Comments on: JPC - Outlook 2003 Slowness Revisited

By: dave

dave — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 21:57:33 +0000

This VERY SIMPLE FIX will cure almost all Outlook problems:

Simply delete this file: OUTCMD.DAT

It is usually found here: C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

It gets corrupted and brings Outlook and your whole comptuer to its knees. Outlook will automatically recreate a new good one.

By: Jonathan Aquino

Jonathan Aquino — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:36:07 +0000

Jason,

I’ve created a utility to automatically minimize inactive Outlook 2003 windows, to control the memory-usage issue. It’s at http://jonaquino.blogspot.com/2009/11/autominimizeoutlookexeworkaround-for.html

Jon

By: josh

josh — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 23:01:18 +0000

I had the same problem with Outlook 2003 becoming too slow to use.

I think I’ve narrowed the problem down to disk access.

It was taking several seconds to switch folers, and deleting an email could take a second or two also. I moved the PST file onto a RAM disk and now Outlook is humming.

I used this…

http://www.superspeed.com/servers/ramdisk.php

…but any RAM dirve should work.

It takes a lot of RAM (you’ll need as much ram as the size of your PST file), and it is dangerous becuase if you have a power failure or crash, you’ll loose any changes since the last backup, but if you live on Outlook the change can make you much more productive.

-josh

By: Zane-O

Zane-O — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 21:39:51 +0000

Looks like your “multi-monitor leave Outlook maximised all the time” lifestyle is the problem.

See the following article about the issue from Microsoft.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=827310

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 18:17:42 +0000

Brad, thanks for the tip. I remember reading about it ages ago, and I guess I assumed that it would be fixed in later service packs. I use multiple monitors, so I do tend to leave it maximized. I can’t believe there’s no mention of fixing this behaviour in the support article you linked to… they just state that this is how it works. Bizarre!

By: Brad

Brad — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 17:27:50 +0000

Do you minimize Outlook when you aren’t using it or do you ALT-TAB back and forth to it? There’s a known “feature” in 2003 that will cause it to slow down.

From slipstick.com (http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2003.htm):

“Get in the habit of minimizing Outlook 2003 rather than just using Alt-Tab or a Windows task bar button to switch to another program. If you leave the full Outlook 2003 window active, it may use so much memory that it stops responding. See Outlook 2003 Stops Responding After a Long Period of Use: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=827310