GUI window is too slow
 

Something trange happened to my WinUAE. Since some weeks ago, when I play and then open the GUI window (F12), WinUAE almost crashes and takes too long to load the GUI window. Even then, it is also difficult to navigate the window, the options, the buttons, everything takes too long. Also if I switch to another window (eg. Firefox) and then switch back to WinUAE's GUI window, it also takes long to re-render itself.

I am using Vista and the portable (zip) version of WinUAE. Presently I am using version 3.3.0, but I have also tried with 3.0.0 and it behaves the same. I don't think 3.0 was like that back when I used that version. My system hasn't been through any configuration changes.

I also tried to download and unzip WinUAE in another directory and the strange behavior persisted. I noted that the paths I had chosen were the same, so I guess that even the portable version of WinUAE installs and refers to some setting files. My theory is that these shared/common files are somehow corrupted and affect WinUAE's performance?

Any suggestions?

PS. I briefly tried WinFellow. Its performance was very good. However I saw no options about capturing screens or saving savestates, which are very important for me. Aren't these supported?

I should add that this happens when the emulator is running. When I run WinUAE first (that is, before loading a game), everything works as should.

Only when fullscreen mode is open? Or also in windowed? DirectDraw or Direct3D mode? (Misc panel. DD can work quite strangely in newer Windows versions)

I use windowed mode but it doesnt seem to make any difference. Switching between DD and D3D doesn't fix anything.

As I said I have Vista, which is not newer Windows version. In any case, the problem appeared quite recently and inexplicably. I was playing decently during summer. I don't remember changing any configuration settings since then, nor in WinUAE nor in my OS nor in my hardware.

Unfortunately I have no more suggestions. This is the first time I have heard about this kind of weird problem.

GUI is made from basic win32 gui elements, there is nothing custom.

You could run with log window open to see if something odd is getting logged ("winuae.exe -log")

Thank you for your coments so far. In the meantime can someone answer the following questions?

1. Does WinUAE, even the portable version, save some files in some "common folder"? As I said, whenever I download a portable installation, no matter where I install it, they always maintain some same settings, for example d:\emulators\roms I had chosen in the first place. How is it possible for every WinUAE new installation to "remember" this information even when I unzp them to different folders? If there is such a common shared folder or file, I intend to purge it in order to have a 100% fresh installation.

2. Does Winfellow support capturing and savestates? If yes, I could switch to that program and get over with any WinUAE problems.