[BUG] npx --version takes >3 seconds to execute on windows

[BeatsuDev]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

Running any npx command takes over 3 seconds on my laptop.

Here's a timing from WSL:

$ time (npx --version > /dev/null)

real    0m3.103s
user    0m0.028s
sys     0m0.084s

This happens outside of WSL as well.

Here are the logs from npx --version --verbose:

0 verbose cli C:\Users\ericb\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v21.6.0\node.exe C:\Users\ericb\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v21.6.0\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js
1 info using npm@10.2.4
2 info using node@v21.6.0
3 timing npm:load:whichnode Completed in 9ms
4 timing config:load:defaults Completed in 6ms
5 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\ericb\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v21.6.0\node_modules\npm\npmrc Completed in 7ms
6 timing config:load:builtin Completed in 7ms
7 timing config:load:cli Completed in 8ms
8 timing config:load:env Completed in 1ms
9 timing config:load:project Completed in 4ms
10 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\ericb\.npmrc Completed in 1ms
11 timing config:load:user Completed in 1ms
12 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\ericb\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v21.6.0\etc\npmrc Completed in 1ms
13 timing config:load:global Completed in 1ms
14 timing config:load:setEnvs Completed in 3ms
15 timing config:load Completed in 32ms
16 timing npm:load:configload Completed in 33ms
17 timing config:load:flatten Completed in 6ms
18 timing npm:load:mkdirpcache Completed in 1ms
19 timing npm:load:mkdirplogs Completed in 1ms
20 verbose title npm exec
21 verbose argv "exec" "--version" "--loglevel" "verbose"
22 timing npm:load:setTitle Completed in 2ms
23 timing npm:load:display Completed in 12ms
24 verbose logfile logs-max:10 dir:C:\Users\ericb\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2024-02-06T23_29_31_415Z-
25 verbose logfile C:\Users\ericb\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2024-02-06T23_29_31_415Z-debug-0.log
26 timing npm:load:logFile Completed in 33ms
27 timing npm:load:timers Completed in 0ms
28 timing npm:load:configScope Completed in 0ms
29 timing npm:load Completed in 163ms
30 verbose exit 0
31 timing npm Completed in 183ms
32 info ok

It doesn't seem to add up to 3 seconds...

Expected Behavior

At least sub-second execution time for simple commands like --version and --help.

Steps To Reproduce

In command prompt run npx --help. Observe that it takes over 3 seconds to execute.

Environment

• npm: 10.2.4
• Node.js: 21.6.0
• OS Name: Windows 11
• System Model Name: 82R3
• npm config:

; node bin location = C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe
; node version = v21.6.0
; npm local prefix = C:\Users\ericb
; npm version = 10.2.4
; cwd = C:\Users\ericb
; HOME = C:\Users\ericb
; Run `npm config ls -l` to show all defaults.

[milaninfy]

PR #7271 improves execution time of npx --version command