Microsoft Announces 'Startup Boost' to Accelerate Office App Launch Times

The feature, rolling out for Word in May 2025, preloads apps in a paused state for faster startup while minimizing system resource impact.

The 'Startup Boost' feature will debut for Microsoft Word in May 2025, with plans to expand to other Office apps in future updates.
It uses a Windows scheduled task to preload Office apps in a paused state, enabling faster launch times without significant resource usage.
The feature is optional and can be disabled in settings, but will automatically re-enable after each Office update.
To ensure energy efficiency, 'Startup Boost' will only run on systems with at least 8GB of RAM and 5GB of free disk space, and it disables itself when Energy Saver mode is active.
Microsoft's approach leverages scheduled tasks for optimization, a strategy not widely adopted by other app developers.