Disabling unnecessary plugins is a great way to make your Outlook run smoother. In Outlook 2003 there are three places to look for installed addins and to disable them.
1. COM Add-ins
To view and disable COM Add-ins in Outlook 2003, navigate to:
“Tools->Other->Advanced Options->COM Add-ins…” and uncheck the Add-ins you do not need.
2. Add-in Manager
Navigate to “Tools->Options->Other->Advanced Options->Add-ins Manager…” and uncheck the Add-ins you do not need.
3. Registry Add-ins
In Outlook 2003, some Add-ins are not shown in the UI. You have to look for them in the registry.
- Run regedit*.
- Navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ Outlook\Addins”.
- Look at all subkeys of Addins. Those are Add-ins you have installed. To disable a particular Add-in, set its “LoadBehavior” key to 2.
* – as always be very careful while performing registry modifications.
Do not forget to restart Outlook after making these changes.
See more tips on improving Outlook performance and stability.
Very good tips, in task mannager Outlook use to take like 130k of memory use and like 20-30 second to start, after follow this tips it start inmediatly and use 20-30kb
Thanks
I’d made the mistake of downloading the latest version of my AV after getting a rather ominous warning stating that my current version would no longer be supported. The AV took over my computer and my MS Outlook and then wouldn’t uninstall. I had a friend remote in and do a manual uninstall and his comment was that the AV was as bad as any virus. After going through all of that, I was still getting an error message upon opening Outlook… you helped me eliminate that and my world is right again. Thank you for posting this!
I attempted to follow your instructions, but, unfortunately, in Outlook 2003, under tools, there is no ‘other’ option.
I’m not sure where you found it, but, its not on mine.
Any other ideas?
Kim – Under Tools, select “Options”, then “Other”.
are you sure its 2003?
Thank you. Disabling the add-ins solved the problem for me.
This worked for me, too — cheers!
Excellent tech tip! I had about the same results as Raul. Turns out, I’d long-ago loaded VBA in a vain attempt to write something for Outlook Calendar but had abandoned that project and forgotten about it. It was hidden in the registry key. Outlook is nice and snappy now and uses less than 30kb!
What add-ins should I leave enabled?
You’d want to leave enabled an add-in that you use.