Word opens slowly

[thegoad]

After a (possibly accidental) save, Word takes up to 10 minutes to load.
Another 5 minutes or so to open a Word file.
I am running Office XP Pro on Vista Home Basic.
I have scanned the computer - in Safe Mode - with anti-virus and three
anti-spyware programs, with no results; with Office both installed, and
uninstalled.
I have done three fresh install, scanning first, then defragging, then
cleaning the registry before reinstalling Office. Nothing helped.
A search of Microsoft's Knowledge Base gave a possible answer: delete the
normal.dot file , and some Registry entries. This did not help either.

When closing Word, it opens a small window saying that a "change has been
made to the global template normal.dot. Do you want to save the change?"
- If I click "No" I can reopen Word quickly (but not files).
- If I click "Yes" Word starts taking 10 minutes to load again.
Go to the right file location, delete normal.dot file, and Word will open
quickly, but changes such as margin settings won't stay registered.

I have tried renaming the normal.dot file, deleting it, and changing its
saved location, all to no avail.

In vista, normal.dot is found at:
'username'\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\templates and\or
'username'\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\Startup. Startup should be empty.


I have also gone through the following:

There are also 4 Registry keys that need to be deleted - for a thorough job:
1) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\10.0 Delete the entire 10.0
entry.
2) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\word\10.0 Delete the entire 10.0 entry.
3) HKEY_USERS\ check all the entries for Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0
Delete the entire 10.0 entry.
4) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\office\10.0 Delete the entire 10.0
entry.

That thoroughly cleans the system for a complete re-install. But neither all
of that with either a Repair, or uninstall & fresh install, helped.

Any newly saved normal.dot will slow the opening in a drastic manner again.

I'm beginning to think that this is a Vista (Home Basic) problem.

Has anyone else run into this, or can anyone offer some much needed
assistance?

Thank you in advance!

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

If you're using Symantec/Norton AntiVirus, try disabling the
Office Plugin that comes with it. See
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329820 "How to use Office
programs with the Norton AntiVirus Office plug-in" for more
information.

 

[thegoad]

If you're using Symantec/Norton AntiVirus, try disabling the
Office Plugin that comes with it. See
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329820 "How to use Office
programs with the Norton AntiVirus Office plug-in" for more
information.

No, no Norton anything. I gave up on them years ago. AV is AVG (paid).
Malware is: Spy-Bot, Ad-Aware, A-Squared. Firewall is ZoneAlarm.
All are fully updated, are is Windows and Office.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

AVG has an Office plug-in too. Try disabling it.

 

[thegoad]

AVG has an Office plug-in too. Try disabling it.

To tell the truth, I don't know where it is, but the problem is only about a
month old, and AVG was here first. I installed Office a bit later. Unless it
was in an update.....?

It seemed like a bad document save - the document and normal.dot were
saved nearly simultaneously.

Word is saving a new normal.dot to: user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office\
Recent\
or user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\Startup

Neither works. Both slow the opening to about 10 minutes, and slow file
opening
to about 5 minutes.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

On a computer running Windows Vista, Word 2002's normal.dot
template is usually in
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates.
Definitely not in the Word startup folder. That could be the
problem. In Word 2002, click on Tools | Options | File
Locations, and make sure the User Templates folder points to the
templates folder.

 

[thegoad]

On a computer running Windows Vista, Word 2002's normal.dot
template is usually in
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates.
Definitely not in the Word startup folder. That could be the
problem. In Word 2002, click on Tools | Options | File
Locations, and make sure the User Templates folder points to the
templates folder.

Putting a new normal.dot back where you suggested just recreated the problem.
Word opens quickly with no normal.dot file, but (obviously) it won't save
things like margins. And even with no normal.dot (or with it and the slow
opening) Word files take 5 minutes to open.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Try working through the troubleshooting steps at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm and
see if any of them help.

 

[thegoad]

Try working through the troubleshooting steps at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm and
see if any of them help.

Thank you. I think I've "been there, done that", but I followed through and
used their instructions.

Office re-initialized\installed itself, but after the initial open and
close, it was right back to 10 minute openings. I renamed, then removed the
normal.dot file.
Renaming it, opening, closing and re-opening just brought back the slow
opening. Removing the normal.dot file at least allows for quick opening.

Since I removed Office at one point, cleaned out everything in & out of
sight referring to it, defragged the hard drive, shut off & restarted the
computer, then re-installed Office, and its updates (the problem happens
before updates are re-installed as well), I'm beginning to wonder if this is
a Vista O\S problem.

Any thoughts on that?

Thank you, you've been a great help so far, and have validated all that I
have gone through so far!

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

I suppose it's possible that Vista is responsible, but my money
is on an antivirus plugin (either AVG's or a remnant of Norton)
or maybe a malfunctioning add-in.

Just to confirm, your Word user templates folder is located on a
local hard drive (not a network drive) and you are letting Word
create a new normal.dot template when it starts (you are not
using a normal.dot that you created or copied from somewhere)?

 

[thegoad]

I suppose it's possible that Vista is responsible, but my money
is on an antivirus plugin (either AVG's or a remnant of Norton)
or maybe a malfunctioning add-in.

Just to confirm, your Word user templates folder is located on a
local hard drive (not a network drive) and you are letting Word
create a new normal.dot template when it starts (you are not
using a normal.dot that you created or copied from somewhere)?

Norton was never installed on this computer. I don't know where the AVG
plug-in is - if there is one. And there are no add-ins to my knowledge.

The computer is a laptop, and everything is on its hard drive. It's not
networked.
And yes, every new normal.dot is created by Word. I long ago deleted any
renamed files, and I have to delete it if I allow it to be recreated. That's
when the slow down exists. No normal.dot = quick start, although still slow
Word file opening.

 

[thegoad]

Norton was never installed on this computer. I don't know where the AVG
plug-in is - if there is one. And there are no add-ins to my knowledge.

The computer is a laptop, and everything is on its hard drive. It's not
networked.
And yes, every new normal.dot is created by Word. I long ago deleted any
renamed files, and I have to delete it if I allow it to be recreated. That's
when the slow down exists. No normal.dot = quick start, although still slow
Word file opening.

Update:

Well garfield-n-odie, I don't know what happened.

I uninstalled AVG anti-virus, retried Word just as bad as before. I
re-installed AVG. Same Word problems. I tried one more Registry delete, and
the first attempt resulted in the same old trouble, the second attempt - and
it works again! It opens instantly, margins are saved, and files are opened
quickly again. In other words all is well again.

I don't understand it. I'd done all of this many times before and suddenly
it works!

Well, I can't knock it; but I have no idea why it now operates properly, so
if it goes bad again, I still have no recordable procedure to fix it.

That is frustrating, but not as frustrating as not having it work properly.

Thank you for your assistance and guidance. I certain that it had something
to do with the 'repair'. I'm just not sure what.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Glad to hear you found a solution to the problem.