BleepingComputer.com: Outlook 2003 Slow Preview, Some Html Not Showing

I recently purchased a new box and I've been able to get everything setup nearly the same as it was on my old PC. But, Outlook 2003 doesn't seem to want to cooperate, and I'd really appreciate some ideas for fixing these weird behaviors:

1) The program is very slow to respond when I click on each email. It takes it forever to show email in the preview pane, and sometimes it will actually sort of lock up, with a totally white screen except the blue title bar at the top. I have AVG 8.0 free and disabled the Scan all incoming email feature, thinking this might be the problem. No luck. I'm also running Comodo Firewall Pro - could that be the cause? But, I had this on the old machine too with no problems.

2) Numerous emails that were previously displayed in html are now showing in plain text. Some still show in html, but many convert to plain text. I've added all to my Safe Senders list, thinking this would help with the slow display problem too. No luck. I even unsubscribed from one, resubscribed making sure I selected the html option and it still shows as plain text.

I have Mail Format>Internet Format>HTML options set to send a copy of pictures instead of a reference to their location.
And, I have Security>Automatic Picture Download Settings "Don't download..." unchecked.

Any ideas much appreciated. It's getting quite frustrating waiting for emails to load.

Mod Edit: Topic moved from Windows XP to more appropriate forum~ TMacK

This post has been edited by TMacK: 20 August 2008 - 10:39 AM

Hi NewHorizon1.
There are lots of possibilities. I would suspect an outlook add-in or third party app.
Many good suggestions in this thread.

HitSquad: I'm just now seeing your message, as I apparently didn't enable the email notification for posts to this thread. Thanks for your suggestion.

I've been able to get my HTML mail to show properly - I learned that the cause was related to the e-mail certification text that my AVG was dropping into all emails. At the recommendation of a tech on their support forum, I disabled the certs and my htmls are back to normal.

I'm still having trouble with them loading very slowly, however. I've tried several of the suggestions I've seen (changing security settings from Restricted to Internet and deleting the outcmd.dat file) and none has solved the problem.

I'd sure appreciate any other ideas.

Again, I apologize for not responding sooner.