OFF97: Q&A: What Is the OSA and What Does It Do?

• Microsoft Office 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

This article answers some of the frequently asked questions regarding the Office Startup Application (OSA). This article is divided into the following sections:

• What is the OSA?
• What does the OSA do?
• What are the advantages of running the OSA?
• Can I remove the OSA?
• Additional Information

MORE INFORMATION

What Is the OSA?

The OSA is a program that improves the performance of Microsoft Office 97 programs. The Microsoft Office 97 Setup program places a shortcut to the OSA in the Windows StartUp folder.

What Does the OSA Do?

OSA is responsible for doing the following:

• Initialize Automation
• Initialize some of the common fonts installed by Microsoft Office 97
• Handle certain commands (New Office Document, Open Office Document, Help, and Screen Saver) on the Start Menu and on the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar
• Display Microsoft Outlook notifications when the Microsoft Office Assistant is available

What Are the Advantages of Running the OSA?

The OSA initializes the shared code that is used by the Microsoft Office 97 programs. The benefit of using the OSA to initialize shared code is that the Microsoft Office 97 programs start faster. If the Microsoft Office 97 programs initialize shared code (instead of the OSA), the time it takes for the program to start increases.

Can I remove the OSA?

You can safely remove the OSA without causing the Microsoft Office 97 programs to fail. However, if you remove the OSA, you no longer benefit from the performance advantages that are provided by running the OSA.

Additional Information

You can use several command line switches with Osa.exe. These switches are listed in the following table.

Switch   Description

-b       This switch is used for fast starting. It initializes Automation
         and fonts. Note that this is the default switch.

-f       This switch opens the Open Office Document dialog box at startup.

-n       This switch opens the New Office Document dialog box at startup.

-s       This switch starts the specified screen saver at startup. Note
         that if there is no screen saver selected in the Display control
         panel item, you receive a message stating this.