Why is my application startup time slower when I use Process.Start()?

Question

I'm trying to profile the startup time of my application, so I wrote a small C# program that will start my application using the Process.Start() method, and time it using a stopwatch.

When I try to start the application myself (by just clicking on it), it probably takes 2-3 seconds. When I try to start the application using my test program, it takes 8-10 seconds. The startup time consistently differs in that magnitude.

Any idea why using Process.Start to start an executable would affect startup times so much?

Answer 1

Thanks for all your help. I have the answer, and it's unrelated to Process.Start.

After I start the process, I was waiting for a specific window handle to appear to know that the app actually showed up. The loop was too tight. I introduced a 200 ms sleep in the while loop, and startup time was normal again.