Why is Outlook 2007 Slow?

I was at a client’s this afternoon, and he mentioned that his Outlook 2007 loaded really slowly. I ran down my usual mental checklist:

• PST getting big?
• PST on an accessible drive?
• Server reachable?

Everything looked good and I was a bit stumped.

Then said client asked, “Hey, as long as you’re in there, can you remove this Business Contact Manager? I never use it anyway.”
Wait, what’s this? Business Contact Manager is running? Yeah, let’s definitely get rid of this (via the normal Control Panel, Programs, Add/Remove) if you’re not using it. Could this be why Outlook is starting so slowly?
During the uninstall, I also get the option to uninstall SQL Server Express 2005. Wow, really, that’s running too? Let’s hope nothing else is using it and just uninstall that too.
After it was all removed, Outlook started immediately and was very quick. Client calls me a genius. 🙂