Vista - Windows Mail slow in previewing messages

From time to time, Windows Mail starts getting slow in reading messages in
the preview pane. Before this, it reads almost instanteously. Now it takes a
few seconds for message to load. I reinstalled Vista Home Premium a few times
to solve this problem. I switched off my AV program and even deleted many
messages but it still takes time to load the message.

How do I solve this without reinstalling Vista?

Try compacting the database with WMUTil: www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/

Also try opening Windows Calendar and see if that makes WinMail faster.
Some have reported it does.

steve

"Charlie" <Charlie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F974D398-09CE-4605-A373-75875402F421@microsoft.com...
> From time to time, Windows Mail starts getting slow in reading messages in
> the preview pane. Before this, it reads almost instanteously. Now it takes
> a
> few seconds for message to load. I reinstalled Vista Home Premium a few
> times
> to solve this problem. I switched off my AV program and even deleted many
> messages but it still takes time to load the message.
>
> How do I solve this without reinstalling Vista?

An update that was installed on Tuesday, May 8th can cause this. It is
KB9831768. I had to uninstall this update as it slowed down Windows Mail to
the point of being "almost" unusable.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"Charlie" <Charlie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F974D398-09CE-4605-A373-75875402F421@microsoft.com...
> From time to time, Windows Mail starts getting slow in reading messages in
> the preview pane. Before this, it reads almost instanteously. Now it takes
> a
> few seconds for message to load. I reinstalled Vista Home Premium a few
> times
> to solve this problem. I switched off my AV program and even deleted many
> messages but it still takes time to load the message.
>
> How do I solve this without reinstalling Vista?

Thanks, Richard, for pointing this out. I now remember that my Windows Mail
slowed down after I did the latest Windows Updates. I uninstalled that
update, ran the utility that Steve recommended to compact the database. Then
I reinstalled "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (931768)".
There is no problem with Windows Mail now. I wonder whether it is because of
the need to compact or the update.

Why does Microsoft release updates that cause problems for users?

Thanks, Steve, for the utility. Is it safe to regularly compact the
database? I have now changed the option to compact from 100 to 50 runs.

Charlie


"Richard Urban" wrote:

> An update that was installed on Tuesday, May 8th can cause this. It is
> KB9831768. I had to uninstall this update as it slowed down Windows Mail to
> the point of being "almost" unusable.
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>
> Quote from George Ankner:
> If you knew as much as you think you know,
> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
>
> "Charlie" <Charlie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:F974D398-09CE-4605-A373-75875402F421@microsoft.com...
> > From time to time, Windows Mail starts getting slow in reading messages in
> > the preview pane. Before this, it reads almost instanteously. Now it takes
> > a
> > few seconds for message to load. I reinstalled Vista Home Premium a few
> > times
> > to solve this problem. I switched off my AV program and even deleted many
> > messages but it still takes time to load the message.
> >
> > How do I solve this without reinstalling Vista?
>
>

It shouldn't hurt to compact, but then again we don't know all the bugs they
put into the program.

steve

"Charlie" <Charlie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6E02F0BE-D4AE-4A13-8A65-B41C352816BB@microsoft.com...
> Thanks, Richard, for pointing this out. I now remember that my Windows
> Mail
> slowed down after I did the latest Windows Updates. I uninstalled that
> update, ran the utility that Steve recommended to compact the database.
> Then
> I reinstalled "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (931768)".
> There is no problem with Windows Mail now. I wonder whether it is because
> of
> the need to compact or the update.
>
> Why does Microsoft release updates that cause problems for users?
>
> Thanks, Steve, for the utility. Is it safe to regularly compact the
> database? I have now changed the option to compact from 100 to 50 runs.
>
> Charlie
>
>
> "Richard Urban" wrote:
>
>> An update that was installed on Tuesday, May 8th can cause this. It is
>> KB9831768. I had to uninstall this update as it slowed down Windows Mail
>> to
>> the point of being "almost" unusable.
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Richard Urban
>> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>>
>> Quote from George Ankner:
>> If you knew as much as you think you know,
>> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
>>
>> "Charlie" <Charlie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:F974D398-09CE-4605-A373-75875402F421@microsoft.com...
>> > From time to time, Windows Mail starts getting slow in reading messages
>> > in
>> > the preview pane. Before this, it reads almost instanteously. Now it
>> > takes
>> > a
>> > few seconds for message to load. I reinstalled Vista Home Premium a few
>> > times
>> > to solve this problem. I switched off my AV program and even deleted
>> > many
>> > messages but it still takes time to load the message.
>> >
>> > How do I solve this without reinstalling Vista?
>>
>>

For some reason, Windows Mail is again slow. I used the utility to compact
and repair the database and also uninstalled the update that Richard
mentioned but to no avail.

