We maintain a legacy VB6 app. Up through version X it was installed by registering all its COM dependencies. From versions >X we started shipping it with an application manifest instead.
The versions >X in some scenarios take ~30 seconds longer for the main EXE process to terminate than versions ≤X. (This effect is visible in Windows Task Manager).
Its just a hunch that it was the change to the manifest which introduced the delay. There were other changes in the app also, but none which seem like they could be related.
Note: The scenario where it terminates quickly is where it is executed and then quit right away. But the delay is introduced by a certain set of actions which open data files by calling through some other VB6 COM DLLs, reading some MDBs with DAO, etc. None of this has changed for many versions of the app.
The same scenario did NOT cause a delay in versions ≤X.
So it is not known precisely which line of code directly leads to the delay occurring or not. Before I spend potentially a lot of time tracing it I am looking for input to confirm or deny this manifest hypothesis.