12/15/2009 -- My Word 2007 takes a very long time to load on my Windows XP. I'm only running Office 2007, Adobe Acrobat and Firefox on my computer. How can I speed up the time it takes to start the program?

Answer:
To speed up loading of Word 2007, follow this procedure:

1. Open Word 2007, right-click on the ribbon and select Customize Quick Access Toolbar.

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2. In the Word Options window, select Add-Ins in the left-hand column.

3. At the bottom of the window in the Manage section, use the drop-down button to select "COM Add-ins" and click Go.

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4. In the COM Add-Ins window, uncheck any add-ins related to Adobe Acrobat and click OK.

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The next time when you start Word 2007, it should load much faster. On an average computer running XP with 1GB of RAM, I've noticed that instead of taking 25 to 30 seconds to load Word 2007, it takes 3 to 4 seconds to start after following these steps.