MS Word slow to open list of files

[tk421]

I have my My Documents folder saved on our server. I have a couple hundred client folders in my My Documents. When I open MS Word XP (sp2) and click "open", it takes a full minute to list all the folders. Even though i have a lot of folders, this seems to take too long. So I tried opening My Documents the normal way (from the desktop), and all my folders and files come right up with almost no delay.

Word seems to do something different when it tries to list the files, and I'd like to figure out how to get it to open up quicker. Any ideas?

I've set my My Documents as an exclusion in NAV, both on the server end and on the client end, but this didn't help at all.

[Ya_know]

Originally posted by tk421

I've set my My Documents as an exclusion in NAV, both on the server end and on the client end, but this didn't help at all.

I hope you enabled scanning on this directory again. This could get you into a lot of trouble if AV is still bypassing this directory...

[tk421]

yes, i will do that as soon as i get this issue resolved. thanks for the reminder.

[NooNoo]

Office is looking for lots of stuff, including printers on the network, and documents opened from other sources, such as web pages.

Is findfast running?

Tried clearing recent documents?

[scott]

Have any network drives mapped incorrectly? Or network drives that are still mapped but do not exist anymore? Have seen Word hang a couple of times because of this.

[silencio]

I've seen this happen when netbios resolution isn't functioning properly. I also remember an issue with Office 2000 opening slowly over the network that was resolved by upgrading to office xp. Not what most people want to hear but I distinctly remember people being PO'd about that one. They thought that MS should have patched O2K but they didn't.

Could check this issue too..

[tk421]

i didn't check if findfast was running. could that be a cause? I think it is running by default, right? I don't remember ever disabling it.

I enabled indexing on the my documents folder to see if that would help. i don't think it had any effect though.

by the way, the folder is mapped via a network drive mapping (T:\users\username).

[NooNoo]

just for a giggle, change the default directory it opens to a local drive... if it opens right away its hunting on the network...

[Ya_know]

Originally posted by NooNoo
just for a giggle, change the default directory it opens to a local drive... if it opens right away its hunting on the network...

For a giggle I usually just let my cat lick my toes. Changing default directories just doesn't do it for me anymore...

[tk421]

so anyways, i went ahead and moved the my documents folder back to the local disk. word brings up the folder list as fast as anything. but if i try to go back to the network location of all the files (they're still there, i haven't deleted them yet), it's one slow dog. doesn't matter if i browse via UNC or mapped drive letter.

any hints still appreciated, but otherwise i guess i'll just go local.

[NooNoo]

Yup... you need a little judicious registry hacking...


Click here for details

[tk421]

that was a good thought, but unfortunately that didn't do the trick. plus, this is a Win2k browsing an NT server. I'm not certain that tweak applies here. at any rate, i'm still stumped on this one.

[NooNoo]

The tweak does apply. 2k is hunting for all possible files and folders and printers. Unless you limit that behaviour it will go on doing that.

Tried clearing recent documents? You didn't answer that before...

[tk421]

you're right, i neglected that....

there were 153 items in the recent documents folder. i will check and see if that is the reason over the weekend. thanks for the tip!