropped from over a minute to a few seconds.
Thanks, Howard, and I’m glad it worked for you!