The sorting of linked attributes in GetNCChanges is inefficient and can be made much faster. It is also incorrect per Windows.
Fixed in a896a92444f744a89e70bfcd7e4ed55061ce4235 and 8dc3110a5f27cf2f45949cf48cb055a59dc9454e. Re-open if there is any desire to backport this to 4.4, but 4.5 is needed for any sensible install with a large number of links, due to other issues.