XL2000: Files Open Slowly Across Network

• Microsoft Excel 2000

SYMPTOMS

When you open a workbook in Microsoft Excel, the file may open much more slowly than it did in an earlier version of Excel. Additionally, although you may have several workbooks that are roughly the same size, some may open much more slowly than others.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when you open a workbook in Excel under the following conditions:

• You open the file over a local or wide area network (LAN/WAN).
  
  -and-



• The workbook contains macros.
  
  -and-



• You have set macro security to a high or medium level.

WORKAROUND

To improve performance when opening a file across a network, set your macro security level to low.

WARNING: By setting the macro security level to low, you are turning off macro virus protection, so that you are no longer protected from potentially unsafe macros. Use this setting only if you have virus-scanning software installed, or if you are sure all documents you open are safe.

To set your macro security level to low:

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro and click Security.



2. In the Security dialog box, click the Security Level tab and click Low. Click OK.

MORE INFORMATION

Due to the design of the Microsoft Excel file format, the macro security protection in Excel must read the entire file to determine if the workbook contains any macros.

After Excel has read the file, it writes the user name back to the original file so that when other users attempt to access the same file, they are prompted with the File in Use dialog box, showing who currently has the workbook open. Because Windows believes Excel has finished reading the file, when Excel then attempts to reopen the file from memory, it instead must reread the entire file.

This behavior does not occur on workstations running Microsoft Windows NT. Windows NT uses a different file locking method that doesn't need to reread the file a second time. This is a designed performance enhancement in Windows NT; the behavior is not due to a problem with Excel, Microsoft Windows 95, or Microsoft Windows 98.

Additional query words: XL2000 Opportunistic Locking Oplock II

Keywords : kbnetwork xlloadsave
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb