I work with Windows XP Home ed. With Office 97 and several other programs on my offline computer.
Lately I encounter problems with loading the Word97 files. The Word window opens without problems and I have no problem to save the file in any stage of work.
However when I want to load some of my Word files, the “Open” window loads very slowly. The same happens when I try to load the file directly from the “my computer>disk>folder”. It takes about 10-20 sec till the file appears.
I found no problems with loading other program files, and this happens only with Word.
I tried to reload the program from disk, and also defragmented both my HD partitions, but it didn’t help.
I also clean the memory every day with CCleaner
What can be the reason for this Office problem?
Is it possible to check the disk performance, and how to do it? I do not find the check-disk option on XP
Please advise
Thanks

First off 12 years old.

That being said I only find this doc in MS files:

WD: Word Starts Slowly When Using a Network Printer Driver

As to check disk although I don't see it as an issue here:

CHKDSK
--------------------------------------------------
Try running Check Disk:

Go to start Run... and type: cmd

Then type: chkdsk /r

You will be told the volume is in use do you want to run chkdsk on next boot? Type: Y and reboot.

Just to add on to Jeph's comments. Have you upgraded your Office97 to SR-2b? If not then you should install SR-1 first then install SR-2b...
Opening and Closing Programs or Files May Be Slow

- SR-1 => Download details: Office 97 Service Release 1 (SR-1)
- SR-2b => Download details: Office 97 Service Release 2b (SR-2b) Download Information

slow Office97 - Cyber Tech Help Support Forums

Also...is this you? You really should only work with one forum with your problem as the suggestions from each forum could be "bumping heads" and actually cause more problems.

thanks dobhar.
I tried to install the patches but so far without success. As far as I understand they do not apply to winXP. Is it really so?
And BTW the computer is off-line

As far as I understand they do not apply to winXP. Is it really so?

No, the patches are compatible...I know that the MS Site does not mention WinXP but according to the sites below they are. I've also found other sites that have mentioned this also...
- Office 97 Service Release 2b (SR-2b) Download Information SR-2b (Windows), from Microsoft - Software Downloads - TechRepublic
- Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 2b (SR-2b) Update software download - Windows - VersionTracker

According to the official system requirements, XP IS NOT a supported OS. That doesn't mean that it won't work, just that MS can't guarantee that it will work reliably and will work optimally. In short what jephree and I are trying to tell you is that Office 97 is too old and should be upgraded. Also like mentioned SR-1 must be installed first. If you just recently installed SR-2b & hadn't installed SR-1 that could explain why you are now having problems.

If XP is not officially supported then I can't see why other sites can claim that it is supported on XP, after all they didn't write Office 97 nor did they write the service release or even have the source code.