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Slow saving when saving Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 Documents (Word, Excel, etc…)

For some time I have had clients reporting issues when saving files using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft Office applications on network locations (which includes “FolderRedirection” for the “Desktop” and “My Documents” which is included in Windows Small Business Server 2008).

Over the last couple months I have spent quite a bit of time using Google to try and find out why this is happening. Tonight I told myself I NEED to find a proper fix.

After trying numerous search strings, I started to read articles that pointed towards disabling SMB2 (SMB version 2). I would be interested in trying this approach on a typical Windows Server 2008 box, however most of my clients run SBS 2008 and I’ve seen no feedback on whether or not this will cause issues when performing this fix. Also, I have no idea what type of impact it will have on other applications. Generally I just didn’t feel comfortable doing this.

Spending another hour searching, and trying more search strings, I finally came across this KB article 2292752 posted by Microsoft (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2292752).

The KB article states that this is related to a Network Driver included inside of Windows 7, and that an alternative patch that was designed for a different type of issue also fixes this issue. This patch can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981711.

Make sure that when filling out your e-mail to download the hotfix that you download the appropriate fix (x86 vs. x64 vs. Itanium).

Please note: This fix comes with Microsoft “This has not been fully tested stamp”. We also take no responsibility in you performing this fix.

I downloaded the fix, and installed it on one of the computers that was experiencing the issue. After installing this I no longer experienced the “Save As” function, or “Save” function take forever with Office 2007/2010 apps. I will post a comment later after user testing has been completed to confirm this fully resolves the issue.

Stephen Wagner

Stephen Wagner is President of Digitally Accurate Inc., an IT Consulting, IT Services and IT Solutions company. Stephen Wagner is also a VMware vExpert, NVIDIA NGCA Advisor, and HPE Influencer, and also specializes in a number of technologies including Virtualization and VDI.

View Comments

  • Did you find that this fixed your issue? I tried to download the hotfix and all I got were errors over and over that said "An error occurred trying to download your file".

    Ugh.

    Curious to see what happened with your computer.

    • It actually did fix the issue at the time.

      I've had about 50 workstations at various client sites show the issues. This patched up the issue every time. However I think the patch in this post did become obsolete after a certain service pack, or update roll out.

      Try downloading the patch from a different computer.

  • Wanted to add... even thought this is an old topic... we ran into a similar issue with 2008R2 server. We verified that it occured across XP and Win7 with both Office 2007 and 2010 (office 2003 did not show the problem). The above hotfix is obsolete (being rolled into 2008 SP1) as well as another patch rolled into Win7. (I tried to re-install the forementioned patch anyway, but the .msi fails stating it is not valid for the system).

    Our only solution was to disable SMB2 on the server, which does require a reboot. Add DWORD: Smb2 : value 0 under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\LanmanServer\Parameters

    After reboot, all clients started acting fine. This was on a 2008R2 server with nothing but file services, quota and DFS installed as a member server in a domain. No other configurations. This was back in Dec. 2012. We had a few other systems, similarly setup (diff. shares, data), but the problem didn't appear from same client systems.

    Suddenly today, April 2013, the problem reared it's head again on one of the other systems.

    This problem is extremely annoying. Disabling a whole protocol, especially SMB2 just because of a client app (an MS one at that) is a horrible work around, but we could not find an alternative. If anyone else figures out something let me know.

    What is additionally

  • I'm not a techie. I'm not sure how to find the newer fix you mention in the comments. When I click on the link you posted for the fix it takes me to a fix titled:"0x000000D5" Stop error when you run an application or transfer some data from a shared DVD disc on a server in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

    This is not the issue I'm having. It takes at least a minute MOST of the time to save files in Word 2007. Sometimes, it works fine. More often than not, however, I find myself waiting for a file to save. It is even worse when I try to save a renamed file.

    Thank you.

  • When I attempt to install this on my W7 or W2K8R2 machine, it says "the update is not applicable to your computer". Am I doing something wrong?

  • Go to Word Options > Save and uncheck Embed Fonts In The File. Embedding the fonts is what takes the time.

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