Any other suggestions? I'm seriously thinking of using other e-mail clients.
I never had this problem with Outlook Express.

Charlie

-------------

"Steve Cochran" wrote:

> It shouldn't hurt to compact, but then again we don't know all the bugs they
> put into the program.
>
> steve
>
> "Charlie" <Charlie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:6E02F0BE-D4AE-4A13-8A65-B41C352816BB@microsoft.com...
> > Thanks, Richard, for pointing this out. I now remember that my Windows
> > Mail
> > slowed down after I did the latest Windows Updates. I uninstalled that
> > update, ran the utility that Steve recommended to compact the database.
> > Then
> > I reinstalled "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (931768)".
> > There is no problem with Windows Mail now. I wonder whether it is because
> > of
> > the need to compact or the update.
> >
> > Why does Microsoft release updates that cause problems for users?
> >
> > Thanks, Steve, for the utility. Is it safe to regularly compact the
> > database? I have now changed the option to compact from 100 to 50 runs.
> >
> > Charlie
> >
> >
> > "Richard Urban" wrote:
> >
> >> An update that was installed on Tuesday, May 8th can cause this. It is
> >> KB9831768. I had to uninstall this update as it slowed down Windows Mail
> >> to
> >> the point of being "almost" unusable.
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >>
> >> Richard Urban
> >> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> >> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
> >>
> >> Quote from George Ankner:
> >> If you knew as much as you think you know,
> >> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
> >>
> >> "Charlie" <Charlie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:F974D398-09CE-4605-A373-75875402F421@microsoft.com...
> >> > From time to time, Windows Mail starts getting slow in reading messages
> >> > in
> >> > the preview pane. Before this, it reads almost instanteously. Now it
> >> > takes
> >> > a
> >> > few seconds for message to load. I reinstalled Vista Home Premium a few
> >> > times
> >> > to solve this problem. I switched off my AV program and even deleted
> >> > many
> >> > messages but it still takes time to load the message.
> >> >
> >> > How do I solve this without reinstalling Vista?
> >>
> >>
>

I had this problem and after searching a bunch of newsgroups, found an
easy fix that worked for me as well as what others did. I wanted to
give back by summarizing what I found because this was driving me
insane. All credit goes to "Eddie Kasper" since I found the solution
that worked for me in his post in microsoft.public.outlook.general in
the thread entitled "Outlook 2003 Slow/Doesn't connect to Exchange
after May Windows Up".

Description and symptoms:
Problem is described as slow Outlook, slow HTML mail, slow sending/
receiving, and most notably that characters typed show up on the
screen long after they are typed (a few seconds for some, to as long
as 15+ seconds in my case).
Problem seems to be related to the KB931768 patch from 5/8, which is
an IE7 fix hint hint IE7, HTML email: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931768
Problem seems to be mostly or exclusively in Office 2003's Outlook and
not in the 2007 version.
Problem is not related to the email system being used (e.g. Exchange)
but to the Outlook client itself and how HTML mails are rendered on
the screen.

Solution that worked for me:
If I select (left-click) Outlook Today once the problem goes away. I
haven't got the slightest idea why. If I do this, I'm fine. If I
close Outlook and restart it, HTML mail is slow again, and returns to
normal if I go to Outlook Today just long enough for that screen to
pain and then right back to my Inbox. My Outlook normally opens on my
Inbox. I never use "Outlook Today".

Solutions others used that they claimed fixed the problem:
1) Uninstalling KB931768 (Implies you also avoid/exclude it and/or
stop Windows Updates, which isn't so good.)
2) Right-clicking on your "root" email folder (Outlook Today), then
properties, Folder Size. This did not work for me. It was claimed
that after doing this once the problem resolved, however I suspect the
person selected Outlook Today by left-clicking it (which solves the
problem by itself for me) then did the right-click/properties/folder
size and decided that was what helped.
3) One person said turning off Phishing checker in IE7 and then re-
enabling it fixed this (I didn't try it).
4) Many folks used System Restore to roll back to a time before the
patches, which is probably the same as uninstalling KB931768 to some
extent, but also probably kills some of the positive benefits of the
other, non-implicated patches that came out the same day.

