Crystal Reports and 3rd party software conflict

[Former Member]

I would like to request assistance with a problem found which involve SAP Crystal Reports and a 3rd party software called Taxprep (https://www.taxprep.com). With Crystal Reports installed, all versions of Taxprep open extremely slow, with up to 5-10 minutes to launch the application.

This issue is happening on Windows Server 2016 and was tested with a fresh install and only Crystal Reports and Taxprep installed. Both Crystal Reports 2011 and 2016 have been tested with the same end result.

Unfortunately there are no error messages or prompts to provide as the only symptom is extreme slowness of the Taxprep software. I have performed a Process monitor review of Taxprep launching and it is looping 9 registry values over and over, millions of times (34 million events over 9 minutes was the worst test I have recorded), which is causing the delay. These same 9 registry values come up when Crystal Reports is not installed and Taxprep is launched, but they show up only and handful of times.

The 9 registery key loop is as follows:

 RegQueryKey
  HKU
  SUCCESS
  Query: HandleTags, HandleTags: 0x0
 
  RegOpenKey
  HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products
  NAME NOT FOUND
  Desired Access: Read
 
  RegCloseKey
  HKCR\Installer\Products
  SUCCESS
 
  RegQueryKey
  HKLM
  SUCCESS
  Query: HandleTags, HandleTags: 0x0
 
  RegOpenKey
  HKCR\Installer\Products
  SUCCESS
  Desired Access: Read
 
  RegSetInfoKey
  HKCR\Installer\Products
  SUCCESS
  KeySetInformationClass: KeySetHandleTagsInformation, Length: 0
 
  RegEnumKey
  HKCR\Installer\Products
  SUCCESS
  Index: 2, Name: 000061091C0090400100000000F01FEC
 
  RegQueryKey
  HKLM
  SUCCESS
  Query: HandleTags, HandleTags: 0x0
 
  RegOpenKey
  HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Managed\S-1-5-21-220523388-1644491937-725345543-11677\Installer\Products
  NAME NOT FOUND
  Desired Access: Read
 

Any information or insight would be helpful. I also have a support ticket open with the vendor of Taxprep but I want to approach this from both sides.

Thanks

[former_member11696]

You could also repair install of Taxprep, that may put their dependencies first.

If I had to guess I believe those reg keys may be checking for existing files. What happens is when starting CR it validates all dependencies are there,if not the Windows Installer will start up and try to put the missing file back in place. I suspect then TaxPrep instlaler is then detecting one of their dll's is missing and then it replaces the one CR just installed and then CR detects and replaces.....

You can do the same test be deleting or renaming one of the DB Driver dll's, like crdb_odbc.dll. I think that one will do it. I tried this a few years ago and don't recall which one I used but it did trigger the installer to start up.

I looked on their site but could not find what version CR runtime they may be using.

Look for crpe32.dll, that would tell me the version. maybe be more than one version.

Programs and Feature should also show if there are any SAP CR runtime packages installed.

Don

[Former Member]

Thanks for the reply Denis. Although I understand this is primarily a Taxprep issue, i wanted to ask here in the event anyone has encountered this problem, a similar problem or may have some insight as to what is going on.

I will try installing Crystal Reports first on a new machine to see if the problem persists, thanks for the suggestion!

[denis_konovalov]

I'd say that there is nothing from CR to investigate.
CR is not affected and we would have no knowledge of what Taxprep does or how.
If I had to guess , taxprep is using some common dll that CR might overwrite and that is why performance suffer. But it will be Taxprep who will need to identify which one it is or if that's the cause or not.
You can run couple tests : install RC first and then taxprep and see how that works or install taxprep and then CR and see how that works.