Webville Networks Knowledge Base

Outlook Performance Tips

Make Outlook Run Faster

Much has been written on this subject. Here is a very brief summary of our favorite tips.

Use the latest version of Outlook with all available updates. Outlook 2007 received an update which improved its handling of large mailboxes. See Outlook Download if you need Outlook 2007 and visit Microsoft Update to get all available updates.
Use Cached Exchange Mode in your account settings. See screen shot below.
Use the options to download shared folders and public folder favorites. See screen shot below.
Never have more than 5,000 items in any one folder. (Very important - see references links below)
Keep your inbox, calendar and other frequently used folders lean and mean with far fewer items, try keeping your inbox under 1,000 items by creating other folders and moving items to them.
Buy a faster computer! With the cache options enabled, Outlook performance depends on the speed of your computer, not the servers or the network. The length of time it takes to open Outlook or move from folder to folder is dependent on your machine.

References:

Outlook Performance Tips