Thinking about Outlook 2007? Slow down.
I thought it was just me. I thought that in my haste to try out the new features of Outlook 2007, I must have made a bad decision during the installation. Or maybe there was a conflict with some other software I was trying out. Or maybe I was just imagining it. But no, it seems to be the case that for many people, Outlook 2007 is sometimes unbearably slow.
Check out these links:
- http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=54
- http://forums.techguy.org/business-applications/536741-outlook-2007-slow.html
- http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.outlook.general/browse_thread/thread/ac58d4e5b1e5e56e/6b505432c97802da%236b505432c97802da
- http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.outlook.general/browse_thread/thread/b9e0778c699015c4/6929ac5937e4c7d1%236929ac5937e4c7d1
Various solutions are offered but there doesn’t seem to be a magic bullet. And some of the solutions, like disabling search functionality or significantly reducing the size of your mailbox, defeat the central purpose of Outlook 2007, which is to improve your productivity.
The thing that really drives me crazy with Outlook 2007 is how often it just stops responding. If I have a few Outlook windows open (for example, Inbox, Calendar, and a message I’m composing), I can switch between them but I can’t actually click on any objects in the windows. I can’t send the message, create a new calendar entry, switch to a new message, or even close the windows. I have to go into the Task Manager and end the task manually. Then it takes forever to start up again because I get something like this:
I thought maybe things would improve if I turned off Cached Exchange Mode on my desktop, since I never need to use it offline. But it turns out that’s not an option for me:
I was hoping that this time around Microsoft was going to refute the old adage of “wait until Service Pack 1.” But it looks like that might be a wise idea for both Vista and Office. What a shame.
AMEN Brother! I thought my Outlook 2007 was pooched as well. My Outlook normally locks up when accessing RSS feeds. When this happens, and thing I am working on in Outlook is frozen to a time when Outlook is good and ready to start working again.
Hi Schragmeister,
Yes, I too see the issues you have seen and I also have the issue with MS Feed Synchronizer dying on an almost monotonous basis as mdalligood sees happen there.
On top of this, there are 2 of us here running Outlook 2007 on Exchange 2003 (SBS 2003 SP1), and we are the only two who have “Calendar” bomb out constantly when trying to view the other’s calendar. Everyone else’s calendar (another 3) is fine and views 100% of the time, it is just the other person running Outlook 2007 where there’s an issue.
Of course, closing and re-opening Outlook 2007 fixes this issue.
It seems Microsoft is still in the “reboot to fix your errors” mentality that they got in way back in 1995.
It’s a shame…
[...] I’ve checked a lot of threads, and a lot of people are having this problem, and so far, there doesn’t seem to be a solution. If you are thinking about an “upgrade” to Office 2007, my suggestion is to wait until Microsoft posts a fix to the Outlook slowness problem. It’s very difficult to be productive with your computer essentially locking up for 30 seconds or so every time there’s new mail to be downloaded. This is a huge bug and very disappointing from a company like Microsoft. [...]