# MS Office documents load slowly



## Sfluegel (Dec 30, 2005)

I'm having a problem with MS Office 2003. Word and Excel documents load
extremely slowly (1 to 2 minutes.) If I open Word without an existing document (Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Word), Word pops right up in 2 or 3 seconds. I can then open an existing file (File, Open) in a second or two. But if I try to open the existing file, either from a shortcut or by double-clicking the file name in My Documents, it takes from 1 to 2 minutes to open the file.

I'm running a Core Duo Pro PC with 2 Gb memory and Windows XP. All the files are local to the PC. There are printer connections to 3 different network ready printers (on board wired or wireless TCP/IP). Deleting the printers has no effect. Deleting the "recent documents" folder also had no effect.

Here's the weird part. If I right click on the file name, then hold the control key down and click on "open", the file opens right up.

The same thing happens with Excel files.

Any ideas?


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

Hi

One possibility is that your AV is scanning the files before allowing Word or Excel to open them. Check your settings and see if that is the problem.


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## Sfluegel (Dec 30, 2005)

Thanks for the suggestion.

I watched the "scanning" message in the status bar. It seems to be the same if I open Word first, or try to open the file directly.


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

You should be able to turn off the AV scanning - there will be a setting somewhere within your AV. If that does not help then we can start to look elsewhere.


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## Sfluegel (Dec 30, 2005)

OK, I turned off the AV checking. That seems to help on the Word documents, but not on Excel. I still have to wait a minute or so for the Excel doc to load if I try to open it directly, but it loads right up if I just start Excel with a blank spreadsheet, then use "file", "open" to load the existing document.


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

So if you click on an Excel file in Windows Explorer, it takes a bit longer to open? Don't forget that Excel itself has to open first and then load your file. Doing it the other way round, Excel is already loaded, so opening a file from within Excel is therefore bound to be slightly quicker.


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## Sfluegel (Dec 30, 2005)

I agree with "slightly quicker". However, if I open Excel first, then the file, it takes less than 5 seconds. If I try to open the existing file directly it takes more than a minute. I don't consider the first option "slightly quicker". Something is wrong, I just don't know what. 

I appreciate your help, any other ideas?


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

Hi again

Go to Tools > Options > General tab and make sure 'Ignore other applications' is *unchecked.*


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## Sfluegel (Dec 30, 2005)

It is unchecked. But a good suggestion!


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

OK - let's try this.

Go to Start > Run and type in *regedit* in the Run box - then click OK. Browse as in Windows Explorer to this key

*My Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Excel*

Right click the Excel Folder and choose *rename* - change it to OldExcel or whatever you like - this is effectively backing up the Registry.

This also deletes the Registry key for Excel. Now start Excel - it may take a while to open and start because it will be re-registering itself and creating a new key - and see if that helps.


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## Sfluegel (Dec 30, 2005)

Sorry for the delay; holiday last week and all...

I made the change in the registry. It seems to have helped some, that is the Excel docs now open in about 30 seconds vs. over a minute.

Any other suggestions?


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

Hi again

Hope you enjoyed the break.

Couple more options - with *Excel closed*, go to Start > Search and look for any files named **.xlb* and rename or delete them. Then restart Excel. These are toolbar customisation files and they can become corrupt.

In Excel. go to Tools > Options > General tab and make sure the "At startup, open all files in:" box is *empty.*

Let me know if either helps.


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## nickster_uk (Feb 7, 2005)

Don't know if this is relevent or not but I read somewhere that someone was having similar problems due to a MS update...not sure which one but if I find the post, i'll let you know.


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## Sfluegel (Dec 30, 2005)

Still not resolved. It's very inconsistent. And the problem is now back with Word files as well as Excel files.

I suspect it might be something with the network. If I disable my NIC, the problem seems to go away. (I share files between 3 PC's.) All my network shares are present and seem to work OK.

Any more ideas?


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

As Nick suggested, have you installed all Updates, both Windows and Office? About all I can think of, other than network issues as you mentioned.


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## Sfluegel (Dec 30, 2005)

I'm afraid I've been leading you on a wild goose chase. I just discovered that if I disable my network, the Office documents open just fine in less than 2 seconds. When I enable the network, they sometimes open fine, sometimes they take forever (30 seconds or more.) I'm now quite sure I have a network issue, not an Office issue. (I am up to date on both Windows and Office updates, however.)

I think we can close this thread, and I'll pursue the network issues.


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## Sfluegel (Dec 30, 2005)

Oh, I almost forgot.

Thank you very much for your help. You have been very responsive and helpful.


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## brad-sylvester (Apr 25, 2008)

Sfluegel said:


> I'm afraid I've been leading you on a wild goose chase. I just discovered that if I disable my network, the Office documents open just fine in less than 2 seconds. When I enable the network, they sometimes open fine, sometimes they take forever (30 seconds or more.) I'm now quite sure I have a network issue, not an Office issue. (I am up to date on both Windows and Office updates, however.)
> 
> I think we can close this thread, and I'll pursue the network issues.


I am having the same problem and when I disable the network (wireless) the problem goes away. I look for a new post on the problem but didn't see one. Can you tell me how the "network problem" was resolved?


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