# Word & Excel Have Gotten Slow to Open Lately



## retexan599 (Apr 8, 2007)

I am running Office Home & Student 2007 on Vista. When I first started 
using this system, Word or Excel would open very quickly, approx. 2-3 
seconds. Lately it is taking 8-12 seconds to open.
Items of interest:
- once Word/Excel is open, invoking subsequent documents is only 1-2 
seconds.
- I have 2GB RAM
- as far as I know, prefetching is in force.
- I do use indexing, but I always have.
- I am not on a network.
- One thing that has changed for me lately is the addition of a graphics 
tablet; however, Word/Excel is slow even with the USB tablet unplugged.
- when I say 'slow', I mean that the first 5-6 seconds of wait time is dead time; then it begins to open. 


Would appreciate any thoughts on how to troubleshoot this problem. Thanks.


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

Is your AV set to scan Office documents before they open? Check and see if there is a setting or a plug-in that can be turned off or disabled.


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## retexan599 (Apr 8, 2007)

Glaswegian said:


> Is your AV set to scan Office documents before they open? Check and see if there is a setting or a plug-in that can be turned off or disabled.


I have observed the problem both with and without my A/V turned on, and it seems to make no difference. Also, since I observe that opening a 2nd Word document while the first one is still open goes in 1-2 seconds, I 
am thinking that A/V scanning is not what is slowing it down. At the moment I am still suspecting the presence of my new graphics tablet (even unplugged from the USB port) is causing the slow down, and will need more sleuthing. Thanks for your advice.


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

It could be a conflict somewhere. Just in case it's Word, have a look here for solving some common problems.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/content/Software/Articles/32.html


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## retexan599 (Apr 8, 2007)

Glaswegian said:


> It could be a conflict somewhere. Just in case it's Word, have a look here for solving some common problems.
> 
> http://www.techsupportforum.com/content/Software/Articles/32.html


Thanks, I will research those suggestions -- and now I have a bit of new information: the slow behavior occurs when I invoke Word or Excel directly from the desktop, or from the Recent Items list, or from within a folder. However....if I invoke Word or Excel from the Start Menu program list it is very fast 1-2 seconds. What would make such a difference? Hopefully not a red herring, but worthy of further research?


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

For Excel, go to Tools > Options > General Tab and make sure *'Ignore other applications'* is *unchecked*. There is no equivalent for Word though.


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## retexan599 (Apr 8, 2007)

Thanks, that 'Ignore' item is unchecked, still slow. For the time being I can bring it up quickly from the Quick Start bar and go to the file I want.


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## retexan599 (Apr 8, 2007)

*Office File Slow to Open vs Program Fast to Open*

Hello. This is a rephrase of the post I recently made about this problem
since I still have the issue. In this post, I am distinguishing between
opening the *program* on one hand, and opening a *file* created with the
program on the other hand.

I am running Office 2007 for Home & Student under Vista.

- When I open an Office *Program* (like Word) from the Start Menu or the
Quick Start bar, it opens in a fast 1-2 seconds; opening a *File*
from the Office Button is another fast 1-2 seconds.
- However, when I open the same Word *File* from the Desktop, or from the
Recent Items list, or from a folder, it opens in a very slow 7-8 seconds;
the first 5 seconds of which time is 'dead time' before the Word window even
appears.

My recollection is that these files once opened very quickly from the
desktop and the slow down is fairly recent.

Any thoughts on what may be causing this *file* opening slowdown?

Other data:
- I have 2 GB Ram
- Other *files* open from the desktop in 1-2 seconds; the slow behavior is
only with Office generated files [e.g. Windows Movie Maker *file* opens very
quickly]
- I do use indexing, but always have.
- Have tested with and without my avast A/V and no difference.
- I am not on a network.
- One thing that has changed for me lately is the addition of a graphics
tablet; however, Word/Excel is slow even with the USB tablet unplugged.
- I have run Office Diagnostics (someone suggested) but made no difference.
- the Word files are .docx, but have found that .doc is also slow from the
desktop.
- Someone asked if I have the Office Startup Assistant (osa.exe) in place; I
have not been able to find such a file and not sure if it matters anyway.

So, if anyone has further thoughts, would appreciate, thanks!

John
:sigh:


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

John

What AV are you using? Some, like Norton, even though disabled, contain a plug-in that still scans Office files. Try checking your Options/Preferences and see if your AV has any such item.

If the application itself is opening as normal, but the files take some time, then it is most likely caused by your AV or some other real-time scanner.


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## retexan599 (Apr 8, 2007)

I am now using avast for AV; have tried my file opening with and without avast in service; made no appreciable difference. I think for now I will stop fretting over this and just go the quick route from the Quick Start section of the toolbar and an extra click. Thanks for your continued help.


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## krellkraver (May 26, 2008)

Looks like this thread has gone stale, but I've recently seen the same problem on a computer running Windows XP Pro SP2 and Office 2007.

I haven't solved the problem, but I did see one new fact that I didn't see posted here: If you create a new user profile, the problem goes away when trying to open the office document when logged in as a new user. This seems to indicate some problem with the user registry settings on the profile where Office starts slowly when trying to open an Office document.

Does anyone know how to solve this aspect of the problem?


Thanks,

krellkraver


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## krellkraver (May 26, 2008)

Believe I've found the solution here:

http://forums.techguy.org/business-applications/382510-word-opening-documents-slow-aieeee.html

Scroll down to the post by "ggumisme" on 12-Jun-2007, 03:30 PM.

Works for me in Office 2007 on XP SP2 for both Word and Excel files. Did disable DDE as instructed, but that setting always seems to come back. The fix still works, though.


krellkraver


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