My troubleshooting, in case it helps:
How I isolated this to HTML mail is that first thing, I tried to reply
to a mail that was HTML and my typed response came out incredibly slow
on the screen (as above). As I was puzzling over this (I'm the
network admin here and expected people to begin appearing with this
problem any time) someone else showed up with the same issue. Then
another. I found that new mail I composed did not have this
slowness, and put together that I use Plain Text format for my mail by
default. Tests showed that messages in Plain Text and Rich Text don't
display the problem for us here, but any HTML email (newly composed,
a response to or forwarding of an HTML mail, which is by default an
HTML mail) exhibits the problem. So the easy workaround in the short
term was not to use HTML mail or to convert a message down to another
format before replying/forwarding etc. Later I found the "solution"
above, which seems to be waiting for a patch-to-the-patch from
Microsoft to address.

Thanks, Genepiccola. However, my problem is with Windows Mail, not Outlook.
However, you have also confirmed that KB931768 is the cause of the problem. I
have uninstalled it and set Windows Update to hide it. Hopefully, Microsoft
will remove this update and replace it with a problem free one.

Charlie

"genepiccola@gmail.com" wrote:

> I had this problem and after searching a bunch of newsgroups, found an
> easy fix that worked for me as well as what others did. I wanted to
> give back by summarizing what I found because this was driving me
> insane. All credit goes to "Eddie Kasper" since I found the solution
> that worked for me in his post in microsoft.public.outlook.general in
> the thread entitled "Outlook 2003 Slow/Doesn't connect to Exchange
> after May Windows Up".
>
> Description and symptoms:
> Problem is described as slow Outlook, slow HTML mail, slow sending/
> receiving, and most notably that characters typed show up on the
> screen long after they are typed (a few seconds for some, to as long
> as 15+ seconds in my case).
> Problem seems to be related to the KB931768 patch from 5/8, which is
> an IE7 fix hint hint IE7, HTML email: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931768
> Problem seems to be mostly or exclusively in Office 2003's Outlook and
> not in the 2007 version.
> Problem is not related to the email system being used (e.g. Exchange)
> but to the Outlook client itself and how HTML mails are rendered on
> the screen.
>
> Solution that worked for me:
> If I select (left-click) Outlook Today once the problem goes away. I
> haven't got the slightest idea why. If I do this, I'm fine. If I
> close Outlook and restart it, HTML mail is slow again, and returns to
> normal if I go to Outlook Today just long enough for that screen to
> pain and then right back to my Inbox. My Outlook normally opens on my
> Inbox. I never use "Outlook Today".
>
> Solutions others used that they claimed fixed the problem:
> 1) Uninstalling KB931768 (Implies you also avoid/exclude it and/or
> stop Windows Updates, which isn't so good.)
> 2) Right-clicking on your "root" email folder (Outlook Today), then
> properties, Folder Size. This did not work for me. It was claimed
> that after doing this once the problem resolved, however I suspect the
> person selected Outlook Today by left-clicking it (which solves the
> problem by itself for me) then did the right-click/properties/folder
> size and decided that was what helped.
> 3) One person said turning off Phishing checker in IE7 and then re-
> enabling it fixed this (I didn't try it).
> 4) Many folks used System Restore to roll back to a time before the
> patches, which is probably the same as uninstalling KB931768 to some
> extent, but also probably kills some of the positive benefits of the
> other, non-implicated patches that came out the same day.
>
> My troubleshooting, in case it helps:
> How I isolated this to HTML mail is that first thing, I tried to reply
> to a mail that was HTML and my typed response came out incredibly slow
> on the screen (as above). As I was puzzling over this (I'm the
> network admin here and expected people to begin appearing with this
> problem any time) someone else showed up with the same issue. Then
> another. I found that new mail I composed did not have this
> slowness, and put together that I use Plain Text format for my mail by
> default. Tests showed that messages in Plain Text and Rich Text don't
> display the problem for us here, but any HTML email (newly composed,
> a response to or forwarding of an HTML mail, which is by default an
> HTML mail) exhibits the problem. So the easy workaround in the short
> term was not to use HTML mail or to convert a message down to another
> format before replying/forwarding etc. Later I found the "solution"
> above, which seems to be waiting for a patch-to-the-patch from
> Microsoft to address.
>
>

According to reports I read elsewhere, the slowness that some
people are experiencing after installing KB931768 happens only
when using a non-default location for the Temporary Internet Files.

