Uninstalling your antivirus software may also help. Don't forget to reinstall it after Office is finished installing and if you turned it off, be sure to turn it on again. If you're not sure which antivirus software you have, use the following instructions to get to Control Panel to find the name of your antivirus software.
Is there anything more frustrating than typing lag or slow-loading documents when you’re on a deadline? While Microsoft Office is one of the most widely used application suites for all kinds of projects in the modern office, it doesn't always show excellent performance.
When Microsoft Office slows down, showing you spinning wheels and requiring long wait times, it breaks your flow and concentration, ultimately affecting your productivity.
Thankfully, there are a few proven ways to speed up Microsoft Office on your Mac, and most of them are as simple as tidying up. If Marie Kondo has taught us anything, it’s that clutter can cause unnecessary stress in life. And this applies to hard drives as well!
Why is Microsoft Office slow?
While there are a few different symptoms indicating that Microsoft Office isn’t doing its best, such as a painfully slow opening of a program or Microsoft Word slow typing, the question stands: why is Microsoft Word so slow?
There are a variety of reasons Microsoft Office may run slowly, freeze, or cause the much dreaded typing lag. Often, the issue stems from a build-up of corrupted or temporary files that are meant to be automatically deleted but, for whatever reason, have failed to do so. The application suite could also be out of date or attempt to load corrupted files. Very likely it’s just a large number of small problems that have snowballed and are now causing noticeable issues. Here’s how you can fix it.
Refresh go-to templates
The template file normal.dot is created by Microsoft Word and stored automatically on your computer. It saves all the default settings of the application. So each time you change your settings, the preference is added to normal.dot. This way, the next time Microsoft Word opens a new document, your preferred settings load automatically. If your normal.dot file becomes corrupted or too complex to load, it can make Microsoft Word slow.
Deleting the existing normal.dot file will force Microsoft Word to create a new one. Starting fresh will be easy for most users, as the majority of us don’t stray too far from the default settings. For those that change their default settings in complex ways, make sure you back up your normal.dot files to a flash drive to avoid losing important settings permanently.
To find and delete normal.dot manually:
Finally, reload the application and see if the process has managed to speed up Microsoft Word.
Delete temporary files
All Microsoft Office programs will create temporary files to prevent you from losing your work. However, if the automatic removal of these files fails, they can build up and make Microsoft Office slow.
You can easily seek out and remove these files:
Once you are done, reload the application to see if that did speed up Microsoft Word.
Keep Microsoft Office updatedWhy Is Microsoft Update So Slow Mac Software Free
Having an outdated version of Microsoft Office will eventually cause it to run slowly. Luckily, updating the suite is very easy:
Additionally, you can turn on Microsoft auto-updates using the same dialogue box, so that whenever Microsoft Office detects a new version it will offer you an opportunity to install it.
Another way to update Microsoft Office is to directly download the latest one from the Microsoft website. But before you do, check that it’s fully compatible with your version of macOS.
Reset the application to default settings
Over time, all Mac apps accumulate lots of unneeded preferences that constantly rewrite each other. A good way to rule out that there’s anything wrong with the app is to do a factory reset — bring the app back to the state when it was brand new.
You can do a factory reset in two ways:
Alternatively, you can do the same thing quicker and more thoroughly with the CleanMyMac X uninstaller utility:
Delete and reinstall Microsoft Office
The old IT adage “have you tried turning it off and back on?” applies here, but in this case, it’s about deleting the application and reinstalling it. To completely delete Microsoft Office, you will need to remove files from two different places on your computer: delete the app first and then find your Library folder in Finder to see the associated files that need to be removed.
Once removed, head back to the Microsoft website, sign in to your account, and install the latest version.
Optimize documents for storage
Keeping Microsoft Office functioning properly means saving documents in their most optimized state. Resizing large images or graphics and not overloading your files with macros will help you maintain speedy performance in the long run.
Speed up Microsoft Office automatically in minutes
While all the above maintenance will help you speed up Microsoft Office, it can be time-consuming and finicky. Troubleshooting your app version, deleting and refreshing templates, and searching for temporary files is all manual work and could eat up a few hours.
To make things easy, you can use optimization software like CleanMyMac X, which will automatically detect and remove temporary as well as unused files to get your Microsoft Office running smoothly. Here’s how to do it:
While following the above method of optimizing your Mac with CleanMyMac X is enough to remove any unnecessary clutter, the app’s sidebar menu offers even more options for increasing the speed of your Mac as well as a handy uninstaller for quick and thorough uninstallations of apps you don’t need anymore.
Ultimately, there are a number of ways to get Microsoft Office to run smoothly again. And although it’s entirely possible to do most of the cleanup manually, using an app like CleanMyMac X is a much faster and easier way to get rid of junk and ensure that your Mac is performing at top speed.
It's important to keep your Windows 10 PC updated. You get security fixes, new features, small improvement tweaks, and more. Unfortunately, updating Windows 10 can often take years. Or so it might feel when you're watching an update sit still, you pacing around knowing that you have stuff to do on your PC. This isn't exactly a rare problem, and you'll almost always find a thread about it in our forum and in countless others around the web. So why exactly is it taking so long, and what can you do about it?
Why do Windows 10 updates take so long?Why Is Microsoft So Good
Windows 10 is a big, complicated OS that is constantly being tweaked. While some updates are small and you might not even notice them installing, others are massive and take a good chunk of time to install. The amount of time it takes can be affected by multiple factors.
If you're working with a low-speed internet connection, downloading a gigabyte or two — especially over a wireless connection — can take hours alone. Since you'll often be thrown into an update without any idea of what it consists of, watching the blue screen for hours might make you think something's gone terribly wrong. Likewise, if Microsoft's servers are getting slammed with people all trying to download at the same time, speed can be further affected.
So, you're enjoying fiber internet and your update is still taking forever. Does your PC have an old hard-disk drive (HDD) crammed almost to bursting with data? When was the last time you de-fragmented that bad boy? Some updates need to cover a lot of ground, and a slow drive with files everywhere won't help. Backing up your data and reformatting is never a bad idea, but the least you can do is give that old drive some new life with a defrag.
Windows Update components might be broken
A slow internet connection or a cluttered hard drive are not the only potential problems to do with Windows Update. When pitchforks and torches are grabbed and walked over to Microsoft's own community support forum, a moderator will usually direct the angered crowd to the Windows Update Troubleshooter tool.
Because Windows Update is its own little program, components within can break and throw the entire process off of its natural course. Running this tool might be able to fix those broken components, resulting in a faster update the next time around.
If you run this tool and find that it makes no difference, you can always run through Microsoft's step-by-step Windows Update support page. You answer a bunch of questions and you receive potential fixes along the way.
Software might be conflicting with Windows Update
Third-party applications, services, and drivers that start when Windows starts can cause software conflicts when trying to update Windows. If you're using a fast, wired internet connection and have a speedy solid-state drive (SSD) in your PC and are still having an issue with an update taking a considerable amount of time, you can try performing a clean boot of Windows 10 before attempting to update.
Once your PC restarts, try installing the Windows 10 update again. To enable startup items again, follow the same steps but click Enable all in step 6 and Enable in step 10.
Set a scheduled update time
An update to Windows can happen at the worst time, but you can disable auto updates and even set a schedule to have your PC do its thing overnight rather than during an important meeting.
More resources
Have a look at these other articles for more help with Windows Update.
Updated July 10, 2018: I've refreshed this guide to ensure you're still getting the best advice when it comes to troubleshooting a slow Windows 10 update.
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