OL2000 still slow after creating new PSTs

[BButler]

Hi,

I have an office full of users whose OL2000 installations are extremely slow
when they attempt to open messages with attachments.

They were unnecessarily set to Corporate/Workgroup Mode, and I cannot seem
to change to Internet Mail Only...at least not for long. But when I do, for
a MOMENT, OL2000 performance improves and mail with attachments opens fast.

I just created a new PST for one of the users with this problem, and set his
pop3 to deliver there.

Still - very slow with attachments.

The goal here is to not lose mail, but to lose the slowness, and to lose the
Corporate/Workgroup Mode if that would help.

What would an MVP do next in this situation? Or what would an MVP have
done?

Thanks!

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

Corporate/Workgroup is slower than Internet Mail Only mode because the
Extended MAPI spooler offers a greater range of support of what type of
accounts can be supported. In any event, here are some questions that might
be helpful.

1) Where does the PST reside? (Local or network drive? Remember that
Microsoft recommends PST files be kept local.)

2) Antivirus (exclude scanning of PST by file level scanner. Might even
consider killing the antivirus addin/plugin if using Norton/Symantec and a
range of others)

3) Check for any other addin/plugins that offer to scan e-mail. (e.g.
antispam)

 

[BButler]

Corporate/Workgroup is slower than Internet Mail Only mode because the
Extended MAPI spooler offers a greater range of support of what type of
accounts can be supported.

Understood. In this case (at this point in time, anyway), the CWO
functionality is superfluous, as all the users retrieve and send by pop3 and
smtp exclusively. There is no Exchange, and there is nothing else taking
advantage of MAPI.

1) Where does the PST reside? (Local or network drive? Remember that
Microsoft recommends PST files be kept local.)

Yes, default location in user's local profile location.

2) Antivirus (exclude scanning of PST by file level scanner. Might even
consider killing the antivirus addin/plugin if using Norton/Symantec and a
range of others)

Interesting thought. Will exclude PST by policy.

3) Check for any other addin/plugins that offer to scan e-mail. (e.g.
antispam)

Yes, found and removed some such stuff with no noticeable change.


Now, I have a user with a new PST, still slow attachments, and calendar and
address book are gone (because they were in the original). I think I can
manually copy/paste addr book at least, NOT groups based on past experience,
but that's a huge amount of time wasted if the process is going to be
anythihng like this for all users. It doesn't appear to fix the problem
anyway. Based on my experience with switching to IMO and having a MOMENTARY
return to normal speed, I thought it would.

How did this software ever become the universal standard for mail?

Thanks for your suggestions. Any advice on 1) automating this; 2) not
losing addresses and calendars; 3) actually speeding it up (clearly I'm
still not on the right track).

 

[BButler]

As I work with this as the user, I realize that my "solution" (which isn't,
anyway) is going to be totally unacceptable to the users.

All sorts, views, everything gone.

And I can't remember (nor find a Knowledge Base article describing) how to
make the calendar and address book from the old PST be THE calendar and
address book of record. I copied to the new PST and ended up with Calendar1
and Contacts1. Ctrl-Shift-B and other means to get at the Address Book do
NOT refer to the new one.

There has GOT to be a better way.

And attachments are still slow.

Earlier I was told not to import mail into a new profile, if I care about it
getting there. Past experience backs this up. I would love to make just
brand new profiles (which work fine BTW) and move everything in from the old
PST files.

At this point, I am seeking ANYTHING I can do to make this work for my
users.

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

View, calendar, contacts, .etc should be there since they are stored as
hidden items in the PST file. I'm guessing you noticed the "loss" when
switching back to Internet Mail Only mode? This is quite possible as
Outlook doesn't try to switch the profile back to one named "Internet Mail
Only" (it had a specific name and i'm going from memory).

Lets try this...

1) Convert a machine to Internet Mail Only mode

2) Open regedit and go to:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging
Subsystem\Profiles

This is where the profile list is kept. I would export each profile and
delete. I would also delete the "DefaultProfile" value if it exists.

3) At this point, you should be able to start Outlook and it will create a
profile with a new PST

4) Open the old PST file via File > Open > Personal Folders

5) Right click on Personal Folders (not the one with Outlook Today next to
it) and select Properties

6) Down at the bottom is a checkbox to make it the default delivery location

7) Restart Outlook and answer yes to the dialog boxes.


Now... I do not know of a FAST, EFFICIENT, or AUTOMATED way of doing this.

