KB482969: Exporting even a blank dossier to PDF takes extremely long time, sometimes timeout error can be seen

Starting with the release of Strategy ONE (March 2024), dossiers are also known as dashboards.
SYMPTOM:
Exporting dossier to PDF takes extremely long time, even when exporting a blank dossier would take more than 5 mins. Following error can always be seen,

Page rendering exceeded the maximum limit of ## seconds and was terminated. Please contact the administrator to increase the timeout value of the renderer process in configuration file and then restart Export Engine Service to try again.
CAUSE:
PDF Export Engine is interfered by the system proxy settings.
During exporting, some internal resources may be transmitted between different components of PDF Export Engine itself, and they will use the system proxy settings so that network traffic can be tracked and controlled if necessary. Improper proxy settings will badly affect the performance of PDF Export Engine.
In such case, it may take a very long time for PDF Export Engine to try connecting to a non-existing proxy server, because Export Engine has to reach the maximum timeout limit in case the proxy server is responding but just too slow sometimes.
ACTION:
Solution 1: Disable "Automatically detect proxy settings"

1. Open Internet Explorer, and then click the "Settings" icon. Go to Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings.
2. Check if the option of "Automatically detect settings" is enabled. If it is, uncheck it and click "OK" to save settings.
3. Repeat Step 1 and Step 2. Is the "Automatically detect settings" still enabled? This is important, which confirms that Group Policy has forbidden users from changing proxy settings.
4. Open Local Group Policy Editor.
5. Go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Internet Explorer.
6. Find "Prevent changing proxy settings" in the long setting list. If it's state is Enabled, change it to Not Configured or Disabled.
7. Go to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer.
8. Find "Prevent changing proxy settings" in the setting list. If it's state is Enabled, change it to Not Configured or Disabled.
9. Find "Make Proxy settings per-machine (rather than per-user)" in the settings list. Change its state to Enabled. This will ensure Export Engine (usually running as SYSTEM) reads the same proxy settings as your current user.
10. Repeat Step 1 and Step 2.
11. Repeat Step 1 again and confirm "Automatically detect settings" is disabled in the Internet Options.
12. Restart Strategy PDF Export Service and try exporting again.

Solution 2: Configure WPAD

1. Open %WINDOWS%/system32/drivers/etc/hosts with Administrator privilege.
2. Add a new line: 127.0.0.1 WPAD
3. Save and close the hosts file.

KB482969