Word 2007 files take forever to open in Vista (was: Will an SSD help?)

[BlouBul]

About the differences in traffic, it's actually pleasing that the section dedicated to a "museum" OS like Win98 would actually get more traffic. Still a lot of fans out there...

Well, currently, the "museum OS" is the fastest of the lot

[JorgeA]

BlouBul,

Thanks very much for the test file. I've run the tests, and here are the results. Because of a certain phenomenon, I'm going to list the values in chronological order, rather than from the least time to the most time. These are for loading times from within Word:

2:49

2:25

3:14

3:33

4:44

5:43

4:28

Curiously, each new time that I opened the file, it took longer to load. Sounds like some weird kind of memory effect.

Now, for even more interesting results, check out the loading times for the following trial series, run from outside Word:

0:29

0:31

0:25

What?!? Remember that my own big file doesn't experience this wild inside/outside divergence in loading times.

Now, to answer your other questions. My laptop doesn't have Word on it, but my friend's laptop does. That laptop is a Vista x64 with Win32 Office 2007, and Norton 360.

My wife's tower PC (it's not a laptop) has Windows 7 64-bit, with Win32 Office 2007, and Norton Internet Security (not 360).

My Vista x64 tower is a Pentium Dual CPU E2200 (2.2GHz) with 4GB RAM, Win32 Office 2007, Norton 360, and Spybot Search & Destroy 1.6.2.

One last thing, just so that we are all comparing apples to apples. I'm measuring "loading time" from the moment that I click to open the file (whether from inside or outside Word), till the moment that the page count display at the bottom left shows the full range of pages for that file. (I have found that starting to work before it's done can be very distracting.)

I'm eager to get your thoughts on all this!

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Thanks, not sure if we needed a file with graphics, but thought that would be a good start.

I hope your times is in seconds and not minutes (we do not want JorgA's computer to open files faster than yours!) I just used the second hand on my watch and also get *about* 2 secs with Word already open.

BlouBul,

Interesting that you should mention graphics. The big file that got this whole thing started does include a healthy portion of graphical elements. That said, I do have a couple of files with no text but hundreds of photographs (crudely assembled in Word before I learned how to organize them in more suitable software) which are hundreds of MB in size and yet open faster than my big document.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

About the differences in traffic, it's actually pleasing that the section dedicated to a "museum" OS like Win98 would actually get more traffic. Still a lot of fans out there...

Well, currently, the "museum OS" is the fastest of the lot

Amazing, isn't it!

[puntoMX]

1 minute and 7 seconds on the rig I have in my signature, just with a 3.8GHz CPU and no L3 cache, time was clocked from clicking the file till it stopped "scanning" the document.

AV I use is Microsoft Security Essentials (who would have guessed ), I can't test with Office 2007 (SP2) as I have Office 2010 installed.

[BlouBul]

Curiously, each new time that I opened the file, it took longer to load. Sounds like some weird kind of memory effect.

Now, for even more interesting results, check out the loading times for the following trial series, run from outside Word:

0:29

0:31

0:25

What?!? Remember that my own big file doesn't experience this wild inside/outside divergence in loading times.

That is interesting. That tells us something (not sure what yet, but it definitely tells us something) The opening from within Word is similar than before (with the memory effect you mentioned), but it is about "normal" from outside word. We have to think what is different between this file and your file.

Now, to answer your other questions. My laptop doesn't have Word on it, but my friend's laptop does.

I thought you gave us your laptop speeds in post #55?

That laptop is a Vista x64 with Win32 Office 2007, and Norton 360.

My wife's tower PC (it's not a laptop) has Windows 7 64-bit, with Win32 Office 2007, and Norton Internet Security (not 360).

My Vista x64 tower is a Pentium Dual CPU E2200 (2.2GHz) with 4GB RAM, Win32 Office 2007, Norton 360, and Spybot Search & Destroy 1.6.2.

Just to summarize what we know before we did this test, based on the original file:

all the slow computers (3-5 min opening times) have Vista x64, Office 2007 and Norton 360

The intermediate computer (1-2 min) has Win7 x64, office 2007 and Norton IS

The fast computer (lowest spec, but < 1min) has win98 x86, office 2000 and no Norton

One last thing, just so that we are all comparing apples to apples. I'm measuring "loading time" from the moment that I click to open the file (whether from inside or outside Word), till the moment that the page count display at the bottom left shows the full range of pages for that file. (I have found that starting to work before it's done can be very distracting.)

Oops, I measured it as soon as I saw it on the screen. I just redid it your way, and the times went up to 16-23 secs. There is not a huge difference between opening within and outside Word. Those times are not far off from your times outside Word. So we can probably say those times are "normal"(waiting for more data)

Edited October 9, 2010 by BlouBul

[BlouBul]

1 minute and 7 seconds on the rig I have in my signature, just with a 3.8GHz CPU and no L3 cache, time was clocked from clicking the file till it stopped "scanning" the document.

AV I use is Microsoft Security Essentials (who would have guessed ), I can't test with Office 2007 (SP2) as I have Office 2010 installed.

Also Windows7 x64 operating system, hence the slower speed. Was that from inside Word or outside. Does it make a significant difference if you do it the other way around?

[JorgeA]

1 minute and 7 seconds on the rig I have in my signature, just with a 3.8GHz CPU and no L3 cache, time was clocked from clicking the file till it stopped "scanning" the document.

AV I use is Microsoft Security Essentials (who would have guessed ), I can't test with Office 2007 (SP2) as I have Office 2010 installed.

puntoMX,

Welcome back!

A question -- that 1:17 time reading, was it for loading the file from inside or outside Word?

--JorgeA

[puntoMX]

Outside word, but word 2010 starts way faster than 2007, let me test it from inside, brb-

EDIT: Same time, how about that? What takes time is the spelling check by the way: 1:07 (not 1:17) .