Again, the only time I've noticed a slowdown in Outlook is from the use of
3rd party software that interacts with Outlook or antivirus software.
Unfortunately Norton/Symantec happen to be the biggest offenders in my book
since that is what my site uses for AV. (I've had to uninstall/reinstall to
lose the e-mail integration. Use the central console to exclude PST files
from file level scanning.)

Outside of that, about the only other thing I can think of is a badly
fragmented drive or slow spinning hard drive. (e.g. laptop drives are slower
than desktop drives. I've even see firewire drives show fatigue after a few
minutes of heavy use.)

 

[BButler]

View, calendar, contacts, .etc should be there since they are stored as
hidden items in the PST file. I'm guessing you noticed the "loss" when
switching back to Internet Mail Only mode? This is quite possible as
Outlook doesn't try to switch the profile back to one named "Internet Mail
Only" (it had a specific name and i'm going from memory).

To clarify, I did exactly this (most recently, starting with CW OL2000 and
an existing PST)

- uninstall Office (only way to avoid OMINST.DLL error when switching mode)
- reinstall with my transform specifying IMO
- fire up Outlook
- add new PST
- configure mail to go to new PST

Lets try this...

1) Convert a machine to Internet Mail Only mode

2) Open regedit and go to:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging
Subsystem\Profiles

This is where the profile list is kept. I would export each profile and
delete. I would also delete the "DefaultProfile" value if it exists.

3) At this point, you should be able to start Outlook and it will create a
profile with a new PST

Amazingly, despite confirmed removal of all the registry items as above, it
started with the original PST, as had been in use before I started touching
things on this machine! And still broken.

So I like your general method of REALLY starting from SCRATCH with OL2000
and then opening the existing PST, but somehow it failed here.

Should I have "hidden" the PSTs in the user's documents and settings\etc
from OL2000 upon starting it? Might it have found a PST at the same place,
and with the same name, as it was going to use, and start assuming things?

FWIW:

All the machines which had "old" OL profiles failed at the same time, after
the loss of their former administrative install point (or, at least where
they were loading Office source from). Each machine was configured to
never install (always load from source) certain features (e.g. CSV in
Excel). When it failed, Office apps in general failed, big time.

I re-installed Office from *my* good Administrative Install Point.

Only the Outlook slowness problem remained. On every machine. It hadn't
happened before.

I guess it could be something goofy in the Outlook profiles also referring
to the deceased source, but I have no way to know (as there is no way to
really read the contents).

I shall now go play with another and report results.

 

[BButler]

1) Convert a machine to Internet Mail Only mode

2) Open regedit and go to:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging
Subsystem\Profiles

This is where the profile list is kept. I would export each profile and
delete. I would also delete the "DefaultProfile" value if it exists.

3) At this point, you should be able to start Outlook and it will create a
profile with a new PST

4) Open the old PST file via File > Open > Personal Folders

5) Right click on Personal Folders (not the one with Outlook Today next to
it) and select Properties

6) Down at the bottom is a checkbox to make it the default delivery location

7) Restart Outlook and answer yes to the dialog boxes.

OK, I did this with mostly desired results. If I can get repeatable
conditions I'll write up what's slightly different in this particular
scenario from the above.

So, I had a new PST, opened the original, set it as pop3 mail location, and
again the FIRST message with attachment that I tried...opened fine.
Thereafter, slow as ever.

!!!!!!!

Also, it broke the ActiveSync, which is the least of my worries at this
point.

This machine was in trouble, was the one that originally resisted even
letting me start from scratch, and I'm waiting on the other test boxes to go
through the motions of uninstalling/reinstalling Office so I can
definitively switch to IMO mode with my setup+transform.

Will advise.

Looked pretty good for a SECOND, then an incredible letdown. Still at it
(what choice?) :/

 

[BButler]

This trick does not appear to make OL faster.

Completely disabling the antivirus software on the client, which already
didn't scan PST files, also did not change this.

This is unbelievable.

PS Virus updates were current and no virus was found. I know, I've checked.
Repeatedly. Because this makes no sense. Perhaps we are the first to find
some new thing, which still hasn't been added to defs over a week later, but
I doubt it.

I'm really close to just cutting losses, and doing all brand new mailboxes
for everyone.

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

For the OMINST.DLL error when trying to switch modes after using a
transform, see
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316053&sd=RMVP

By the way, you might want to try testing w/out using a transform file to
rule out any quirks. (I seem to recall that the CIW can play havoc with
Internet Mail Only installs, but I sure can't find that info now. :/)