Comment 28 for bug 177345

Hello,

This bug happens as confirmed in Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 to 2.0.0.6 under Windows XP. We have detected the creation of tmp files because the computer is VERY SLOW while using Thunderbird.

First of all, our users told us that "when creating an email, Thunderbird doesn't responds to the keyboard" and after some seconds "the letters and words appears suddenly". Thunderbird is slow (seems like is hanging for some seconds) while using menus, dialog boxes or simply trying to close it. When this happens the use of CPU of Thunderbird increases up to 99% (as showing in Task Manager).

We've used FileMon/RegMon for watching what's Thunderbird doing while is "not responsive" and we've seen that Thunderbird is creating a lot of "tmprules*.dat" files in %TEMP% folder of the user (i.e. C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Temp). I've seen the creation of thousands of files in just some 4-5 seconds. The temporary folder of the users have tmprules-1.dat up to tmprules-9999.dat files.

I suppose that the CPU hung of 99% is due to the fact that some Thunderbird routine is creating these files and doesn't let Windows react to user inputs (mouse, keyboard, screen, etc.).

We suppose too that these problem appears every time that Thunderbird checks the inbox for new messages and this problem appears if you have message filters but too if you don't have these filters.

We have SOLVED this problem (the slowdown of the PCs NOT the creation of tmp files) doing the following:

- Closing Thunderbird
- Deleting msgfilterrules.dat of every account in the user profile
- Deleting tmprules*.dat in the temp folder of the user

Then, Thunderbird is VERY responsive. It doesn't hangs but the temporary files continue appearing in the temp folder (at a 2-3 files per session rythm not thousands of them). We don't know if the problem will appear in the futur (for example when the file number will be 9999) so we're watching for a solution in the code of Thunderbird.

We will look for the settings related to SpamAssassin but I think (I need to check this in an user computer) we have them disabled.

I hope this information will point the route to a solution.

Thank you.

PS: Sorry for my poor english :-(