Outlook 2007 Gone Wild! :-)

[RDU]

I've had to install & reinstall Vista Ultimate no less than 3 times thus goes
the same for Office 2007 (including Outlook 2007).

I have 4 profiles set up in Outlook. Regardless of which one I'm in lately,
Outlook tends to run very slowly, HTML emails load slow, & email does not
always arrive immediately in my Inbox (i.e. I may have to click on another
folder then click Inbox to see new mail). It is also important to note that I
run Windows Mobile Active Sync in the background as well. One important fact
that I discovered this morning when viewing Task Manager Processes, there
were 6 images of OUTLOOK.EXE running (!!) but only 1 being described as
Microsoft Office Outlook.

Ideas? Thanks.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Which addins for Outlook do you have installed? Only one outlook.exe process
should exist within a single user context.

 

[RDU]

Well, I think you might just be on to something here! I have the following
active add-ins:

1. Business Contact Manager for Outlook
2. Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging
3. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Colleague Import Add-in
4. Microsoft Outlook Mobile Service
5. Microsoft VBA for Outlook Addin
6. Outlook Backup Addin
7. PDFMOutlook
8. Windows Search Email Indexer

I should really only need 1, 4, 6, & 8.

Thanks.

--Randy

 

[RDU]

I deactivated 1, 4, 6, & 8, closed down Outlook then restarted. I still have
6 outlook.exe processes running & no performance improvement at all.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I deactivated 1, 4, 6, & 8, closed down Outlook then restarted.

I thought you said you needed those add-ins. My personal suspect is
PDFMOutlook.

I still have 6 outlook.exe processes running & no performance
improvement at all.

Did you stop them before testing so that you know you have only a single
Outlook process at first?

 

[RDU]

No, I don't need those. Yes, they were stopped prior to testing. I also
performed a repair of Office. After rebooting, and still running Windows
Mobile Active Sync I only have 1 outlook.exe process running. My thought is
that the Outlook file itself may be corrupt.

 

[Brian Tillman]

No, I don't need those.

You said: "I should really only need 1, 4, 6, & 8".

Yes, they were stopped prior to testing. I
also performed a repair of Office. After rebooting, and still running
Windows Mobile Active Sync I only have 1 outlook.exe process running.
My thought is that the Outlook file itself may be corrupt.

If Outlook runs at all, the chances that it is "corrupt" are miniscule. If
you're running ActiveSync and a PDA is cradled, Outlook will not stop.

 

[RDU]

I realize that Outlook will continue running with a Smartphone cradled.
That's obviously not the problem. Now, one other thing that I've found that
just might be the problem is that the .pst file is 912 MB!

 

[RDU]

Following is additional information that leads me to believe the .pst file is
somehow corrupted, depending on how you define "corrupt."

Last night, after continuing to experience slow performance within Outlook
with only 1 instance of outlook.exe running, closed down Outlook. Upon
restarting, got a very strange error dialog (could kick myself for not taking
a screenshot) that it could not access the Outlook.exe file in my Apps
folder. I rebooted, restarted Outlook, only to find several of my Favorite
Folders gone missing. Closed out Outlook for the night.

Got to my computer this morning, with no Smartphone cradled, & decided to
check TM just out of curiosity. Lo & behold there was 1 outlook.exe process
running with no description. I tried to terminate the process & received the
following error dialog:

Unable to Terminate Process
The operation could not be terminated.
Access is denied.

I then started Outlook, and the email that just happened to be highlighted
was an HTML file, & Outlook presented a dialog something to the effect of
"Microsoft Office Outlook" - Searching the server for information (not
verbatim). After about 30 seconds the dialog disappeared & email files were
immediately loaded into my Inbox. I then checked TM again to find 2
outlook.exe processes running (no Smartphone cradled), 1 at 87K with the
description "Microsoft Office Outlook" & 1 at 8.8K with no description.

