What is SpeedLoad?  

My experience with install programs has led me to the following conclusion:
90% of them are rubbish!
SpeedLoad monitors a program's activities and then optimises the application so it loads more quickly. If install programs done their job properly SpeedLoad would have nothing to do, but the sad fact is that most of them only do the bare minimum that is required to get the program up and running and little else.

What should a good installer do?

A good installer should do the following (as well as other things required by the software that it is installing):

1. Ensure that all DLL's the program uses are in different and non-overlapping addresses.

2. Ensure that the EXE is bound to the DLL's it uses.

The ramifications of the installer not ensuring that (1) is true:

 If two DLL's that a program is using overlap one of them has to be moved. The implications of this are that it takes time to relocate a DLL and secondly every page in the DLL that had to be modified as a result of the relocation process is forced into the page file. This will effect over all system performance, as there is more "load" on the paging system.

The ramifications of the installer not ensuring that (2) is true:

 An EXE maintains a list of functions that it needs from a particular DLL. There are two ways to refer to a function in a DLL. A function can be imported by name or by ordinal. When the system loads a DLL on behalf of the EXE the end result is that the addresses of the functions required by the EXE are inserted into the EXE’s IAT (Import Address Table). Binding is the process of using a pre-built IAT. The system loader checks the time/date stamp (not the time stamp maintained by the file system, an internal time/date stamp that is stored in the DLL which is generated by the linker when the DLL was built) of the DLL and checks that it matches the one that EXE has a pre-built IAT for. If they match the system doesn’t have to build an IAT, it just uses the pre-built one. If functions are imported by name (as is typical) then binding can result in considerable performance increases.

SpeedLoad does its best the ensure that both (1) and (2) are true.

NOTES:

 This is a beta version current issues are:                 

1. There is no backup functionality!
2. Some programs that perform checksums interpret SpeedLoad’s activities as an attack!

In general if you back up the .exe's involved any problems can be resolved simply by restoring the originals. Most apps that perform checksums only check the .exe.

Back to my Home Page

Email Me