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New Windows Scheduled Task Will Launch Office Apps Faster (bleepingcomputer.com) 93

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Microsoft plans to roll out a new Windows scheduled task in May that launches automatically to help Microsoft Office apps load faster. From a report: The company says the "Startup Boost" task will launch in the background on logon, with the roll-out to start in mid-May and worldwide general availability to be reached by late May 2025. On systems where it's toggled on, users will see new Office Startup Boost and Office Startup Boost Logon tasks in the Windows Task Scheduler, which will ensure that Office apps can preload "performance enhancements."

"We are introducing a new Startup Boost task from the Microsoft Office installer to optimize performance and load-time of experiences within Office applications," Microsoft says on the Microsoft 365 message center. "After the system performs the task, the app remains in a paused state until the app launches and the sequence resumes, or the system removes the app from memory to reclaim resources. The system can perform this task for an app after a device reboot and periodically as system conditions allow."
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New Windows Scheduled Task Will Launch Office Apps Faster More

New Windows Scheduled Task Will Launch Office Apps Faster

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  • Pre-caching bloat. (Score:5, Funny)

    by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Thursday March 27, 2025 @02:12PM (#65263243) Journal

    So they're best idea for dealing with their bloated shitty code is to pre-cache the bloat as soon as you log in?

    Innovation!

    • Look, I know the long-standing local trend of shitting on Windows, and I agree with most of it.
      But I really don't see why Windows shouldn't profit off available memory and preload some DLLs, provided, of course, that the whole thing behaves and frees memory up when needed.

      • Re:Pre-caching bloat. (Score:4)

        by Local ID10T ( 790134 ) <ID10T.L.USER@gmail.com> on Thursday March 27, 2025 @03:21PM (#65263427) Homepage

        This reminds me of the old days, where you would come in in the morning, turn on your PC and go get a cup of coffee while it spent 5 minutes doing "background startup tasks" that rendered the system unusable until it completed.

        It sucked.

      • You don't see why they shouldn't make other applications slower to make their own ones faster?
        Preloading applications in the background while I'm doing something else is going to slow down what I'm doing.

        All so what, Microsoft can re-write all their apps in Javascript and run them inside embedded Edge browsers?

        • Tons of other companies already have their own loader software. Adobe just off the top of my head but there are lots. Microsoft could easily make the case that they're merely joining a trend that their competitors were already on.

          • Adobe don't reset your settings and lag you to install more software every time your OS is updated.
            Every quarter I get a nag screen after rebooting for updates in Windows 10 to install Office 365 and subscribe for more space in One Drive
            I get nagged to install the Microsoft Android sync software.
            I get reminded that Edge is still a browser and its all I have to do is click Next to set it as the default.

            Instead of I have to look for the small text that says "Not now".

            I wouldn't be surprised if they ran this p

        • You don't see why they shouldn't make other applications slower to make their own ones faster?

          Who says they do? You assume it, right.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Alumoi ( 1321661 )

        I'm OK with this as long as I get to choose what apps are preloaded, not Microsoft.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ukoda ( 537183 )
        One reason would be that it takes up time and memory and there are actually some users who seldom use office apps, not everyone is an office workers.

        Maybe they could boast if they did something more useful like noting what programs you usually actually use after after starting you system and caching them instead?

        Anyway "shitting on Windows" is a stress outlet for people still using Windows and brings out the inner "Nelson Muntz" in us Linux users.
        • If they are not "office workers", they probably wouldn't run Windows..

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by ukoda ( 537183 )
            Well, you would hope that, but I have seen Windows in many situations I think it is completely unsuitable for. For example POS terminals and retail advertising media displays, where you often see examples of pop up messages that interrupt the job they are meant to be doing. The scariest one is workstations on military battle ships!

      • Look, I know the long-standing local trend of shitting on Windows, and I agree with most of it. But I really don't see why Windows shouldn't profit off available memory and preload some DLLs, provided, of course, that the whole thing behaves and frees memory up when needed.

        Because not all of us want Office sucking down resources when we spend most of our time in a DAW or a 3D environment and only have that office bullshit on the system at all for sharing documents with people that refuse to deal with open formats and want to share edits. On top of that, what in Microsoft's history would make you think they'd write this in a way where it behaved and freed up resources when needed? They'd just suggest you need a new system before they'd give up any system resources to the end u

        • I understand your concern, but I'm trying to be objective here. At the time, we don't know how much resources and CPU time this would use. Maybe it uses 100 MB of free memory and close to no CPU cycles. Or, maybe it uses 3 GB of memory that can't be released and hogs 20% of CPU. We just don't know.

