Apr
07
Potential Resolution to Outlook Consuming Your CPU and Memory
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I use Outlook for email when at work. I use the Lookout plugin to search those emails. Or I should say, I used to use it, until for some reason it started using massive amounts of my PCs available memory each time I walked away from my desk for more than a couple of minutes.
Apparently, that’s when it scanned my emails to keep it’s database up to date. And also apparently, when you minimise Outlook, the CPU resources were freed. Not on my machine, they weren’t.
The solution was to minimise my Outlook window BEFORE that scan kicked in. The only other option was CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the task manager, wait 5 minutes for task manager to open on the 1% of CPU power it could access, and then end Outlook. Not neat, not clever, and very frustrating.
Fortunately, I’ve just found Swept Away, which automatically minimises unused programs after a configurable number of minutes.
Let’s hope it resolves this problem. I trust that Lookout will still keep scanning my emails, but do so quietly in the background. Just as it was supposed to.
NB: this is slightly outside the scope of this blog’s normal posts, but it’s worth posting, as it’s the only workable solution I’ve found online to this problem. And trust me, I’ve looked and looked and looked.
