really slow Outlook (Outlook 2000 )

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What would cause Outlook to open slowly, display html mail even slower and only display text mail if I right-click on the item and select, for example, Forward? I’ve cleaned up my p.c., defragged it, and checked it for bugs. Anything else I can do?

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Well, it’s nice (I guess) when I can answer my own question. After further review, and discussion with a co-worker, we figured out my ActiveX was apparently corrupted while partially installing a game. So as soon as I get home tonight I’ll reinstall Activex and see if this solves my problem.

Otherwise, I’ll be back!

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Right-click on Personal Folders – in the tree-view at top-left, choose Properties:

• choose Advanced|Compact Now. It may just be that your PST file is starting to “sprawl” and Outlook is having trouble reaching all the parts of it readily.
• Then choose OK to back out to the Properties dialog again.
• choose Folder Size. If, for some reason, you’re closing on the dreaded 2Gb size limit, you’re going to need to start archiving off some of your PST file into a separate one. Otherwise, you may start losing access to some or more of your data.[/list]HTH

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Thanks, unkamunka!

I’ll try that too when I get home – yes, I’m sure I’ve reached some sort of limit and have been furiously deleting old emails, but then again, I’m always missing a folder or two…

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I re-installed DirectX twice and deleted some more emails. I didn’t have an option on the Properties/Advanced that let me “Compact Now” but I did set up an archive of items older than 6 months.

So I still can’t read my text mail unless I right-click on the email and select “Forward”. The html mail comes up, eventually. Anything else I missed here?

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Just an update – I did a repair of Outlook which ended up being a monumental task as I then had to reapply every stinkin’ patch on Office 2000 that was ever invented. After all this, Outlook still won’t work properly. I downloaded the MS Anti-spam Beta and reran through my regular anti-spam and anti-virus software just to make sure that there wasn’t some nasty bug issue.

So this is what I’m left with:

1. Outlook opens slow
2. If I right-click on the email item and select Forward, it opens the mail. If I right-click and select Reply, it opens the mail. However if I right-click and select Open, or I double-click the item, it shows a greyed-out email header and sits there until I get frustrated or I notice that it says “Not responding”.

Oh yeah, I disabled all my pop-up software and disconnected my cable modem just to make sure. I’m not using MS Word to read my email. I can’t think of anything else.

Any suggestions?

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One reason that Outlook might open slowly is if it believes that it was not shut down, or the PST file was not closed, in accordance with all of its file hygiene processes. So when Outlook crashes, for example, the next time you start it, it can take many minutes to even get anything except hard disk noise. Besides Outlook not closing properly and having the chance to wrap up, other programs can keep your PST file open or even keep a hidden instance of Outlook running in the background. This includes both legitimate programs like PDA sync and Internet Explorer (if you clicked a mailto link to generate a message) and mass mailing viruses. So troubleshooting the slow opening problem mostly involves making sure that there is a clean shut-down of all running instances of Outlook, and proper closure of the PST file.

There is an add-in that performs backups of PST files that you can download from microsoft.com. I think it was included in Outlook 2002, but optional for Outlook 2000. This add-in is very good at reporting when another program is holding your PST open. It deletes your backup and then when it goes to copy the up-to-date file, it gives an error. It’s better at reporting file-in-use errors than making backups! Anyway, if all else fails, you might use this tool as a diagnostic aid: when you’re ready to close Outlook, choose File>Backup and set a backup to run, then close Outlook and it should fire up and either make a backup or give you an error.

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Thanks so much for your suggestions, but here’s the really weird part. I don’t have a backup option on my File menubar. I also don’t have a compact button or, for that matter, and Advanced button on my Tools/Archive (at least I think that’s where mine is – I’m not looking at it right now), option. My only option is to use the Help/Detect and Repair, which just asks for every disk I ever owned and causes me to got through the download-this-patch-o’-doom loop, or the option to archive my email, which I don’t think would solve the issue.

So either I have a really odd copy of Outlook 2000 or else there’s something out there that stripped a bunch of stuff off my Outlook. I have to bring my machine into work now so someone can look at it.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

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For Outlook 2000, I think the Backup is something you have to download and install. It was never included in any of the regular service packs for Office 2000.

Regarding the Compact button, try closing Outlook and using the Mail control panel. There you might get a better version of the Properties dialog for your PST.

Note: I always used Outlook 2000 in Corporate Workgroup mode. If you are using Internet Mail Only mode (this mode information appears under Help>About… just after the product name) then you might have different menus. Another way to know immediate is: if you have Accounts on the Tools menu, you’re in IMO mode; if you have Services on the Tools menu, you’re in CW mode.

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Thanks again for your help, jscher2000!

In answer to your comments:

1. Yes, I’m using the Internet Mail Only version, so this explains the apples vs. oranges.

2. I downloaded the MS Backup and did a backup. It backed up the .pst and then let me view what I backed up.

So now that I have a backup of my mail, should I blow Outlook 2000 away and install it again? Or is there anything else I can do here?

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The reason I suggested backing up was not for the good reason of having a backup, but to see if Outlook reported that some other process was keeping the PST open, thus leading to having to rebuild the PST at the next startup. Sounds as though this is not the problem, or at least this time it was not the problem.

At this point and from a distance, I really don’t know how to sort out what is a problem with your data files and what is a problem with the software. One more thing to try. Unplug from your network and then start up Outlook. If it works normally, I would suspect that some malware is lingering on the machine that comes alive when you using Outlook and are connected to the internet. If it still doesn’t let you open messages, then that would pretty strongly indicate a problem with Outlook itself. But the problem might be in saved settings rather than in program files. Some settings are stored in the registry under your user data, other information (such as toolbar and menu customizations, macros, add-ins) is on disk.

Do you have a relatively recent version of Windows such as 2000 or XP? You could go into the control panel and create a new user (say, Testing2005) and log in as that user and try to set up Outlook from scratch. To give that user access to your PST file, copy it to a non-user-specific location, such as c:testing and have Outlook open and use the copy of the PST as its primary data store. If Outlook can display messages there without a problem, then it seems likely that some settings, either in the registry or on disk, are to blame and that rather than reinstall Outlook again (unless you plan to use the “eraser” program to really scrub out all of Office’s settings), we should focus on replacing the problem settings.

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I unplugged the network and other than my XP machine politely telling me that I was, indeed unplugged, nothing changed.

I’ll try the new user approach this weekend and if this doesn’t give a clue as to what’s going on, I’ll haul my machine into work once again, so the sysadmin can take a look at it (long, sad, manufacturer-related story). I’d rather fix this myself though, so I can live up to my SuperMom reputation..

Thanks for all your help!

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Okay! I set up a new user, installed Outlook, pointed to my .pst file and everything popped up like, well, it’s supposed to. So this means there are registry setting that are bad?

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Sorry, I’ve been traveling. In short, “yes.”

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Going forward, your simplest solution would be to stick with the new user. Or are there other issues that would make that an unsatisfactory solution? HTH

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The only problems I have with my new user profile is that a lot of the programs were installed as user-specific on my old, crappy user, so there will be a transition period (sort of like moving to a new home and everything’s in boxes). If I can get everything tweaked just right, we’ll all be happy campers at the old homestead!

Thanks guys!

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If you feel up to it, you could try backing up the contents of C:Documents & Settings[old user]Application DataMicrosoftOutlook and C:Documents & Settings[old user]Local SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook (except for your PST file) and replacing them with copies of their working equivalents from your New User Profile – just to see if that helps you avoid too much “house moving”. HTH

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I accidentally blew up my user identity on my work computer. After three weeks, I still find things that aren’t on “my” Programs menu and demand the original CD to run.

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