There is obviously a problem with the .pst file and/or Outlook's interface
with Vista.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I realize that Outlook will continue running with a Smartphone
cradled. That's obviously not the problem. Now, one other thing that
I've found that just might be the problem is that the .pst file is
912 MB!

Why do you believe 912 MB is a problem? Every Outlook version that exists
can handle a PST twice that size and Outlook 2003 and 2007 can handle PSTs
20 times that size if it's a Unicode PST.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Following is additional information that leads me to believe the .pst
file is somehow corrupted, depending on how you define "corrupt."

Well, the Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst) will tell you that.

Last night, after continuing to experience slow performance within
Outlook with only 1 instance of outlook.exe running, closed down
Outlook. Upon restarting, got a very strange error dialog (could kick
myself for not taking a screenshot) that it could not access the
Outlook.exe file in my Apps folder. I rebooted, restarted Outlook,
only to find several of my Favorite Folders gone missing. Closed out
Outlook for the night.

It sounds liek an indexing program may be interfering. Do you have WIndows
or Google Desktop Search? If so, try clearing the indices and have it
reindex.

 

[RDU]

I didn't think 'scanpst' worked for Outlook 2007, but will give it a shot.

Re search indexers, I only use Windows Email Search Indexer, nothing else.
How do I clean the indicies & reindex?

Re your comment referencing mine about the .pst file being too large (912
MB), I just seem to remember some discussion awhile back that large files
tend to cause problems.

Thanks.

--Randy

 

[Brian Tillman]

I didn't think 'scanpst' worked for Outlook 2007, but will give it a
shot.

Office 2007's scanpst will work of Outlook 2007.

Re search indexers, I only use Windows Email Search Indexer, nothing
else. How do I clean the indicies & reindex?

I don't recall right now. I'll have to research it. I'm not at my Vista
PC.

Re your comment referencing mine about the .pst file being too large
(912 MB), I just seem to remember some discussion awhile back that
large files tend to cause problems.

Yes, large files can be a problem, but that's not large for a PST.

 

[RDU]

I don't have 'scanpst.exe' & don't find it available for download on Microsoft.

Actually I do use Windows Desktop Search within Vista & totally forgot about
it.

 

[RDU]

Re scanpst.exe', I did find a copy from a website explaining how to use the
IRT. I copied it into ":\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033" as
directed. When attempting to execute, I received the following error dialog:

Scanpst.exe - Unable to Locate Component
This application has failed to start because SCNPST32.DLL was not found.
Reinstalling the application may resolve this problem.

Is it possible that the Office 2007 CD may have the necessary files?

 

[Brian Tillman]

I don't have 'scanpst.exe' & don't find it available for download on
Microsoft.

It should be in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12 and it should be on
a "Microsoft Office Tools" menu in the "Windows button">Programs list.

 

[RDU]

I found it in the Office12 subfolder but it's not listed in the Office Tools
menu. I did run it and the tool found errors & repaired them though I can't
make heads or tails from the error log. The repair had absolutely no effect
on Outlook performance. Do you have any other ideas? I haven't found
directions on how to rebuild indices in Vista yet.

Thanks.

Randy

 

[Brian Tillman]

I found it in the Office12 subfolder but it's not listed in the
Office Tools menu. I did run it and the tool found errors & repaired
them though I can't make heads or tails from the error log. The
repair had absolutely no effect on Outlook performance. Do you have
any other ideas? I haven't found directions on how to rebuild indices
in Vista yet.

Right-click the Indexing icon in the system tray and choose Search Options.
You should be able to reset the indexing there somwhere.

 

[RDU]

It appears scanpst did more harm than good. Even though I have single
reminders set, now when a reminder dialog pops up, it shows 2 reminders! The
calendar still shows only 1.

 

[RDU]

One additional observation, which may be comparing apples to oranges. I have
an Exchange profile (.ost) as well and have absolutely no problems with it.