GPG4Win slow to start

[Borden]

13 Jun 2026, 12:44 by wk at gnupg.org:

> Interesting data point.  We have a few reports from some cusomers where
> some users experience sometimes huge delays.  It is not easy to track
> down but a common problem on Windows is anti-malware software (e.g.
> Symantec Endpoint Protection) in certain configurations.  To test diable
> such software, restart backend process (or on the CLI "gpgconf -K all"),
> and check again.
>
The only anti-malware software on my system is Windows Defender. I would think that if that were the problem there would be more complaints.

> That is also interesting.  You may want to enable a log for the
> gpg-agent at basic debug level or just with verbose.  But as a first
> test you may run on the command line:
>
Thank you for your help and interest. I'm probably launching these in the wrong order (I don't entirely understand how the GPG backend works and I know even less about Windows process management), but:

PS $ gpgconf -K all
# Takes a couple seconds and exits without output

PS $ gpg-connect-agent "getinfo s2k_count_cal" "getinfo s2k_time" /bye
gpg-connect-agent: no running gpg-agent - starting 'C:\\Program Files\\GnuPG\\bin\\gpg-agent.exe'
gpg-connect-agent: waiting for the agent to come up ... (8s)
gpg-connect-agent: connection to the agent established
D 23966720
OK
D 125
OK

PS $ gpg-agent --debug=1
gpg-agent[1111]: reading options from 'C:/Users/me/AppData/Roaming/gnupg/gpg-agent.conf'
gpg-agent[1111]: reading options from '[cmdline]'
gpg-agent[1111]: reading options from 'C:/Users/me/AppData/Roaming/gnupg/common.conf'
gpg-agent[1111]: gpg-agent running and available

I'm not sure where to look for logs after that. The log I submitted earlier reads:
2026-06-17 16:26:02 gpg[0998] rndjent stat: collector=0x0000000000000000 calls=0 bytes=0
2026-06-17 16:26:02 gpg[0998] secmem usage: 0/32768 bytes in 0 blocks
2026-06-17 16:26:04 gpg[0999] pinentry launched (10724 qt 1.3.2 - - - - 0/0 -)
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] keydb_search failed: Input/output error
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] public key decryption failed: Operation cancelled
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] decryption failed: Operation cancelled
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] keydb: handles=0 locks=0 parse=3 get=0
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999]        build=0 update=0 insert=0 delete=0
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999]        reset=0 found=0 not=0 cache=0 not=0
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] kid_not_found_cache: count=0 peak=0 flushes=0
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] sig_cache: total=17 cached=17 good=17 bad=0
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] objcache: keys=8/8/0 chains=375,1..1 buckets=383/20 attic=248
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] objcache: uids=2/2/0 chains=105,1..1 buckets=107/20
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] random usage: poolsize=600 mixed=0 polls=0/0 added=0/0
              outmix=0 getlvl1=0/0 getlvl2=0/0
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] rndjent stat: collector=0x0000000000000000 calls=0 bytes=0
2026-06-17 16:26:16 gpg[0999] secmem usage: 0/32768 bytes in 0 blocks
2026-06-17 16:27:25 gpg[1000] enabled debug flags: memstat trust extprog
2026-06-17 16:27:25 gpg[1000] enabled compatibility flags:
2026-06-17 16:27:25 gpg[1000] public key is ABCDEF0987654321
2026-06-17 16:27:27 gpg[1000] no running keyboxd - starting 'C:\\Program Files\\GnuPG\\bin\\keyboxd.exe'
2026-06-17 16:27:29 gpg[1000] waiting for the keyboxd to come up ... (8s)
2026-06-17 16:27:29 gpg[1000] connection to the keyboxd established
2026-06-17 16:27:29 gpg[1000] using subkey ABCDEF0987654321 instead of primary key 1234567890ABCDEF
2026-06-17 16:27:29 gpg[1000] encrypted with cv25519 key, ID ABCDEF0987654321, created 2026-01-01
      "Me"
2026-06-17 16:27:29 gpg[1000] pinentry launched (7080 qt 1.3.2 - - - - 0/0 -)
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] AES256.CFB encrypted data
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] original file name='encrypted_text.txt'
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] keydb: handles=0 locks=0 parse=4 get=0
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000]        build=0 update=0 insert=0 delete=0
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000]        reset=0 found=0 not=0 cache=0 not=0
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] kid_not_found_cache: count=0 peak=0 flushes=0
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] sig_cache: total=24 cached=24 good=24 bad=0
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] objcache: keys=8/8/0 chains=375,1..1 buckets=383/20 attic=248
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] objcache: uids=2/2/0 chains=105,1..1 buckets=107/20
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] random usage: poolsize=600 mixed=0 polls=0/0 added=0/0
              outmix=0 getlvl1=0/0 getlvl2=0/0
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] rndjent stat: collector=0x0000000000000000 calls=0 bytes=0
2026-06-17 16:27:33 gpg[1000] secmem usage: 0/32768 bytes in 0 blocks

# I sanitised the process numbers, account names & key IDs. Everything else is verbatim

I don't know how much of that, if any of it, is relevant to the previous commands I launched. For what it's worth, the delay is worst during the first call after boot. Subsequent GPG calls are far almost Linux's speed.

As a workaround, I sometimes start Kleopatra after boot so it loads everything before I need it. Sometimes Kleopatra hangs for a while while launching, sometimes it's not so bad. After Kleopatra is up, things are much smoother.

I also noticed a quirk in the past few months that GPG was closing almost immediately after using it, which it hadn't before. I set "C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\gnupg\gpg-agent.conf" to "pinentry-timeout 300", which helped. I don't know if any of that is relevant.
Thanks again