Slow Startup on Windows

If you experience slow startup of QuantumATK on Windows, the antivirus software on your system might be the reason. In particular when the application is started for the first time after a reboot of the system, starting QuantumATK might take a few minutes, because the antivirus software scans all files loaded by the program. The easiest way to address this issue is to add the QuantumATK installation directory to the list of directories that are excluded from real-time scanning by the antivirus software. Talk with your system administrator and consider the security implications before proceeding with any changes in antivirus configuration.

If you are using Windows Defender, you can add the QuantumATK installation directory to the exclusion list by following these steps:

  1. Open the Windows Security app by clicking on the Start menu and typing “Windows Security”.

  2. Click on “Virus & threat protection”.

  3. Scroll down and click on “Manage settings” under the “Virus & threat protection settings” section.

  4. Scroll down to the “Exclusions” section and click on “Add or remove exclusions”.

  5. Click on “Add an exclusion” and select “Folder”.

  6. Navigate to the QuantumATK installation directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\QuantumATK\QuantumATK-<VERSION>) and select it.

  7. Click on “Select Folder” to add the exclusion.

  8. Restart the system and start QuantumATK to see if the startup time has improved.

If you are using a different antivirus software, please refer to the documentation of that software for instructions on how to add an exclusion for a directory.

If you are experiencing slowness in relation to your project folder, you can also try adding the project folder to the exclusion list of your antivirus software. Alternatively, if you are using Windows Defender, you can use the above steps but add a “Process” type exclusion for the entire QuantumATK installation folder instead of a “Folder” type exclusion. This will make sure that all files opened by QuantumATK binaries at runtime are excluded from real-time scanning.