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Thread: Outlook XP / 2003 Slow

  1. #1
    Bronze Member Island_Boy_77's Avatar
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    Angry Outlook XP / 2003 Slow

    Hi All

    A friend and I are having the same problem with our different versions of Outlook. The problem has only arisen in the last couple of months (I don't remember when mine started doing it), but, in short, Outlook takes anywhere from 2-5 minutes to get itself "organised" when it is launched before it can be used. Interestingly, the 2 computers involved are very different: I have a P4 2.8Ghz with XP Pro SP2 and 1.5GB of RAM, my friend has a PIII 1Ghz with XP Home SP2 and 348MB of RAM. With his machine being so much slower than mine, I'm not surprised that his Outlook takes a bit - but 5 mins? He has no such problems with any other prog on his PC (he has Office XP Pro) - just Outlook. I'm the same: I have Office 2003 Std, and all other progs work well and quickly.

    I've applied the suggestion in another post in this section about renaming the Messenger folder and running the delete Messenger command, but no result. What SEEMS to be happening is that Outlook is taking it's time displaying HTML-coded e-mails. I receive a mix of plain-text and HTML newsletter-type e-mails every day. I find that if I have a plain-text e-mail at the top of my inbox, Outlook starts fairly quickly. However, as soon as I click on an HTML e-mail, there is a 1-2 min wait. Interestingly, after clicking the first HTML e-mail and waiting, all other HTML e-mails are fairly quick.

    So, where should I be looking for the problem? I am wondering if the Avast AV e-mail scanner is causing probs, or whether MS has done an update in the last few months for Word / Outlook which is causing problems. Could it be that IE 7 has something to do with it as well (we are both using IE 7)? I've watched the CPU usage on Outlook when I initially click on an HTML e-mail - it jumps to 99% and stays there until it's finished doing whatever it thinks it should be doing (which is what, I wonder?).

    Part of the problem, possibly, is that (on my PC) I've tinkered and tweaked my PC so much, and it's taken a few "knocks" along the way, that it really needs a reformat (my friends has only been done recently). However, you all know what a joy that can be (NOT!), and I'd rather not have to go that route. BTW, my PST file is 300MB, my friends is less than 50MB (both have been compacted recently).

    Any thoughts?

    cheers
    Peter

  2. #2
    She who must be obeyed Super Moderator piaqt's Avatar
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    Where to begin... Outlook does have a speed problem, especially with html mail. And I'm using v.12 on Vista Ultimate.
    1. Try searching the MS newsgroups.
    2. The AV scan is a known issue with email. Disable it temporarily and see what happens.
    3. I've noticed, with IE7, that composing an email generated by a mailto: link takes forEVER.
    4. Google this: site:microsoft.com Outlook+slow+to+launch.
    5. Try the Outlook MVPS site.

    Last night, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know.
    love, piaqt

  3. #3
    Bronze Member Island_Boy_77's Avatar
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    Thanks for your reply. It was IE 7. As soon as that was uninstalled form both our systems, Outlook XP and 2003 were noticeably faster. I was going to uninstall IE 7 anyway, as it stuffs up the headers on my e-mails.

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