Knowledge Base

How to troubleshoot performance issues in Outlook 2007

Article ID: 940226

Article Last Modified on 8/29/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

INTRODUCTION

This article describes how to troubleshoot performance issues in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

You may experience one or more of the following performance issues in Outlook 2007:

Outlook 2007 is slower than earlier versions of Microsoft Office Outlook.
Outlook 2007 is slower than expected.
Outlook 2007 is slower than expected when you access your mailbox.
Outlook 2007 appears to be unresponsive.
Outlook 2007 appears to stop responding for a long time.

MORE INFORMATION

The performance issues may be caused by one or more of the following:

Large Personal Folders files (.pst) or Offline Folder files (.ost)
Third-party add-ins
Gadgets that are installed in Windows Vista
Microsoft Office Communicator integration
Antivirus software interaction
Windows Desktop Search indexing
Minimal computer specifications
Incomplete closure of .pst files or .ost files
POP3 accounts on Windows Vista clients
Many Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds

Does the computer meet the system requirements for the 2007 Office suite that you are using?

Make sure that the computer meets the system requirements for the 2007 Microsoft Office suite that you are using. For more information about the system requirements for the 2007 Office system, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA101668651033.aspx

If the computer meets only the minimum system requirements, you will not experience optimal performance of the 2007 Office suite.

Do you have a large .pst file or a large .ost file?

If you have a large .pst file or a large .ost file, you may experience performance issues during typical operations in Outlook. These typical operations include reading e-mail messages, moving e-mail messages, and deleting e-mail messages.

To resolve this problem, install update 933493 to help resolve the performance issues that are associated with large .pst files and large .ost files. For more information about update 933493, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

933493 Description of the update for Outlook 2007: April 13, 2007

If you have Business Contact Manager installed, you must also install the update that is described in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

935569 Error message when you start a 2007 Office program on a computer that is running Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager: "Office application version does not match"

For more information about how to improve performance with large .pst files and large .ost files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

932086 You may experience performance problems when you are working with items in a large .pst file or in a large .ost file in Outlook 2007

Do you have any nonessential add-ins or out-of-date add-ins installed in Outlook?

If you have nonessential add-ins installed, you may want to remove them from Outlook. To view the add-ins that are installed, follow these steps:

In Outlook, click Trust Center on the Tools menu.
Click Add-ins to display a list of the COM add-ins that are installed.

By default, the following COM add-ins are included in the 2007 Office system:

Microsoft Access Outlook Add-in for Data Collection and Publishing
Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging
Microsoft Office Groove Proxy for Outlook Add-in
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Colleague Import Add-in
Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile Service
Microsoft VBA for Outlook Add-in
OneNote Notes about Outlook Items
Windows Search E-mail Indexer

Any other COM add-ins that are listed in the Trust Center are installed by other software.

Outlook can also use Microsoft Exchange Server client extensions that may cause performance issues. To see the list of currently installed Exchange Server client extensions, click Exchange Client Extensions in the Manage list in the Add-ins section, and then click Go. The Add-In Manager dialog box displays the list of currently installed Exchange Server client extensions.

By default, the following Exchange Server client extensions are included in the 2007 Office system:

Delegate Access
Deleted Item Recovery
Exchange Extensions commands
Exchange Extensions property pages

Any other extensions that are listed in the Add-In Manager dialog box are installed by other software.

To determine whether the performance problem is caused by add-ins, run Outlook in the safe mode. To do this, press and hold CTRL when you start Outlook. When Outlook starts in safe mode, all COM add-ins and Exchange Server client extensions are disabled.

To troubleshoot possible problems that are caused by COM add-ins or Exchange Server client extensions, disable any items that you do not use regularly. Then, restart Outlook. If that does not resolve the problem, disable the add-ins one by one. If that does not resolve the problem, disable all add-ins.

To disable COM add-ins, follow these steps:

On the Tools menu, click Trust Center.
Click Add-ins, click COM Add-ins in the Manage list, and then click Go.
In the COM Add-Ins dialog box, click to clear the check boxes for any COM add-ins that you want to disable.
After you disable the add-ins, click OK, and then restart Outlook.

To disable Exchange Server client extensions, follow these steps:

On the Tools menu, click Trust Center.
Click Add-ins, click Exchange Client Extensions in the Manage list, and then click Go.
In the Add-In Manager dialog box, click to clear the check boxes for any extensions that you want to disable.
After you disable the extensions, click OK, and then restart Outlook.

Did you install any gadgets that integrate with Outlook?

On a Windows Vista-based computer, remove any gadgets that you downloaded to show your Outlook data. For example, this data may include the Outlook calendar, Outlook tasks, Outlook mail, and Outlook contacts. To remove gadgets on a Windows Vista-based computer, follow these steps:

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Click Control Panel Home.
Click Programs.
Click Windows Sidebar Properties.
In the Maintenance section, click View list of running gadgets.
Click any gadget that you want to disable, and then click Remove.

For more information about the Windows Sidebar, view the "How do I customize Windows Sidebar?" Help topic in Windows Vista.

