Performance tuning for

the 2007 Microsoft Office

system

Date published:
June 2008
Summary:
This white paper describes the process of performance tuning a computer running
the 2007 Microsoft Office system, or preparing a computer to run the 2007 Office
system.

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Performance tuning
Performance tuning is the process of preparing a computer for a deployment of the
2007 Microsoft® Office system. It is also the process of correcting issues on a
computer that has the 2007 Office system installed and on which there is high
latency when using one or more Office applications. (Issues might include high disk
usage; slow or irregular interaction with documents, such as moving, copying and
pasting, or typing; and opening or saving documents locally.)

Why performance tuning?

Microsoft has found that a number of issues occur in enterprise environments that
can frustrate users with the deployment of a new software installation, such as the
2007 Office system. In particular, the following scenarios are common to many
organizations:

• Many computers in the enterprise environment have been in place for an

average of three years.

• Many computers run a variety of internal and vendor software tools and
applications that write many log files or data files to the hard disk drive.

• Many of these computers have had very little maintenance performed on

them.

• The usual process for deployment involves uninstalling the original version of
Office, then installing the new version within the same instance of Windows®.

• No further optimization or maintenance is performed.

The result is computers that are not tuned well enough to operate most software
applications reliably. This is because the following conditions are likely to exist on
each computer:

• The operating disk on the computer is highly fragmented (greater than 25

percent).

• The paging file (swap file) is fragmented several times on the disk.

• There are large numbers of small temporary files that consume a lot of space
in the temporary folder.

• Unneeded applications (installed by the users) are no longer used and are
taking up space.

• The Master File Table (MFT) is fragmented, which is probably the result of so
many temporary files.
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 • There are usually disk errors (such as fragments or cross-linked files).

• The registry (specifically HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID) has been filled with a lot

of information that is no longer needed, which makes registry access slower.

Each of the previous conditions will cause disk performance on the computer to
diminish. Even on a new computer, the hard disk drive is the slowest component, and
the rest of the system (no matter how fast the processor) is usually waiting on disk
access to complete before the next operation is started. Sometimes increasing the
amount of RAM will mask these problems, but RAM alone is not always the solution.

How to performance tune

To performance tune, you need to use the following steps on each computer. The
following steps are manual and some of the steps can be batched for remote
operation. However, the steps can be used manually for users who are reporting an
abnormal amount of disruption in using Office applications.

1. Remove the paging file from the disk.

a. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.

b. On the Advanced tab, in the Performance section, click Settings.

c. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.

d. In the Virtual memory section, click Change.

e. In the Virtual Memory dialog box, in the Drive list, select the primary
disk on which the paging file is installed, select No paging file, and
then click Set.

f. Click OK to save the settings, and then click OK to close each of the
remaining dialog boxes. If you are prompted to restart the computer,
click No. Perform the remaining steps in order, and eventually a
computer restart will be required.

2. Run Disk Cleanup.

a. Open My Computer.

b. Right-click the primary drive, and then click Properties.

c. Click Disk Cleanup. Allow it to complete (this might take some time).

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 d. Select the categories to remove (most can be removed with very
minimal impact). Avoid selecting Compress old files unless this is a
desired option.

e. Click OK to clean the computer.

3. Uninstall unwanted applications.

a. Open Control Panel.

b. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.

c. Uninstall applications that are not needed.

4. Perform a virus scan and a spyware scan if these tools are present.

5. Clean the registry.

If the registry has a lot of excess information, you can try using third-
party tools for cleaning the registry. Some of these can be found at
http://www.downloads.com. Note that the SysInternals tool called
RegClean is not compatible with Office. For more information, see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299958.

NOTE: Typically, a registry cleaner tool helps reduce clutter in the CLSID
section of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT branch of the Windows registry. The tool
typically removes entries that no longer point to valid ActiveX controls/Web
controls (OCX), dynamic link libraries (DLL), and executable files (EXE). Invalid
registry keys can cause performance issues because certain actions in
Windows cause an enumeration of these registry keys. The more invalid
registry keys there are the more likely the Windows shell (Windows Explorer)
will perform poorly. Because the Office applications use shell components for
the File Open/Save and other dialog boxes, this translates to performance
issues in Office as well.

6. Run chkdsk on primary drive.

a. Open My Computer.

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 b. Right-click the primary drive, and then click Properties.

c. On the Tools tab, click Check Now.

d. Select all options, and then click Start.

e. This requires a restart of the computer.

7. Run the PageDefrag tool.

a. Once the computer is restarted, you can run this tool. This tool will
defragment the registry files on the computer.

b. To download the PageDefrag tool, see

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/PageDefrag.
mspx?pf=true.

8. Run Disk Defragmenter.

a. Open My Computer.

b. Right-click the primary drive, and then click Properties.

c. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now.

d. Follow the options to perform a defragmentation of the primary disk.

NOTE: Third-party tools are available that can also defragment the Master File
Table (MFT) if it is fragmented. For information about why the MFT is important
and how fragmentation can harm performance, see
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/ntfs/archMFT-c.html.

9. Add back the paging file.

a. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.

b. On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.

c. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.

d. In the Virtual memory section, click Change.

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 e. In the Virtual Memory dialog box, in the Drive list, select the primary
disk on which the paging file is installed, click System managed size,
and then click Set.

f. Click OK to save the settings, and then click OK to close each of the
remaining dialog boxes. When you are prompted to restart the
computer, click Yes.

10.Once the restart is completed, the computer is performance-tuned.

NOTE: Many of the previous steps can be augmented by using tools from the
Sysinternals tool suite. For more information, see
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx.

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