Microsoft Increases Office App Speed

If you frequently use Microsoft Office, you might want to check out a new feature that will make your favourite application run faster. Startup Boost, a feature that will be available very soon which will shorten the time it takes for a Microsoft Office program to start.

Beginning with Word in May, Microsoft intends to increase the Office products’ launch speeds. To ensure that Word and ultimately other Office programs start promptly, a new scheduled job will run discreetly when your computer boots up, improving the launch speeds of Office apps.

In an email to IT administrators, Microsoft said, “To improve performance and load-time of Office applications, we are introducing a new Startup Boost task from the Microsoft Office installer.” “The application stays in a paused state until it launches and the sequence resumes, or the system removes the application from memory to recover resources, after the system completes the task.”

The first program to receive this Startup Boost will be Word, and according to Microsoft, “support for additional applications will come in future updates.” This will begin in May. Only computers with at least 8GB of RAM and 5GB of free disk space will be able to use Startup Boost. Additionally, while Energy Saver mode is in effect, Startup Boost will be turned off. Startup Boost will appear as a scheduled activity and be fully customizable, allowing you to quickly turn it off if you don’t want an Office application using up too much RAM.

Word will have an option to turn off Office programs from starting silently in the background when the computer boots up. Although the scheduled job may always be deleted, Microsoft cautions that when an update is applied, the Office installer will rebuild the process; thus, IT administrators will need to control this through the in-app setting. It is an optional job that may be deactivated through in-app settings and is shown in Windows job Scheduler.

Although most app developers don’t utilize them frequently, Microsoft employs a variety of scheduled tasks to conduct Windows tasks discreetly and improve the operating system. Many OEMs utilize tasks to update drivers and other system components, and Google employs a scheduled task for its Chrome updater. However, the majority of other programs, such as Adobe Creative Suite, execute startup processes in Windows’ standard startup area, which makes it simple to deactivate them.

How is Speed Boost going to function? Like other scheduled tasks, programs, and services that startup automatically, the related task will start up discreetly once you sign in to Windows. Until you launch it or the system releases it from memory to free up resources, the Office program will stay in a stopped state.

Only if your computer has sufficient memory and resources to operate the function without degrading Windows’ performance will it be enabled. A minimum of 5GB of free storage space and 8GB of accessible RAM are required. Additionally, if Energy Saver mode is activated, Startup Boost will be suppressed.