Outlook 2007 SP2 Improvements

There’s a huge batch of performance improvements coming in Office 2007 SP2, especially for Outlook users. This Microsoft Outlook Support article details the enhancements.

Gains in general performance, storage algorithms and user interface are top of the list. As are a ton of bug fixes. Even just focussing on the startup process has seen dividends. Here’s a comment from the team:

Our approach to optimizing the startup process is fairly straight-forward. We analyzed all the tasks Outlook queues and improved the boot time by removing a few operations that were considered unnecessary, and by better orchestrating the execution of the necessary tasks.

One of the key items I noticed was the improved shutdown performance. Life can be frustrating when you are running for a meeting and need to shutdown. Waiting a few minutes (yes a few minutes feels like an eternity when you are in a rush) for Outlook to disappear from Task Manager so you can shutdown Windows can be a hassle. This fix alone will be reason to apply the update.

The improvements are coming SP2 later this year, although you can request to download just these Outlook updates via the support site.

All-in-all this looks very positive.

Thanks to SBTUG news for the link.