Office 2K files launch slow & Outlook doesn't quit 1

[BoulderRidge]

I run Office 2000 (SP3) on Windows 2000 Pro (SP4) with Norton Anti-Virus 2002. I have two problems but will post them together in case they are related:

1) I keep Outlook open and minimized most of the day to check emails. When I close it it doesn't always really close. The window and taskbar icon disappears, but if I check Task Manager an Outlook.exe process is still running. I first caught this when I would try to launch Outlook in the morning and it would hang on the launch. A look at Task Manager showed sometimes 2 or 3 copies of the Outlook.exe process running even though no Application or icon showed it open and I had closed it the night before (I didn't shut down obviously). If I End all the processes it opens normally again. The opposite symptom also occurs--Outlook launches so quickly that it appears it was really already running and just becomes visible when I click it on my Quick Launch toolbar. This has been happening for at least a couple of months, could be much longer.

2) Opening any existing Office file (Access, Word, Excel) takes 30-45 seconds. This is new in the last two weeks and seems to coincide with a major attack of spyware I got when my kid used my PC to research a paper. He swears he didn't click Yes to download or install anything but I had popups and hijackers galore. I have run Ad-Aware Personal SE, Hijack This, and Spybot several times including in Administrator mode and it seems like I have gotten it pretty well cleaned up, although I'm no expert on the subject. I've also done a full virus scan with nothing found. But my files still open incredibly slow. I don't know what would suddenly cause these documents to crawl like that. If I just launch the program (Word, Excel) with no document it loads quickly.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

--BoulderRidge

 

[bboffin]

When Outlook 2000 is started it creates a process that tells you when new mail has arrived. This process is also called OUTLOOK.EXE and is what you see in the list of processes after you have closed what you think of as Outlook.

It normally doesn't matter as it doesn't use much in the way of resources and shouldn't be producing the symptoms you are seeing.

Check the File menu in Outlook 2000 and see if you have entry called Exit and Logoff. If you have try this option when closing Outlook and see if that kills off the other process as well.

There is also no harm in killing the OUTLOOK.EXE process from Task Manager.

Of course the other possibility is that some spyware is opening a copy of Outlook for its own nefarious purposes.

 

[BoulderRidge]

THanks bboffin. It seems to help when I use File...Exit and I didn't know that it was normal for the new mail detector to stay running when Outlook is closed.

I still have a big problem with slow launches and it seems to be all Office programs so I am going to repost that part of the problem in the MS Office forum. Please post any future replies there. Thanks!

--BoulderRidge

 

[SimonDavis]

Try swithing OFF the journal for Outlook.

It is a major pain in the ass, and gets switched on by default on installation.

I suspect that'll speed it up considerably.

 

[BoulderRidge]

SimonDavis,
There is nothing checked in the Journal Options window and I have not changed or installed anything with Office for some time. Thanks for the tip though.

--BoulderRidge

 

[bcastner]

To be fair to your son very little malware prompts you for a download. As long as ActiveX is enabled, the malware will be installed automaticly.

For good advice about avoiding many problems with malware, see:

http://www.computercops.biz/postt7736.html

An excellent freeware blocker, Spyware Blaster,

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

 

[BoulderRidge]

Excellent links--thanks! --BoulderRidge

 

[SimonDavis]

OK - but did you solve it? Have to admit, the Outlook journal tip is almost my little party piece, I've see it so many times now!

 

[BoulderRidge]

No, it is still crawling. I have disabled the Office plugin in Norton and checked that journalling is not enabled in Outlook. Have not tried to defrag yet but will try that tonight.

Thanks for checking back...if you have any more ideas please post to thread68-928284. I had just reposted this thread over there in the MS Office forum after a week with no action here and then suddenly everybody weighed in with tips--go figure!

--BoulderRidge B-)