Oulook - the good, the bad, the ugly...?

[Adcadet]

I was just reading E_Dawg's post about optimizing his machine at work, and some stuff about MS Outlook came up. I decided to give Outlook (XP) a shot since I like OE and I use a Palm pilot and was always curious about using Outlook with it. I've been using it, but it seems a bit slow. I was wondering if any of you guys have comments, suggestings, or opinions about Outlook and making it run nicer. I heard something about different file formats...huh?

Thanks,
Adcadet

 

[Pradeep]

Tho I run OfficeXP, I only use Outlook 2000. I find Outlook 2002 to be slower, nearly sluggish compared to 2k. What I do like about Outlook is the all in one file format (.pst), makes a nice change from the horror of trying transfer OE emails from place to place. And the synchronisation with my Ericsson T39, the bundled software only works with Outlook and similar.

 

[Pradeep]

Oh yes, and OE 6 is always snappier than Outlook, I guess due to not having to support all the Exchange overhead.

 

[e_dawg]

Nothing you can do about it, Adcadet. Outlook just plain runs slower than OE. When I first started using Outlook (switched from OE5), I noticed the same thing. My god this is slow, I thought to myself. After a month of getting used to it, I never once thought about how slow it was... until I started using the vomit box at work. I only thought about how useful and well-designed it was... and more importantly, how it changed my life by vastly improving my time management, contact management, and organizational skills.

The different file formats we were talking about involves local storage of e-mails in a Personal Folder (PST file) versus IMAP/webmail like online storage of e-mails on the Exchange server (OST file). Of course, every time you run applications or constantly stream data off a server, it will be slower than having everything local on your hard drive. Same thing happens with Notes. Some people just don't know that they should be working off a local copy instead of off the Domino server for better performance.

If you are using Outlook at home, you probably won't be using it with an Exchange server, so you don't even have to worry about any of this.

 

[e_dawg]

Just to clarify further, the optimizations we were talking about involving Outlook are for corporate environments only. Home environments using Internet Mail (i.e., not Exchange server) always use Personal Folders (PST), which is always local and fast... (unless you are one of those strange creatures that use IMAP mail serving instead of POP3).

 

[Clocker]

Does Outlook do newsgroups or do you need a separate client for that?

C

 

[e_dawg]

Separate client. Use OE for news. That's all it's good for.

 

[Cliptin]

Separate client. Use OE for news. That's all it's good for.

Agent/Free Agent is very good as a news client.

 

[Clocker]

Now I'm getting tempted to try Outlook but I've heard about so many virus problems with that. Is Outlook any more vulnerable than Outlook Express?

C

 

[Pradeep]

Outlook 2000 is vulnerable to lots of viruses until it is patched. It's not a simple thing, first you need to apply Office2k SP1 and then SR-1a. Then you can dl a patch for Outlook2K that fixes it all up. Outlook 2002 is better in this regard as it is not vulnerable in the first place. Use NAV 2002 with script blocking or similar and you won't have a problem in anycase.

 

[SteveC]

Another thing with Outlook is to set the security zone to "Restricted Sites" and to turn off the auto-preview option.

Steve

 

[SteveC]

Doh! I meant to say turn off the preview pane instead of the auto-preview.

Steve

 

[Pradeep]

Office Update will detect all the patches you need.

http://office.microsoft.com/productupdates/

You need the original media handy.

 

[Mercutio]

There are good things about Outlook?

Really?

'Cause I'm pretty sure there aren't. Unless you're in love with viruses and easily-corrupted, monolithic data files.

You haven't heard anguish until you run across someone with a 2GB .PST file that the repair tool can't fix.

If Outlook would interact with a standard mail file format (.mbox, the format used by UNIX mail servers, Eudora and Netscape mail, and tons of generic clients), I might have something positive to say about it.

As it stands, the best thing I can say about Outlook is that I'm sure that macro-virus writers thank you for installing it on your PC.

 

[Pradeep]

Anyone running a 2GB .pst file without backups should be thrown out of the nearest window. Backing up a single .pst file is so easy.

*scurries off to backup overdue .pst file*

 

[Tea]

By the way, is it possible to actually remove Outbreak from a Win2K machine? Having some basic concerns about security, I remove all the shortcuts, uninstall the Windows Scripting Host, the Address Book, and and switch the system defaults to something else, but is it possible to completely remove the damn thing? I never, ever use it (of course), and I doubt that even Microsoft Outbreak Express can do too much harm given all of the above, but I still don't fully trust any system that contains the virus vector that spreads in excess of 200% more viruses than every other vector put together. Can I delete it? I'm quite willing to take firm steps and use weapons of mass destruction on it if need be.

Err ... what am I saying? It is a weapon of mass destruction.

 

[Pradeep]

Apparently winXP SP1 was supposed to allow you to uninstall IE, OE, Win Messenger etc. I find that when I go into add/remove programs->components, I can untick those apps, but all it does is remove the links and start menu entries.

 

[e_dawg]

I have never had a single virus problem and I have been using Outlook Express and now Outlook 2000 all my life. Like others have said, apply your service packs and patches (as you should be in the habit of by now if you have been using Windows machines), set the security settings to Restricted Sites, do not Auto Preview, and don't open any e-mails and attachments that you are not specifically expecting. I have rarely used antivirus software until now and really never needed to. Now, I run NAV only for its e-mail protection because I cannot afford to take the risk of infecting others (business associates) on my contact list -- very unprofessional to say the least.

As for Eudora and Netscape mail, they may be decent mail clients, but they do not have the contact and time management capabilities of Outlook. If I were to use something other than Outlook, GNOME Evolution would be the only other program I'd use... and it works on Linux only. Lotus Notes in corporate environments is not bad, either, especially for team or group based work (although I still prefer Outlook).

 

[adriel]

Outlook has one of the worst GUI layouts I've ever used, as bad as Nero and ICQ in terms of finding what you want, when you want. I wouldn't be surprised if one day Outlook became an all-icon-graphics no-text program. Guessing what the functions do by how the cheesy icons look would be just about as fast as the current text-enabled system.