Gary VanderMolen

"Charlie" <Charlie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:9609332A-A6E9-47CE-83F2-001FAB8F4AAF@microsoft.com...
> Thanks, Genepiccola. However, my problem is with Windows Mail, not Outlook.
> However, you have also confirmed that KB931768 is the cause of the problem. I
> have uninstalled it and set Windows Update to hide it. Hopefully, Microsoft
> will remove this update and replace it with a problem free one.
>
> Charlie
>
> "genepiccola@gmail.com" wrote:
>
>> I had this problem and after searching a bunch of newsgroups, found an
>> easy fix that worked for me as well as what others did. I wanted to
>> give back by summarizing what I found because this was driving me
>> insane. All credit goes to "Eddie Kasper" since I found the solution
>> that worked for me in his post in microsoft.public.outlook.general in
>> the thread entitled "Outlook 2003 Slow/Doesn't connect to Exchange
>> after May Windows Up".
>>
>> Description and symptoms:
>> Problem is described as slow Outlook, slow HTML mail, slow sending/
>> receiving, and most notably that characters typed show up on the
>> screen long after they are typed (a few seconds for some, to as long
>> as 15+ seconds in my case).
>> Problem seems to be related to the KB931768 patch from 5/8, which is
>> an IE7 fix hint hint IE7, HTML email: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931768
>> Problem seems to be mostly or exclusively in Office 2003's Outlook and
>> not in the 2007 version.
>> Problem is not related to the email system being used (e.g. Exchange)
>> but to the Outlook client itself and how HTML mails are rendered on
>> the screen.
>>
>> Solution that worked for me:
>> If I select (left-click) Outlook Today once the problem goes away. I
>> haven't got the slightest idea why. If I do this, I'm fine. If I
>> close Outlook and restart it, HTML mail is slow again, and returns to
>> normal if I go to Outlook Today just long enough for that screen to
>> pain and then right back to my Inbox. My Outlook normally opens on my
>> Inbox. I never use "Outlook Today".
>>
>> Solutions others used that they claimed fixed the problem:
>> 1) Uninstalling KB931768 (Implies you also avoid/exclude it and/or
>> stop Windows Updates, which isn't so good.)
>> 2) Right-clicking on your "root" email folder (Outlook Today), then
>> properties, Folder Size. This did not work for me. It was claimed
>> that after doing this once the problem resolved, however I suspect the
>> person selected Outlook Today by left-clicking it (which solves the
>> problem by itself for me) then did the right-click/properties/folder
>> size and decided that was what helped.
>> 3) One person said turning off Phishing checker in IE7 and then re-
>> enabling it fixed this (I didn't try it).
>> 4) Many folks used System Restore to roll back to a time before the
>> patches, which is probably the same as uninstalling KB931768 to some
>> extent, but also probably kills some of the positive benefits of the
>> other, non-implicated patches that came out the same day.
>>
>> My troubleshooting, in case it helps:
>> How I isolated this to HTML mail is that first thing, I tried to reply
>> to a mail that was HTML and my typed response came out incredibly slow
>> on the screen (as above). As I was puzzling over this (I'm the
>> network admin here and expected people to begin appearing with this
>> problem any time) someone else showed up with the same issue. Then
>> another. I found that new mail I composed did not have this
>> slowness, and put together that I use Plain Text format for my mail by
>> default. Tests showed that messages in Plain Text and Rich Text don't
>> display the problem for us here, but any HTML email (newly composed,
>> a response to or forwarding of an HTML mail, which is by default an
>> HTML mail) exhibits the problem. So the easy workaround in the short
>> term was not to use HTML mail or to convert a message down to another
>> format before replying/forwarding etc. Later I found the "solution"
>> above, which seems to be waiting for a patch-to-the-patch from
>> Microsoft to address.
>>
>>

My Windows Mail is slow again although I didn't install KB931768 after I
reinstalled Vista. I tried Steve's solution which is to open Windows Calendar
AFTER I open Windows Mail. However, I now also get an error message when
rebooting that Windows Calendar cannot open. Maybe it is related to the
Windows Mail problem. Seems that Vista has more and more bugs as time goes by.

