High CPU usage when typing a message in Outlook

Question

OS: Win 11 Pro

Office: 2016 Pro

Hi everyone,

CPU activity goes to 16-22% when typing a message in Outlook 2016 and returns to 1 % when typing stops.

Deactivating (all) add-ins and Graphic acceleration did not solve the issue.

Deactivating spell check options did not cure the problem either.

The problem seems to be specific to Win 11 and does not occur on Win 10 OS.

If anyone has any suggestion on how to solve this issue...
PDMC

***moved from Outlook / Windows / Classic Outlook for Windows / For business***

Answer 1

I believe the channel selector is only there for Office Subscription. Are you using Office Perpetual?

Another way to switch channels is to use a registry key, Use a registry command to install Microsoft 365 Insider on Windows devices - Microsoft 365 Insider | Microsoft Learn. I have done this with Perpetual before e.g. Office 2019 Pro and it worked for me.

Here is the registry key to switch to Semi Annual:

reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate /v updatebranch /t REG_SZ /d SemiAnnual

Open a Windows Command prompt as Administrator and paste that command and press Enter. Then restart Outlook and click File, Office Account, Update Options, Update Now. I cannot recall if it starts the update automatically. The article has the registry key for Current Channel if you need to switch back.

Answer 2

Dear Gabriel,

thank you for your quick answer!

I use an Office Subscription (Microsoft 365 Family), no perpetual license.

I will try again today or during the next days and let you know here.

Answer 3

Dear Gabriel, dear all,

today I finally successfully changed to Semi-Annual Channel ("Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel") by using ODT (Microsoft online deployment tool) as explained here.

But what's important, to make the update to the new Channel work, you also have to revert the rollback if done by ODT, again by using ODT: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-office-2bd5c457-a917-d57e-35a1-f709e3dda841

Therefore, you use an empty TargetVersion in the XML file. If you don't, the update version is still limited to 2405 and the update to SemiAnnual Channel stops with an error message. But if you reset the TargetVersion, you can start the update process in any Office 365 app under File -> Office Account -> Update Options.

Now my build is 2408 Build 17928.20512 and I hope that you are right and also this does not have the CPU spikes when typing an e-mail in Outlook. I will check it from today on and will let you know here.

Answer 4

It looks good and also with version 2408 (but only in Semi-Annual Channel) I also did not experience the high CPU load while typing an e-mail in Outlook again. So this should be the more safe workaround, not stopping the security fixes at version 2405 like with the rollback workaround. Thank you very much, Gabriel!

Answer 5

Hi all,

I posted a Known Issue article to formally track it, CPU spikes when typing in classic Outlook for Windows - Microsoft Support. The Outlook Team is currently investigating. I'll post back when I know more.