          Generally, I reserve slamming something for when it proves it should be slammed. Until then, I try not to make assumptions. That's all.

          • I understand your concern, but I'm trying to be objective here. At the time, we don't know how much resources and CPU time this would use. Maybe it uses 100 MB of free memory and close to no CPU cycles. Or, maybe it uses 3 GB of memory that can't be released and hogs 20% of CPU. We just don't know.

            Generally, I reserve slamming something for when it proves it should be slammed. Until then, I try not to make assumptions. That's all.

            It's Microsoft. There's a history of turbo-fucking system resources for their objectives, user be damned. I think it's safe to assume away in this particular case.

    • Re:Pre-caching bloat. (Score:4)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Thursday March 27, 2025 @02:38PM (#65263317) Homepage Journal

      The problem with Office isn't even the first launch. It's that EVERY application launch is slow and stupid. When I launch any office application, if I already have a window open in it, that window gets moved from where I left it and wanted it to fucking stay, it comes to the front, and then the new window gets tiled over it. This process takes every bit as long as the first launch.

      In order to speed things up they are going to have to prelaunch each application and keep it hidden from you, then when you ask for a new window or open a document they can give it to you.

      Meanwhile if I want a LO Calc (or whatever) window I just run it, and even without anything like that, it comes up in less than three seconds. POW, I'm using it.

      Microsoft is admitting here that Office is unmaintainable.

      • Excel still can't even open two files with the same name.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      "Fixing" performance problems this way seems to be baked into Microsoft corporate culture.

  • And then you can wait longer... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ConceptJunkie ( 24823 ) on Thursday March 27, 2025 @02:13PM (#65263245) Homepage Journal

    And then you can wait longer while it swaps all that bilge _out_ of memory when you want to run something other than Office.

    It really feels like Microsoft has nothing left to offer.

    • That's not how memory swapping works. You literally don't need to wait to overwrite cached data. By the way you know what OS maximises the amount of cached data in RAM during normal operation? ... Linux.

      • Re:And then you can wait longer... (Score:4, Informative)

        by rta ( 559125 ) on Thursday March 27, 2025 @03:05PM (#65263389)

        That's not how memory swapping works ...

        Mmm... that IS how memory _swapping_ works. What you're describing is disk caching.
        TFA is pretty vague about what it's actually going to do, but when it talks about a "paused process", that sounds like it'll have an active process, rather than just "we'll read the relevant files so they're in cache".

        And w/ SSDs the disk reads shouldn't be THAT bad anyway. i wonder what launch latency they're actually talking about here. like going from 5 sec to 2 sec or what ?

        • Mmm... that IS how memory _swapping_ works. What you're describing is disk caching.

          I am not. I'm specifically talking about you using the RAM in your machine, something that modern OSes load up as much as they can precisely because it is *FASTER* than relying on disk caching. Seriously man, go look up how a modern OS works. Start with a simple google search like "Why is my headless Linux server with nothing running using 15GB of RAM."

          What MS is doing here is just an application specific version of prefetching they introduced back in the Windows 2000 days, a feature they ... again copied f

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by rta ( 559125 )

            (note, i'm not the guy you originally responded to, but am the guy who responded to your first response )

            On terminology:
            What you are describing, caching disk data in otherwise free memory for faster access, is "disk caching" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_cache )

            "memory swapping" is (sort of) the opposite: using the disk as process "memory" temporarily if there is not enough RAM (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/virtual-memory-vs-swap-space )

            both Linux and Windows use both, though active swapping is a les

        • No matter how fast the memory.
          No matter how fast the SSD.

          MS will figure out a way to make a bleeding edge system today feel like the comfortably pokey 80286 MS programs were invented for.

    • The only new features I've used in office since whatever the last version of Office for Windows 3.1 is the spell checker underlining words, sometimes the grammar checker gets it right, and the standardized office file formats (docx, etc.)
    • I think that's one of the reasons the task won't be added unless the computer has at least 8gb RAM.
  • That's a great idea, all applications should have their own Startup Boost process!

    Maybe this is useful in an office environment, but I can't say that the startup time of Office applications ever bothered me, either at home or at work.