Is Outlook integration with Communicator enabled?

By default, Outlook includes feature integration with Microsoft Office Communicator. The features that Outlook and Communicator share relate primarily to presence information such as whether someone is busy, away, or in a meeting. To disable feature integration, follow these steps:

In Outlook, click Options on the Tools menu.
Click the Other tab, click to clear the Display online status next to a person name check box under Person Names, and then click OK.
Restart Outlook.

Is antivirus software running?

If your antivirus software includes integration with Outlook, you may experience performance issues in Outlook. In this case, you can disable all Outlook integration within the antivirus software. Or, you can disable any antivirus software add-ins that are installed in Outlook.

You may have to contact the antivirus manufacturer to determine how to configure the antivirus software to exclude any integration with Outlook or to exclude scanning in Outlook.

Did you recently install Windows Desktop Search on a Windows XP-based computer or install Outlook on a Windows Vista-based computer?

Windows Desktop Search (WDS) will index all data in .ost files and in .pst files. However, the indexing of Outlook data occurs only when Outlook is running. Therefore, you may have to leave Outlook running overnight to determine whether the performance issues were related to the building of your search indexes.

To determine the indexing status for Outlook data, follow these steps:

In Outlook, point to Instant Search on the Tools menu, and then click Indexing Status.
In the Microsoft Office Outlook dialog box, view the number of items that remain to be indexed.

The built-in back-off mechanisms in the indexing component of Windows Desktop Search force the indexing of Outlook data. The easiest way to let the indexing finish is to leave Outlook running overnight.

Did the .pst file or the .ost file shut down incorrectly?

If the .pst file or .ost file shut down incorrectly, you may receive one of the following error messages the next time that you start Outlook:

Error message 1

Outlook cannot open the data file filename until it has been checked for problems.
Error message 2

Microsoft Office Outlook’ exited without properly closing your Outlook data file ‘drive:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook.ost’. ‘Microsoft Office Outlook’ must be restarted. If this error message recurs, contact support for ‘Microsoft Office Outlook’ for assistance.
Error message 3

The data file filename was not closed properly’. This file is being checked for problems.

If you receive one or more of these error messages, you may experience performance issues until Outlook finishes the reconciliation process for the .ost file or for the .pst file. A gear icon is displayed in the status bar while Outlook checks the data file in the background. When this icon disappears, the .pst file or the .ost file is reconciled.

An incorrectly shut down .ost file or .pst file may occur for one of the following reasons:

Antivirus scanning of the file
Forced Microsoft Windows shutdown before the Outlook.exe process shuts down completely
Outlook add-ins

It may be better to shut down Windows when Outlook is still running instead of shutting down Outlook and then shutting down Windows shortly afterward.

Do you use a rule that moves items out of the default store?

Rules that move items from your default store into another store can cause performance issues when Outlook downloads e-mail messages.

To work around this issue, set your target folder for all rules in the same Outlook data file (store). Then, use the AutoArchive feature to move messages out of the default store in bulk. For more information about how to configure the AutoArchive feature, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

830119 Description of the AutoArchive feature in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003

Have you tried to run Outlook in offline mode, or are you connected to a POP3 server?

For more information about a possible workaround if you are connected to a POP3 server and your download speeds are very slow, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

935400 It takes a very long time to download an e-mail message from a POP3 server in Outlook 2007

When Outlook is running, click Work Offline on the File menu. This will stop all network activity and synchronization activity with servers. To download messages from your servers manually, click Send/Receive on the toolbar. For more information about how to manage Outlook synchronization, visit the following Microsoft Web sites:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP052421871033.aspx

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP030829231033.aspx

If this does not resolve the problem, you may have to install update 933493. If that does not resolve the problem, antivirus software may be interfering with the download process in Outlook.

Are you synchronizing many RSS feeds?

When you view the memory use for the computer, you may see lots of memory allocated to the Outlook.exe process. In some cases, the memory use exceeds 100 megabytes (MB). This problem may occur if the following conditions are true:

Windows Internet Explorer 7 is installed.
You have lots of RSS feeds.
You are synchronizing RSS feeds between Outlook and Internet Explorer 7.

Under the current architecture of Outlook and Internet Explorer 7, every feed that is listed in the Common Feed List setting has an associated feed name.feed-ms file. When Outlook is running, every .feed-ms file is loaded into memory by the Msfeeds.dll file. Additionally, the .feed-ms files are held in memory as long as the Outlook.exe process is running.

To resolve this problem, stop the synchronization of feeds between Outlook and Internet Explorer 7. If you then add a new feed in Internet Explorer, you can re-enable the feed synchronization to obtain the feed in Outlook. Then, you can turn off the synchronization one more time.

To stop the synchronization of RSS feeds between Outlook and Internet Explorer 7, follow these steps:

In Outlook, click Options on the Tools menu.
Click the Other tab, and then click Advanced Options.
Click to clear the Sync RSS Feeds to the Common Feed List check box.
Click OK two times.

Additional query words: OL2007

Keywords: kbhowto kbinfo kbexpertisebeginner KB940226

Microsoft KB Archive/940226

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