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Slow launch of WORD and EXCEL from Explorer only

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tomk3tek

Technical User
Sep 29, 2003
2
US
I’ve got an interesting/frustrating PC challenge someone may have advice for:

The problem happens when I launch an EXCEL or WORD file from Windows Explorer - it used to launch/open instantly, but now takes 10 seconds for the application to start then a few more seconds for the document to appear.  If I pre-launch the application, then the document, it opens quickly.

I spent some “quality” time this weekend trying to fix it.  I searched Google and found reference to a XP patch # 811493 which was issued in April that could cause a similar performance problem, but it was fixed and reissued in May. Uninstall anyway, but the problem is still there without this patch. Next, I uninstalled each Microsoft hotfix patch one-by-one with no luck.  Then I reinstalled XP without reformat, and still had the problem.  I removed anti-virus, Ad-Aware, and turned off Zone-Alarm, no help!  Now I have reinstalled all of the Microsoft hotfixes, but to no avail, Word and EXCEL still launch slow (10 seconds for the app then 4 more for the document).  I also reinstalled Office XP but no luck. 
 
And still after all of that, if I launch EXCEL app. only from the Start menu, it starts instantly.  And when I launch other files like Powerpoint and JASC from Explorer and they start instantly too… 

This happens on the AMD 2400+, 765Mb, with 30G free space, accessing local files. Task manager shows no change in task or CPU activity during the delay period.

 
This sounds just like a problem I am having. Did you ever solve this problem?
 
I discoverd that my Dell A940 all-in-one printer software was the culprit. The printer installation includes a program that runs in background on the PC, and monitors via the USB port, any button pushes that may occur on the printer panel. My "educated"??? guess is that this polling program is too rapid and takes over the USB port, and for some reason, causes the "slow launch" problem. I found this when I disabled the Dell background monitoring process for another reason, and suddenly everything launched quickly. -Good luck. Tom
 
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