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Microsoft has finally released an [update][1] which addresses performance issues with the company's popular email client, Outlook 2007. However the patch is primarily intended for users working with Exchange Server, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a more general fix.

Many Outlook users who upgraded to 2007 have complained about significant drops in performance. An earlier support center document [addresses issues][2] with Outlook 2007 responding slowly when composing messages, moving messages to folders, deleting items and global searches.

If you're experiencing any of these issues Microsoft recommends you update Outlook and either delete some mail (?!), split your archives into smaller .pst files, use a filter to the items that you synchronize from Exchange to your .ost file and use online mode profile instead of a cached mode profile.

But even with the update and following the above tips, Microsoft says the issue may not disappear entirely. 

The problems seem to stem from changes to Outlook 2007 which added new features like an RSS news reader and live search message indexing. Unfortunately the new features seem to have come at the cost of performance, at least in some cases.

Jessica Arnold, Program Manager for Outlook [tells Computer World][3] that the performance issues stem from the new features. For instance, because RSS feeds are now downloaded and stored in local databases as .pst files, that data, along with email and calendar data, can quickly swell to several gigabytes in size.

So basically, as long as you don't have much mail, don't read many RSS feeds and rarely use your calendar, you should not have any performance problems using Outlook 2007. 

Those with thousands of messages, RSS feeds and busy schedules might want to hold off on upgrading to Outlook 2007. If it's too late for that, perhaps try the patch and let us know if it helps. I'd also perhaps recommend at least investigating web-based solutions like GMail.


[1]: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C262BCFD-1E09-49B6-9003-C4C47539DF66&displaylang=en "Update for Outlook 2007 (KB933493)"
[2]: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=932086 "You may experience performance problems when you are working with items in a large .pst file or in a large .ost file in Outlook 2007"
[3]: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9016638&source=rss_news10 "Microsoft addresses speed issues in Outlook update"