Word/Excel/PowerPoint: Slow to Start

[Pleonasm]

A problem has only recently appeared on my Windows XP Pro SP2 PC. Opening a
local Microsoft Word 2003 document by clicking on the file name displayed
within Windows Explorer now results in about a 45 second delay before the
application is launched and the document is loaded. However, if Word is
invoked directly (through the Start -> All Programs menu), it starts
promptly; and if the document is then selected from within Word (using File
-> Open), it opens instantly. The same behavior occurs for Excel 2003 and
PowerPoint 2003 files, but not for other file types (e.g., .PDF).

Additional background:
* There is no malware on the machine (as reported by Norton Internet
Security 2006, Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.0, Ad-Aware SE Professional, SpyBot, and
RootkitRevealer).
* The PC is not joined to a network.
* Running “CHKDSK /R†and "sfc /scannow" did not reveal any problems.
* Re-registering Shell32.dll ("regsvr2 /i shell32.dll") succeeded, but did
not solve the issue.

With the exception of this problem, the PC is operating properly in all
other respects.

All recommendations are most welcome!

 

[Beth Melton]

You may want to try re-registering the applications. This will rebuild
the file association info which is used when you open an Office
document outside of the application. Go to Start/Run and run:

winword /regserver
excel /regserver
powerpnt /regserver

Note the space before the forward slash.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Merg to the max]

This problem can be caused by ACT!8. The preload setting needs to be
changed from -stayrunning to -preload in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

 

[theanswerinc]

I had a similar problem, and found that the HP digital imaging monitor in the
system tray was to blame. Once I killed that (and removed it from my startup
menu) the problem went away.

 

[tommo_l]

In my situation nothing helped AND I have PDF starting slow as well
What can cause this?

 

[sirdad1]

I am having this problem now (Jun 2007) and using regserver does not help
In addition it takes Win-XP 5 minutes to boot
And I cannot get applications listed when I open Add/Remove Window

Once booted - once Word opens (after 2 minutes) - once Outlook loads etc the
system and the Office programs run properly

sirdad1