​In May, Microsoft plans to roll out a new Windows scheduled task that launches automatically to help Microsoft Office apps load faster.

The company says the “Startup Boost” task will launch in the background on logon, with the roll-out to start in mid-May and worldwide general availability to be reached by late May 2025.

On systems where it’s toggled on, users will see new Office Startup Boost and Office Startup Boost Logon tasks in the Windows Task Scheduler, which will ensure that Office apps can preload “performance enhancements.”

“We are introducing a new Startup Boost task from the Microsoft Office installer to optimize performance and load-time of experiences within Office applications,” Microsoft says on the Microsoft 365 message center.

“After the system performs the task, the app remains in a paused state until the app launches and the sequence resumes, or the system removes the app from memory to reclaim resources. The system can perform this task for an app after a device reboot and periodically as system conditions allow.”

​Startup Boost will only run on systems with at least 8 GB RAM and 5 GB of free disk space to ensure that it doesn’t impact overall system performance. The new scheduled tasks will also be disabled automatically once Energy Saver mode is enabled.

However, Microsoft says this is an optional feature, and users who want to turn it off can do so by going to Options > General in the Office app settings and unchecking Startup Boost.

While you can toggle it off, Microsoft added that it will be enabled again by the Office Installer each time you deploy a new Office update.

“Please note that Office Installer will automatically recreate all scheduled tasks when it applies an update, so users who disable this task will need to disable it again after an Office update,” Redmond said.

In February, Microsoft also started testing ad-supported versions of its Office desktop apps, which have limited features but still allow Windows users to edit their documents.