AKICILJ/DW: Microsoft Outlook "offline address books"

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04 October 2010 @ 07:28 pm

It just took Microsoft Outlook the better part of two hours to shut down; it said it was decompressing offline address books.

Does anyone know what causes this, and whether it's safe to cancel the process?

I use Office 2003 on Windows XP. (I will eventually screw up my courage and upgrade to Windows 7 and Office 2010 "for the better SharePoint integration", but that's not something I'm really looking forward to, even though I have a new laptop on which to do so.)

Possibly related: This morning before work, I did use the Web Access to the Exchange server, but on the other hand, I'm pretty sure I shut down Outlook before I went to lunch. Is that likely to be related?

Also, please note: I am required by my employer to use MS Office. Suggestions involving using different software will be relatively unhelpful.

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wcg on October 5th, 2010 12:04 am (UTC)

I have to use MS Outlook for my official business e-mail too. We've seen cases of Outlook taking a very long time to close when you have attachments on your calendar associated with open-ended meetings (ones that meet every week without end, or every two weeks without end, etc...). I can only suggest you check to see if you have something like that.

Decompressing offline address books is a new one to me. However, I note that google shows a lot of people have had problems with it. So you might read some of that.

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aedifica on October 5th, 2010 01:48 am (UTC)

I haven't run into that one before!

About your future plans: I like Windows 7 a lot, and most of Office 2010 is fine, but I recommend staying away from Outlook 2010 as long as you're able! (Outlook 2007 is decent, though.) Some of my adventures with Outlook 2010.

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janetmiles on October 5th, 2010 12:22 pm (UTC)

I wish I could mix and match, but unfortunately, the installer provided by the university includes and installs all the components. I'll still have Outlook 2003 on my old computer, though, until I get used to the new one.

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johnpalmer on October 5th, 2010 04:48 am (UTC)

Um. I don't know. But, if it's important to you, I can probably find out, or give you the means to find out.

I can search the MS ticket database (if you have a screen shot or a verbatim message, that'll make it easier) to see if there's an answer - I don't have much time for a search though. Or, I can get you a quick-assist number. Seems like a bit of a shame to waste the QA on a relatively minor issue, but I don't know if I've ever given one for one that's really important, anyway.)

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janetmiles on October 5th, 2010 12:21 pm (UTC)

Thanks, John, but it's not *that* important to me. It's done this before, but usually when I've remoted in to my computer, and it usually only takes about five minutes to shut down when it happens. This just annoyed me because, well, nearly two hours.

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tsjafo on October 5th, 2010 11:26 am (UTC)

I am trying to learn Win 7/Office 10. I'm not keeping up. Fortunately I don't have a job that depends on it. I know that's not much help but I do understand the pain.

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epi_lj on October 5th, 2010 10:43 pm (UTC)

I'm not sure what the problem there is, but I can confirm that I'm running he same setup as you on the front end at least (I'm not sure what version of Exchange you're running on the back-end) and I have never encountered that despite using Outlook Web Access fairly regularly. So I don't think that's the issue (at least, not by itself).

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