Some updates issued by Microsoft are known to affect the performance of applications like Paratext which rely on those updates. Microsoft updates are usually issued in order to fix security risks or bugs. Sometimes there is nothing the Paratext developers can do to fix these issues. Subsequent updates from Microsoft will normally restore the original performance but it may take months.
The following updates are known to slow the performance of switching between windows:
- On Windows 7, you will see the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7 as an installed product under Programs and Features in Control Panel.
- On Windows 8.1 you can find this as Update for Microsoft Windows (KB3186539) under Installed Updates in Control Panel.
- On Windows 10 you can find this as Update for Microsoft Windows (KB3186568) under Installed Updates in Control Panel. After two weeks, the Windows 10 update becomes permanent and can’t be uninstalled.
We advise that you do not disable automatic windows updates as a solution to this problem as this may cause you to miss critical security fixes.
If you choose to uninstall any of the above updates, you may need to reinstall Paratext to get a working version of .NET installed. This should not affect your Paratext project data.
There is always a possibility that altering system level software will leave Paratext completely non-functional. If you are or have access to someone with experience troubleshooting and fixing system software this is very likely fixable. If you do not have such access you are taking a serious risk in trying to fix system level problems. It may be better to wait for Microsoft to distribute the update that fixes this. We believe that this is resolved in .NET 4.7.1 but our best guess is that Microsoft will not distribute this to most users until September.