# Files open real slow in Office XP



## mjoc (Feb 21, 2005)

I am having a problem opening office XP files. When I try to open any type of office document *from the my documents folder or from windows explorer or anywhere without office being opened* it takes forever to open the file. However, *if I open the office program first* then the document opens immediately. Does anyone know what would cause this?


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## sperrie (Feb 28, 2005)

*Try this*

Hi Michael, I happened to see your question when I was doing a google search for the same problem. Mine now works fine. I found that it was opening files slowly because my norton antivirus was checking the file for viruses before it opened it. Just like you, it was only slow when I wasn't opening it from within the program (Word or Excel).
I opened the Norton program, clicked on "options", went to "anti-virus". Under "miscellaneous", I "unchecked" the "enable office plugins". 
After I rebooted my system I can open the files in just a couple seconds now. Hope this helps.


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## NoReason (Nov 15, 2004)

it is always a good idea to keep your antivirus program checking these files thouigh...a couple seconds of wait time is worth it, not to get a virus or something that may have attached itself to these docs.


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## tech4ed (Mar 27, 2005)

mjoc said:


> I am having a problem opening office XP files. When I try to open any type of office document *from the my documents folder or from windows explorer or anywhere without office being opened* it takes forever to open the file. However, *if I open the office program first* then the document opens immediately. Does anyone know what would cause this?


My answer to your problem may be the same as mine but only if you have a home network setup. When you open Office 2003 and try to browse to a file, it takes a long time to respond.
I have a 3 computer home network systems as reduntant systems. From my main computer, I have the other two mapped for access. I normally keep the other two powered down until I need to do backups. Because they are not powered up, Office 2003 searches for the mapped drives. That is what causes the long delay. 
I unmapped the other computer drives and Office 2003 reponded very quickly as it should.
If you don't have a netword setup, Office 2003, when browsing to save, there must be something it is try to connect to. 
With this info, hope you can solve the problem.
I am a retired IT person.
Ed


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## ZET (Mar 4, 2008)

I realize this is an old thread but this was number one on google search. i resolved my problems with slow opening of word and excel by shutting down kodak easyshare software. That solved my problem 100%


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## mgoheen (Apr 1, 2008)

Old thread -- but perhaps a new problem? I have a user here that JUST encountered this problem starting this week. Opening Word and Excel files from Windows Explorer became very slow, as much as thirty seconds. I did the "standard" things (disabled anti-virus, removed ALL shared network drives and links, removed sites from My Network Places) -- but nothing resolved the problem. There are posts showing a way to resolve the issue by changing the way .doc and .xls files are opened (removing the use of DDE and instead having Windows Explorer open the files directly using Word or Excel) -- but that is really just a band aid over the real problem.

I found another post about someone finding that some OTHER program caused the slowdown for them (unfortunately, I don't remember what that program was) -- but that gave me the clue I needed. I've had multiple problems with Kodak Easyshare over the years, so I tried simply killing the Easyshare process (the one that hangs out in the background to make your life miserable) -- the problem immediately went away.

I uninstalled Easyshare and everything now works fine.

I HATE that software! :upset:

I don't know what changed over the last week to cause the problem. We have another almost identical computer with Easyshare installed where we do NOT see the problem. Perhaps it's due to some auto-update the occurred on the one machine over the weekend.


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## dr_insanity (Aug 19, 2005)

Another solution I have found (having tried disabling the antivirus, repairing the installation and reinstalling the installation) is to turn off DDE when opening the files. 

In windows explorer, go to tools > folder options
under the file types tab, select .xls and hit advanced
select OPEN and hit edit

at the end of the string under application to perform action, add "%1" including quotemarks, and uncheck the use DDE box.

Click okay on all of the open dialog boxes, and then repeat for .doc and .ppt


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## delphilenny (Apr 19, 2008)

thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i got the same problem with exel and word driving me crazy/ installinf and unistalling all the software. And ALL WAS KODAK SHARE!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks again


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## jlpeifer (Jun 12, 2008)

BINGO!!! Thank you Dr_Insanity. The system experiencing this problem did not have the Kodak Easyshare software installed on it. After following instructions to disable DDE on XLS and DOC files, these began opening *very* quickly whenever I double-clicked a DOC/XLS document directly from Windows Explorer.

Interesting side note... As mentioned, after I disabled DDE I opened DOC and XLS files successfully. When I went back into the "Edit File Type --> Open --> Edit" I noticed that the check reappeared in the checkbox next to "Use DDE". So the system apparently added that check again.

Regardless, the documents continued opening quickly, as expected.

Thanks Again!


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## WilliG56 (Nov 25, 2008)

Recently, my home computer (HP desktop) experienced a problem on 1 out of 3 accounts, only. Windows Explorer took 2-3 minutes to open a 'doc' or 'xls' file. This particular account has administrative privileges. The other two are user and administrator. Neither experienced the problem. The only way I could fix this was to uncheck DDE and add "%1" to the end of the 'Application used to...' string. Close then reopen Folders option - File types - Advanced - Open - Edit to find that DDE was checked off again, but the 'DDE message' was now blank. Upon closing again and invoking Windows Explorer, my 'doc' and 'xls' files opened immediately. My other two accounts still behave properly. I find this a mystery but am glad things seem to be working. Any thoughts?? :4-dontkno


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## vhawk17 (Feb 19, 2009)

*Performance real slow in Office XP*

Hey all,

I know this is not a loading issue but a performance issue with a single document.
Picked up a new client recently, they run Office XP on most of there machines still. The OS is Windows XP and the server is Server 2003. My issue is they use a template stored on the server. They add information to the template with no issues, they have been using this template for many years. Only recently the file after adding information to it has a very slow editing capability. When you scroll it takes forever. At first I thought it might have to do with the network. All other documents on the network edit and perform great. Even documents created from the template before and after this particular one. Then I thought it might just be the size (500k) roughly. Many other documents are much larger...some as big as 1.5 meg. So I thought maybe links in the document...nothing any different than the other similar documents. Finally as I was going threw the document I noticed that probably half was showing as mispelled...its a medical document so Word just does not recognize the words...none are mispelled, but i turned off auto spell checker. The file still has very very poor editing performance. After all that.....HELP!!!!!

Thanks 
vhawk17


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