"Gary VanderMolen" wrote:

> According to reports I read elsewhere, the slowness that some
> people are experiencing after installing KB931768 happens only
> when using a non-default location for the Temporary Internet Files.
>
> Gary VanderMolen
>
> "Charlie" <Charlie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:9609332A-A6E9-47CE-83F2-001FAB8F4AAF@microsoft.com...
> > Thanks, Genepiccola. However, my problem is with Windows Mail, not Outlook.
> > However, you have also confirmed that KB931768 is the cause of the problem. I
> > have uninstalled it and set Windows Update to hide it. Hopefully, Microsoft
> > will remove this update and replace it with a problem free one.
> >
> > Charlie
> >
> > "genepiccola@gmail.com" wrote:
> >
> >> I had this problem and after searching a bunch of newsgroups, found an
> >> easy fix that worked for me as well as what others did. I wanted to
> >> give back by summarizing what I found because this was driving me
> >> insane. All credit goes to "Eddie Kasper" since I found the solution
> >> that worked for me in his post in microsoft.public.outlook.general in
> >> the thread entitled "Outlook 2003 Slow/Doesn't connect to Exchange
> >> after May Windows Up".
> >>
> >> Description and symptoms:
> >> Problem is described as slow Outlook, slow HTML mail, slow sending/
> >> receiving, and most notably that characters typed show up on the
> >> screen long after they are typed (a few seconds for some, to as long
> >> as 15+ seconds in my case).
> >> Problem seems to be related to the KB931768 patch from 5/8, which is
> >> an IE7 fix hint hint IE7, HTML email: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931768
> >> Problem seems to be mostly or exclusively in Office 2003's Outlook and
> >> not in the 2007 version.
> >> Problem is not related to the email system being used (e.g. Exchange)
> >> but to the Outlook client itself and how HTML mails are rendered on
> >> the screen.
> >>
> >> Solution that worked for me:
> >> If I select (left-click) Outlook Today once the problem goes away. I
> >> haven't got the slightest idea why. If I do this, I'm fine. If I
> >> close Outlook and restart it, HTML mail is slow again, and returns to
> >> normal if I go to Outlook Today just long enough for that screen to
> >> pain and then right back to my Inbox. My Outlook normally opens on my
> >> Inbox. I never use "Outlook Today".
> >>
> >> Solutions others used that they claimed fixed the problem:
> >> 1) Uninstalling KB931768 (Implies you also avoid/exclude it and/or
> >> stop Windows Updates, which isn't so good.)
> >> 2) Right-clicking on your "root" email folder (Outlook Today), then
> >> properties, Folder Size. This did not work for me. It was claimed
> >> that after doing this once the problem resolved, however I suspect the
> >> person selected Outlook Today by left-clicking it (which solves the
> >> problem by itself for me) then did the right-click/properties/folder
> >> size and decided that was what helped.
> >> 3) One person said turning off Phishing checker in IE7 and then re-
> >> enabling it fixed this (I didn't try it).
> >> 4) Many folks used System Restore to roll back to a time before the
> >> patches, which is probably the same as uninstalling KB931768 to some
> >> extent, but also probably kills some of the positive benefits of the
> >> other, non-implicated patches that came out the same day.
> >>
> >> My troubleshooting, in case it helps:
> >> How I isolated this to HTML mail is that first thing, I tried to reply
> >> to a mail that was HTML and my typed response came out incredibly slow
> >> on the screen (as above). As I was puzzling over this (I'm the
> >> network admin here and expected people to begin appearing with this
> >> problem any time) someone else showed up with the same issue. Then
> >> another. I found that new mail I composed did not have this
> >> slowness, and put together that I use Plain Text format for my mail by
> >> default. Tests showed that messages in Plain Text and Rich Text don't
> >> display the problem for us here, but any HTML email (newly composed,
> >> a response to or forwarding of an HTML mail, which is by default an
> >> HTML mail) exhibits the problem. So the easy workaround in the short
> >> term was not to use HTML mail or to convert a message down to another
> >> format before replying/forwarding etc. Later I found the "solution"
> >> above, which seems to be waiting for a patch-to-the-patch from
> >> Microsoft to address.
> >>
> >>
>
>
>