[JorgeA]

BlouBul,

Well, I got myself completely discombobulated here. Been a hectic couple of weeks, workwise, and I was trying to get in some more work while testing the file on the laptop. So I wasn't paying full attention to what I was doing , going back and forth among computers, and I labeled the column wrong on the paper where I was jotting down the results. Works, Word...

The times for my own laptop were for Microsoft Works, like the Works trial that I ran on my Vista tower. But they are obviously much slower. (FWIW, it too is Vista x64.) Because I do use it for business when traveling, the laptop is crammed with all sorts of security stuff running automatically (Norton, Spybot, Windows Defender, SASW). When at home I tend to set it aside and forget about it till the next time I have to take it with me. But because of all the different anti-spyware combinations that -- in my paranoia about going online at hotels -- I have tried and discarded on it, no doubt it could also use some good and thorough registry maintenance. I deeply apologize for confusing matters.

We have compared apples to apples. Now, if we compare "oranges to oranges" and I measure the file loading time on the Vista tower the same way you were doing it (to when the file first comes up on the screen), the reading drops to 7 seconds. Go figure.

One other thing (we HAVE been throwing around a lot of data). The Win98 tower that loaded the file in 40 seconds, does have Norton Internet Security (AV and firewall) installed on it.

Whew! Hope this helps to clear things up.

--JorgeA

Edited October 9, 2010 by JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Outside word, but word 2010 starts way faster than 2007, let me test it from inside, brb-

EDIT: Same time, how about that? What takes time is the spelling check by the way: 1:07 (not 1:17) .

puntoMX,

Oh man, I do need a vacation...

--JorgeA

[dencorso]

One last thing, just so that we are all comparing apples to apples. I'm measuring "loading time" from the moment that I click to open the file (whether from inside or outside Word), till the moment that the page count display at the bottom left shows the full range of pages for that file. (I have found that starting to work before it's done can be very distracting.)

Well, that changes things somewhat, so...

Athlon XP-M 2800+ (@2333 MHz) / 3 GiB / XP SP3 / AVG 2011/ Word 97:

11.23 s best, 13.16 s median, 16.67 s worst.

Measured in the way JorgeA specified (the file was opened by clicking on it from outside Word... afterwards I closed Word, waited some seconds and did it again).

This large fluctuation range, from 11 to 17 seconds, so a 6 second span is related to what other processes are executing during the "opening operation" (as defined by JorgeA), so it's normal and to be expected. It's the main reason why I use 7-value medians, since a 6 s fluctuation surely can blork a 13 s measurement. Much faster or much slower measurements would be less affected. But the fluctuation range is system specific, so it's easier to account for by taking medians than by actually trying to measure it.

[puntoMX]

Outside word, but word 2010 starts way faster than 2007, let me test it from inside, brb-

EDIT: Same time, how about that? What takes time is the spelling check by the way: 1:07 (not 1:17) .

puntoMX,

Oh man, I do need a vacation...

--JorgeA

Mexico is cheap, so is Brazil.

Well, to load the file is just like 3 seconds, but you should not test it that way. When you work in word you see that animation of a pen writing in a book on the left down side, that's the spelling and grammar checker (if you have enabled that one too); When it stops animating there, the whole file has been processed/checked, and that is what I measure. 3 to 4 Seconds to load to file till I see the last page but some 1m04s more to check for spelling and grammar.

EDIT: Wanted to say that I use the 32bit version of Office 2010.

[BlouBul]

With spelling and grammer check enabled, my times went up to 40 sec (40,40,41,40,40) fairly consistent. What is interesting now. The trend still remains. The 32 bit windows machines open the files much faster than the 64 bit machines. with Win7 x64 being again faster than Vista X86 (less than half the time for opening), but still beaten by x86 win7 and XP (also about half the time).

What totally confuses this hypothesis now is that when JorgeA open the file from outside Word he got the *same* as X86 systems. I tried it now with grammer and spell enabled to open from outside Word and the times also went down to about 30 sec (30, 31,33, 32). (Office 2010).

That cheap vacation in Mexico/Brazil starting to sound better and better (although South Africa is not too expensive either (and I will save on airfares)) B)

Just to ensure we compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges, I do not see the writing pen in the left hand corner of my Office 2010 while opening a file. It sort of freezes a couple of seconds and then start counting the pages. I start with the click and wait till the pages finished counting.

Edited October 10, 2010 by BlouBul

[JorgeA]

Hey BlouBul,

That's right, disabling the grammar check didn't seem to make a difference for me. But, just to make sure, I'll try it again a couple of times in case I screwed that up too. Doubt it, but it won't hurt to check.

Let's make sure I am doing this right, or at least the same way everybody else is doing it. In order to turn off grammar and spell check when I open a document, I need to go into Word Options, select Proofing, and then uncheck "Mark grammar errors as you type" and "Check grammar with spelling," right? Or is there something else that I need to change?

Doing it that way just now, the file took 4:49, 3:16, 2:31, 2:28, and 2:31 to load (that is, for the display on the lower left that says "Page 1 of xxx" to get to the last page of my big file, 501) from within Word. The animation that puntoMX described isn't showing (it does when I have those settings selected).

Loading three times immediately thereafter with grammar and spelling check turned back on, yielded the following values: 4:13, 4:10, and 4:42. So now it's looking pretty clear that it does make a difference, and I may have to amend my view that turning these features off didn't shorten the loading time appreciably. So, why didn't it have any effect the first time?!

For all the problem-solving brilliance I've demonstrated, maybe I should take my vacation in Greece and buy some government bonds there off the street.

Hopefully, though, these new results will help us in SOME way.

--JorgeA