  • Office updates will re-enable it. (Score:5, Informative)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Thursday March 27, 2025 @02:18PM (#65263263)

    From TFA:

    "Please note that Office Installer will automatically recreate all scheduled tasks when it applies an update, so users who disable this task will need to disable it again after an Office update," Redmond said.

    [*sigh*]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rta ( 559125 )

      Yeah... i thought the fight against bloat on PCs was mostly won about 10 years ago with Microsoft Signature edition, or at least that MS themselves were on the right side of things. ( https://www.thurrott.com/windo... [thurrott.com] )

      But i guess it's a new generation of mareteers... rolling through

    • From TFA:

      "Please note that Office Installer will automatically recreate all scheduled tasks when it applies an update, so users who disable this task will need to disable it again after an Office update," Redmond said.

      [*sigh*]

      I sometimes wonder if Microsoft is incapable of writing an update that doesn't reset all defaults because they can't wrap their minds around user settings at all, or if they just overwrite because they literally don't believe users know what they want like they tend to act in their press releases. I'd say it's a coin-toss on which is more true for any given update at this point.

    • Or it can be disabled permanently with a GPO. "Microsoft says in a message center update that IT admins can disable this feature via Group Policy "without needing to do so after each Office update.""
  • Give us prior written notice of when you'd like to use your own computer, we'll try our best to get it ready by then... Seriously?

    • Give us prior written notice of when you'd like to use your own computer, we'll try our best to get it ready by then... Seriously?

      It's best if you make an appointment to use your PC -- and they have to be made over the Internet ... :-)

  • They're just going to load most of that bloated pig into memory even when it's not in use. Didn't MS already try something like this in the past?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by laxguy ( 1179231 )

      I wonder if I can use a USB stick to make it even faster!!

      • "I wonder if I can use a USB stick to make it even faster!!" - You sure can! Make sure the stick has a Linux ISO on it and choose "Install" after it boots up. You can thank me later.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rta ( 559125 )

        The XP Prefetch and then ReadyBoost were pretty damn awesome, imo. That whole thing of analyzing startups and putting all the files together and then defragging directories so some of the random reads would be turned to sequential (or basically end up increasing the hitrate of read prefetching).

        I STILL wish i had some Optane around for booting and like "L4 cache" ... maybe it would allow for better power efficiency in laptops by allowing one to use less DRAM and use Optane as a swap partition. i wonder

  • Just what I need - more startup shit to disable (Score:3)

    by flibbidyfloo ( 451053 ) on Thursday March 27, 2025 @02:20PM (#65263275)

    Maybe people who launch and close and relaunch office apps all day will benefit from this. But most people I know don't work like that. You start the day by bringing up all your main apps and leave them running all day.

    But as usual, MS loads more garbage on your system without asking and enables it by default, leaving it to users to figure out what changed and how to disable it.

  • Making Windows Worse, I See! (Score:3)

    by ironicsky ( 569792 ) on Thursday March 27, 2025 @02:38PM (#65263321) Journal

    Windows is already bloated AF on boot. It takes a full 2-3 minutes for all background loading apps to load on boot/login, which causes a constant barrage of popups.

    And this is with all non-essential things disabled.
    -VPN
    -Time Tracker
    -Messaging Clients
    -VoIP Software
    -Security Software
    -Required Driver Loaders & Support programs

    Its brutal.

    • Let me punch down a bit...

      my devuan laptop boots to login screen in < 7 seconds, enter user and pw, <2 seconds to desktop.
      so about 10 seconds to desktop, firewall up, connected to VPN

      launch of firefox or open office writer ... a blink of the eye... < 1 second
      shutdown < 3 seconds

      You're holding it wrong?

    • Errr... That sounds like a you problem. Not even my work PC (you want real bloat, give corporate IT a run at your system) pops up anything on the screen at boot. It very much sounds like you're loading up your system with shit and blaming Windows for it. Do you also blame Ford for your car smelling like the cheeseburger you just picked up at the drive through?

  • Yes, waiting 5 or 6 seconds for Word to load is soooooooooooooooooo excruciating, almost unbearable. We definitely need a new app that runs in the background gobbling resources to make things go....faster?

  • Pre-caching piles of bullshit so my system resources aren't mine to do with as I please because you assume I want to launch office apps at every startup is... well, I was gonna say something about egregious ant-user bullshit, but then I realized that's just par for the course for Microsoft. How about you make that an easy to enable off by default thing instead of just forcing it down everyone's throat?

    • How much of the OS' memory management do you want to handle manually? Is it wise?

      • How much of the OS' memory management do you want to handle manually? Is it wise?

