Slow Word's startup as it tries to connect to something

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Before, Microsoft Word on my PC startup very quickly and smoothly. I think it took less than 2 second to start.

Recently the time to get to a ready screen suddenly increased a lot (~20s). I think it tries to connect to something at startup, but I cannot verify what it is (tried ping, go to the address...). However the line telling that Word is trying to connect to something does not appear all the time:

Word splash screen

And this is the current add-ins I have:

Add-ins

Is there someway to inspect and remove this start up problem? I know there's an option of:

winword.exe /a

This one will load Word without any add-in and not allow the program to connect to the internet. Setting up a firewall rule to block Word's ability to connect to the internet was also a suggested "solution" I've read, but those are just workarounds to the problem, not fixing it at the root.

Jim Raynor

Posted 2015-07-18T10:57:16.067

Reputation: 123

It appears to me that Word is trying to load something from file share may be a macro or a template. Can you check for this and see if you have any reference of that location ?

http://i.stack.imgur.com/E3KhU.png

– pun – 2015-07-18T12:11:18.703

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked, the Trusted Locations are all local (no location on shared folder), and the option "Allow..." is always unchecked. http://i.imgur.com/tu8wvg1.png

– Jim Raynor – 2015-07-18T13:07:53.330

Have you tried accessing that file share ? See what's in there ? Is there any template added in Word ? – pun – 2015-07-18T13:38:04.957

File > Options > Addins > Manage > Word Addins – pun – 2015-07-18T13:47:56.217

Some add-ins related to MathType. Tried to uncheck but it keeps coming back checked >> http://i.imgur.com/4pIwJBH.png

– Jim Raynor – 2015-07-18T14:23:44.900

Perhaps it would help to run Ccleaner (Cleaner -> Applications -> Office, and Registry -> Scan for issues. Then check Startup -> Scheduled tasks. Also, did you go into Programs and Features, and do a Repair of Office? – aparente001 – 2015-07-19T09:42:56.730

Answers

3

It turned out that the culprit is MathType (or to be exact, its add-ins). I tried to turn on and off the add-ins one by one. After uninstalling MathType, Word starts in half a second.

Don't know if I need/should keep the items in Active Application Add-ins there, but at least for now I'm happy with the startup speed.

enter image description here

(Will not re-install MathType soon, anyway for serious documents, I'm going with LaTex.)

UPDATE: After testing with reinstalling and uninstalling MathType again, I'm 100% sure that it is the cause of the long start up time. The problem is also addressed by Design Science themselves here: http://www.dessci.com/en/support/mathtype/tsn/TSN75.htm

For Word 2010-2013:

  • From the File menu choose Options
  • Along the left pane of the resulting window click on Add-Ins
  • At the bottom of the window, next to "Manage" use the drop-down menu to choose Word Add-ins and click Go
  • In the list of currently active templates, uncheck the box next to MathType Commands 6 for Word 201#.dotm.
  • To re-activate the add-in follow the steps detailed here but place a check next to MathType Commands 6 for Word 201#.dotm.

Jim Raynor

Posted 2015-07-18T10:57:16.067

Reputation: 123

1Glad you found it at last :D – pun – 2015-07-19T18:38:49.007

Asked: 2015-07-18T10:57:16.067

Viewed: 4 367 times

Active: 2015-07-20T21:45:17.320