The Man Who Shot Office Hardware acceleration

Last Updated on April 6, 2021 by rudyooms

This simple blog will be about why Outlook can be seriously lagging while typing. And I mean seriously lagging. Some letters will pop up 10/15 seconds after typing.  The probability this issue will be resolved by buying a new laptop is very small. I have seen this happen on all kinds of devices, old and new devices.

Open your Task Manager and look at gpu-engine. You will notice: GPU 0 – 3D

This means Outlook is using hardware graphics acceleration.   

“Hardware graphics acceleration in Office enables the computer hardware to perform graphics functions to increase performance so that making a user in an enjoyable experience”

But I guess an enjoyable experience does not mean: Seriously lag while typing in Outlook.

You can try to reset the GPU driver: Ctrl+Shift+Win+B. But I guess you want to have a permanent solution. So we need to disable it. You can simply disable it in your Outlook settings.

The better option is to create a new Administrative Template (device configuration profile) and search for: “Hardware”

Select “Do not user hardware graphics acceleration” : Enabled

To make sure your devices have this new setting, you can open the register and take a look at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\usersid\office16v2~Policy~L_MicrosoftOfficeSystem~L_miscellaneous437

You will notice a new reg_dword has been created.

Or just open your outlook settings to check if it’s disabled and greyed out

Conclusion:

Hardware acceleration is great, but It can cause some serious lag in your Office apps. Disabling it will resolve it.

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