Word 2007 slow startup puzzle

Faustus · 9 Jun 2007 at 23:49

Can anyone shed any light on this issue? I have installed MS Office 2007 Enterprise Edition on my Desktop PC running Windows Vista and my Laptop running XP. Both installs went without a hitch. However, whereas on the Vista Desktop the Office applications open like grease lightening, on the Laptop it’s a different story. All open quickly with one exception – that being Microsoft Word. The average startup time for Word is 40 seconds, which seems like an eternity when you’re waiting for it. I have no idea why this particular application should be taking so long. The Laptop specs are as follows - Pentium M 750J 1.86 MHz processor, 80 gig HD with loads of space, 1.5 gig of Ram and a PCI-E x16 (ATI Mobility Radeon X300 (M22) Video Adapter) graphics card. I was previously running Office 2003 which opened immediately when clicked. As I said it’s just Word, Excel, PP, Publisher all open straight away. Well, anyone got any ideas? :confused:

Alex UK · 10 Jun 2007 at 08:48

Maybe just try reinstalling?

Faustus · 10 Jun 2007 at 10:50

Having checked Disk Fragmentation it appears the disk was badly fragmented. I've de-fragged the disk and Word now starts up in just under 4 seconds - job sorted. I have to say I'm pretty impressed with Office 2007, the ribbon menus are very intuitive

Faustus · 11 Jun 2007 at 19:51

I have actually solved this puzzle of Word 2007 loading very slowly. Having read various forums about other people having similar problems with Office 2007 the common thread seemed to be that they nearly all surround Laptop users. This got me thinking that if not a performance issue (many of the Laptops suffering the same issue are as powerful as a Desktop) then what if anything is the difference between the Desktop having no issues and the Laptops which are. The one thing I came up with was the Printer. Most Laptops tend to be on a Home Network (mine certainly is) and therefore does not have a dedicated printer of its own but instead uses the Desktop via wireless. On a hunch I decided to load a printer driver on my Laptop and made that the default printer. This time when I clicked on Word it loaded within 4 seconds, I then selected the Desktop printer on the Home Network as the default printer and loading time reverted back to approx 40 seconds. I have tried this exercise repeatedly with the same results every time. It looks as though Word is looking for a printer before as it loads and then gives up when it can’t find one if Network printer is set as default.

My defragging the Laptops HD and thinking this had cured the problem was nothing more than a fluke – I had the Desktop on at the time so when I clicked Word on the Laptop and it loaded straightaway it was more than likely due to the fact that Word located the printer as that too would have been switched on.

There are so many people that have been suffering with this issue using MS Office 2007, I can’t believe the solution was in the end so simple.