        Handle manually? WTF are you talking about? I want the resources available for the programs I want to use. I don't want Microsoft pre-loading their garbage I may or may not use. I'm not manually handling memory management. I'm asking for memory to not be soaked up just because it's there.

  • One more shit I will have to disable. I bet they will re-enable it on every major update like their other craps.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rta ( 559125 )

      not MAJOR, every.

      "Please note that Office Installer will automatically recreate all scheduled tasks when it applies an update, so users who disable this task will need to disable it again after an Office update," Redmond said.

      • "Microsoft says in a message center update that IT admins can disable this feature via Group Policy "without needing to do so after each Office update.""

        So, there's probably a reg key.

  • A decade or so ago, Libreoffice had an option to preload itself for faster startup.

    https://ask.libreoffice.org/up... [libreoffice.org]

    I think that option has now disappeared in later updates.

    But it's not a new idea.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Scoth ( 879800 )

      Office 95, 97, and Netscape both used to do it too, and I think even Office 4.3 or whatever the last version for Windows 3.1 had a quicklaunch toolbar that sped up launch using similar methods. I'm blanking on others but I remember some other big software having agents that sat in the systray to speed up launch. I usually kept all that disabled because they just sat there eating memory when unused and the improvement in launch speeds wasn't worth it.

      Everything old is new again.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rossdee ( 243626 )

      It still does, at least AFAIK.

      • It does have a "quickstarter", and if your computer is a total turd then it may be warranted. On anything reasonably modern, it's not at all. We have two mediocre laptops in the house which are about exactly the same speed (one has some i7 I forget which, and the other has a 3450U) and even without it, LO apps come up much faster on those than Office does on another comparable laptop (running Windows 10) which I have here. On my 5900X system, it comes up very quickly, but one would hope so.

  • I haven't found performance to be an issue with Office.

    On my laptop (just over 8 years old), with a throttled CPU (ThrottleStop) - Word loads in 2 seconds (after a reboot and login).

    A 2 second cold start is very reasonable.

    Maybe they spend the time/resources improving Teams performance (which is much, much slower to load) and Windows performance - and enable the decrapification of Windows from stuff nobody needs and nobody asked for.

  • About 20 years ago, you could have Open Office preload the programs and display a tray icon to start the programs faster.
    This, of course, bought startup time at the cost of having less RAM for other programs, even when Office was not actively used.

  • ... swap space anyway. Thank goodness my computer has an infinite supply of that.

  • I just tried loading LibreOffice Writer. It took ~1 second, honestly, how long does it take to load Microsoft Office? I just spun up a VM, the installation of Office took 10 minutes, Word loaded in ~1 second, close enough to LibreOffice Writer that it's a tie, so who is this feature benefiting?

  • If it's optional, opt-in, and you don't get pestered to opt-in, then I'm okay with it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Alumoi ( 1321661 )

      The only thing optional will be the opt-out and it will be ignored on the next reboot. Remember, it's Microsoft we're talking about.

  • Ok, sure - glad I'm not using Office - or windows.

    So when windows has to reboot several times for an update does it have to wait for office to 'pre-load' before rebooting each time?

  • Another thing we'll have to deactivate, like the stuff from Apple, Adobe,...

  • Performance optimization is possible.

  • Wasn't this called a predatory monopoly practice? As in leveraging Windows monopoly to pimp Office.

  • What a major leap forward for humanity.

  • So LibreOffice got to start to fast and Microsoft feels the need to pull a trick from their '90ies book (used then against Wordperfect) to regain their unfair advantage.. Once a monopolist, always a monopolist.

  • Isn't that giving a privilege to Office against 3rd party competition (LibreOffice, Thunderbird etc.)?

    Are anti-trust laws still a thing in the US with the new guy, or is it a thing of the past now?

  • This was being done back in Office 97. And Libre Office also does this during install. It offers to run an application as soon as you login. The only difference now is it's a scheduled task instead of an application shortcut in your windows start menu startup directory.
    • Yeah, the Office Source Engine. Replaced by Office Click to Run. Like the Adobe Speed Launcher.

  • Ah, the old "Make every boot slower just to make one application launch slightly faster at the cost of all other application launches".

    Haven't seen that in at least 10 years.

  • Yet another ms bloat that I need to disable.

  • ... the preloader that they already put in autostart, and I disabled, is going to be preempted by something that keeps reinstalling itself? Way to make friends, Microsoft.

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