Slow Outlook 2002

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rich47

I have used Outlook for a number of years and currently have Outlook XP
(I think it's 2002) on my computer. I have a large amount of messages
stored on my machine (more than 2 gb).

I like Outlook's functions, but it runs very slow. It wasn't always
this way. It is slow to open and slow to close (sometimes it doesn't
close at all and when I restart the program it tells me not all the
folders were closed when I last closed the program). Because of this,
I find that I'm using Gmail for my e-mail program and hoping that
Google comes out with a calendar program soon.

However, I'd like to still use Outlook. Can anyone suggest some ways
to make the program run faster? Do I need to delete old messages (I'd
prefer not to), archive them, or do something else?

Thanks.
 
In
rich47 said:
I have used Outlook for a number of years and currently have Outlook
XP (I think it's 2002) on my computer. I have a large amount of
messages stored on my machine (more than 2 gb).
Click to expand...

More than one PST file, then, right? (OLXP/2002 has a 2GB limit on PST
files, and you will likely run into problems closer to 1.3 / 1.5 GB)
I like Outlook's functions, but it runs very slow. It wasn't always
this way. It is slow to open and slow to close (sometimes it doesn't
close at all and when I restart the program it tells me not all the
folders were closed when I last closed the program). Because of this,
I find that I'm using Gmail for my e-mail program and hoping that
Google comes out with a calendar program soon.

However, I'd like to still use Outlook. Can anyone suggest some ways
to make the program run faster? Do I need to delete old messages (I'd
prefer not to), archive them, or do something else?
Click to expand...

How many items do you have per folder, on average, when you're seeing this
problem? Don't store a humungous bunch of items in any folder - create
subfolders. MS doesn't recommend more than 5000 items per folder - and
personally, if it were my inbox, I'd have an aneurysm if I saw that many
items as I consider it a "to do" list of sorts).

Other suggestions: Back up your PSTs (do this regularly anyway) and run
scanpst.exe against them. Make multiple PST files for archive purposes. Turn
off Instant Messaging in Outlook (tools options somewhere....).
 
Actually, I'm mistaken. I have several pst files, but Outlook only
uses 2, one of which is an archive folder. My regular pst has 793mb
and the archive has 975mb. I have a lot of subfolders, but my inbox
is the one with the most messages (over 10,000). I'll archive things
and see if this helps.

When you say to make multiple archive psts, what do you mean?

Thanks.
 
rich47, you wrote on 5 Jan 2006 08:15:22 -0800:
I have used Outlook for a number of years and currently have Outlook XP
(I think it's 2002) on my computer. I have a large amount of messages
stored on my machine (more than 2 gb).

I like Outlook's functions, but it runs very slow. It wasn't always
this way. It is slow to open and slow to close (sometimes it doesn't
close at all and when I restart the program it tells me not all the
folders were closed when I last closed the program). Because of this,
I find that I'm using Gmail for my e-mail program and hoping that
Google comes out with a calendar program soon.

However, I'd like to still use Outlook. Can anyone suggest some ways
to make the program run faster? Do I need to delete old messages (I'd
prefer not to), archive them, or do something else?
Click to expand...

Try to solve this problem by deleting the file "extend.dat" that you
find in

C:\Documents and Setting\Username\Local Settings\Application
Datas\Microsoft\Outlook

That is to say an installed extension might cause this behavior (in this
file Outlook buffers the registry entries for extensions).
 
In
rich47 said:
Actually, I'm mistaken. I have several pst files, but Outlook only
uses 2, one of which is an archive folder. My regular pst has 793mb
and the archive has 975mb. I have a lot of subfolders, but my inbox
is the one with the most messages (over 10,000). I'll archive things
and see if this helps.

When you say to make multiple archive psts, what do you mean?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi - when you reply, please don't snip out all the quoted text (or change
your newsreader settings so it doesn't do this). It makes it impossible for
others to follow along....

You need to create folders to file things away so you don't have so many
items in any single folder. Consider upgrading to OL2003 - for one thing,
you can have bigger PST files, but you also get the option to use Search
Folders which will make it MUCH easier to find things you're looking for in
multiple folders.

Re multiple archive folders - keep an eye on the file sizes, and when one
archive PST file gets close to the 2GB limit (actually more like 1.5GB)
create a new one for your archive purposes.

And do regular backups!
 
rich47 said:
When you say to make multiple archive psts, what do you mean?
Click to expand...

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]
Re multiple archive folders - keep an eye on the file sizes, and when
one archive PST file gets close to the 2GB limit (actually more like
1.5GB) create a new one for your archive purposes.
Click to expand...

Or one can simply rename the old one (with Outlook closed, of course) and
let Outlook create a new one with the old name. If the archive PST is
visible in the Folders List, however, it should be closed first before you
rename it.
 
In
Brian Tillman said:
rich47 said:
When you say to make multiple archive psts, what do you mean?
Click to expand...

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]
Re multiple archive folders - keep an eye on the file sizes, and when
one archive PST file gets close to the 2GB limit (actually more like
1.5GB) create a new one for your archive purposes.
Click to expand...

Or one can simply rename the old one (with Outlook closed, of course)
and let Outlook create a new one with the old name.
Click to expand...

Yep.

If the archive
PST is visible in the Folders List, however, it should be closed
first before you rename it.
Click to expand...

Yep, again.
 
I also find Outlook (2002) annoyingly slow and I don't use Outlook for
e-mail at all (from the threads I've read, e-mail seems to be the
feature that is the focus on most performance-improvement suggestions).

I use Outlook as a Calendar, a task manager, and as a contacts manager
(but I have less than 1000 contacts), my Outlook Deleted Items folder
is empty). I don't access any servers with Outlook (at least not
intentionally). It's running on a 3GHz Pentium with 1.5 GB of RAM, so
I doubt the problem is hardware limitations.

Can any of you suggest non-email-related things for me to check/do?
 
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