Could Drive Mappings Be Slowing Down Outlook?

Image Source: Windows XP Pro Screen Grab by Jason Bean

Since wiping my laptop and starting all over from scratch I’ve been trying to be very conscious of actions and steps I take on my computer to try and keep it running smoothly and quickly.

One of the areas that I noticed an immediate difference in speed after wiping was with Outlook.

I worked through all my folders and have deleted everything that’s not crucial or needed from an information standpoint. That seems to be helping.

I had Xobni installed, which I loved, but I haven’t reinstalled it yet. Thinking about doing that today (let me know if you’d like an invite to use Xobni).

I also just came across an article on PC Magazine’s website that said another item that could seriously impact Outlook performance is drive mappings that are either invalid or unneeded.

I don’t think I’d ever thought about the impact that could have a specific application, but the article makes sense on how and why those things would affect performance for Outlook.

One of the other steps I’ve taken is that I’ve seriously reduced setting up mapped drive’s on my computer. I have a single one that points to a directory on our server for all of our main business files. Some of the custom programs we’ve setup refer to the "R:\" drive, so this just makes sense to have it setup.

I used to have mapped drives for most of our clients servers so I could easily connect when we were onsite. Having 10 mapped drives and 1 of them actually connected at a time just doesn’t make much sense looking back.

Instead of mapped drives, I now have folder shortcuts setup in a directory structure that I’ve then turned into a custom toolbar. Now, regardless of my connection state, nothing is trying to connect somewhere unless I tell it to specifically.

Everything seems to be working well so far.

What steps have you done to try and speed up your computer and usage of applications?