How to troubleshoot performance issues in Office XP

When you use Microsoft Office XP, you may experience slow performance.

Symptoms of slow performance may include one or more of the following:

• Opening and saving Office files takes longer than you expect.
• Mouse pointer movement in Office is slower than you expect.
• Menus in Office open slower than you expect.
• Constant hard disk activity may occur after you install Office.

This article contains information about how to troubleshoot performance related issues that may occur when you use Microsoft Office XP.

Basic Steps to Troubleshoot Office XP Performance

Meet Minimum System Requirements

Make sure that your computer meets or surpasses the minimum system requirements for running Microsoft Office XP. For additional information about minimum system requirements that you must have to run Office XP, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: If the issue is not resolved by using this troubleshooting method, continue to the next method.

Remove Alternative User Input Feature from Office (Microsoft Windows 98 Only)

After you install the Office Alternative User Input feature that is included with Office XP on a computer that has Windows 98 installed, constant hard disk activity may occur, and your computer may run slowly. Remove the Office Alternative User Input feature.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Turn Off Speech Recognition in Office XP

Turn off Office XP handwriting recognition and speech recognition components. For additional information about turning off Office XP handwriting recognition and speech recognition components, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: If the issue is not resolved by using this troubleshooting method, continue to the next method.

Update Antivirus Software or Disable Antivirus Software

Antivirus software can affect the performance of Office XP. For additional information about documented issues related to Office XP performance and antivirus software , click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Install the latest updates for your antivirus software. For additional information about updating, contact the manufacture of your antivirus software, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
If installing the latest updates for your antivirus software does not increase the performance of Office XP, disable your antivirus software. If disabling your antivirus software does not improve the performance of Office XP, enable your antivirus software and continue to the next method.

Clean Boot Windows (Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Millennium (Me), Windows 98 Only)

Disable unnecessary startup programs by using the appropriate method for your version of Microsoft Windows. This procedure is known as "clean booting." After you have completed this procedure, test to see if the performance of Office XP increases. If the performance of Office XP increases significantly, consider shutting down unnecessary startup programs before you run Office XP.

Windows XP:

For additional information about how to perform a clean boot in Windows XP, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Windows Millennium Edition (Me):

For additional information about how to perform a clean boot in Windows Millennium Edition, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Windows 98:

For additional information about how to perform clean boot Troubleshooting for Windows 98, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
If the issue is not resolved by using this troubleshooting method, continue to the next method.

Use Safe Mode Troubleshooting (Microsoft Windows 2000 Only)

When you start Windows 2000 in safe mode, only essential drivers and computer services are loaded. You can use safe mode when you have to identify and resolve performance issues that are caused by unnecessary startup programs, or services that start automatically.

If performance increases significantly, when you run Office XP in safe mode, restart your computer in normal mode and consider shutting down unnecessary startup programs before you run Office XP. To troubleshoot performance problems in safe mode, follow these steps:

1. Restart the computer.
2. Press F8 when you receive the following message:
   Please select the operating system to start
3. In Windows Advanced Option Menu, use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode, and then press ENTER.
4. If you are running other operating systems on the computer, click Microsoft Windows 2000 on the list that appears, and then press ENTER.

If the issue is not resolved by using this troubleshooting method, continue to the next method.

Advanced Steps to Troubleshoot Office XP Performance

Install Update to Address SMB Issues

When you use Office programs that open and close files on a Windows 2000-based server with Server Message Block (SMB) signing enabled or when you use Office programs that create temporary files on a Windows 2000-based server, Office may perform slower than you expect. Specifically, files may take longer than you expect to open or close.

To try to resolve this issue, follow the troubleshooting steps provided in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article.Note In some scenarios, customers experiencing this issue have had to update, disable, or remove their antivirus software to workaround this issue.

Enable the "NetworkResiliency" and "PivotTableNetworkResiliency" subkeys (Microsoft Excel 2002 Only)

The NetworkResiliency and PivotTableNetworkResiliency subkeys, in Excel 2002, help Excel recover if there is a loss of network connectivity while you save a file and may affect performance.

For additional information about how to enable the "NetworkResiliency" and "PivotTableNetworkResiliency" subkeys , click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Contact Microsoft Support

If you cannot resolve your issue by using the steps in this article, several support options are available to assist you.

Quickly Find Answers Yourself Online

Use Microsoft Online Support to search the Microsoft Knowledge Base and other technical resources for fast, accurate answers. You can also customize the site to control your search.

To start your search, locate the following Microsoft Web site:

Microsoft Product Support

Contact a Microsoft Product Support professional to assist you with troubleshooting problems.

For more information about how to obtain help with troubleshooting Microsoft Office XP, click About Microsoft program name on the Help menu, and then click Tech Support.