Essentials for Office 365 2.14 - Performance Optimization Guide

64-bit Architecture

Windows 64-bit architecture is strongly recommended due to the advancement in memory allocation over

32-bit.  A 64-bit architecture will allow memory allocation to the Essentials software greater than the

1.5GB maximum from old, so please be sure that both your hardware and software are 64-bit compatible.

Antivirus Scanners and Exceptions

Antivirus Scanners are applications that are great for keeping bad things out, but not so great when you are running operations that move large amounts of data quickly (i.e. migrations and backup).  If at all possible, disable all antivirus and malware scanners that are actively monitoring your host machine.  If a complete disable is not possible, please strongly consider adding exceptions to the following locations:

•Essentials for Office 365 installation directory.  By default, this is C:\Program

Files\Quest\Essentials or C:\Program Files (x86)\Quest\Essentials

•Essentials for Office 365 workspace directory.  By default, this is C:\Users\{UserDirectory}\Essentials

•Essentials for Office 365 temporary directory.  By default, this is

C:\Users\{UserDirectory}\AppData\Local\Temp

•Essentials for Office 365 backup location.  If you are storing backups locally, please add this location(s) to the exception list as well.

Other Software

This should go without saying, but if possible please dedicate the entire host machine to running the migration and/or backup only.  If you are running the Essentials software on your laptop while you are also running Outlook, web browser sessions or any other software, they will all compete for system resources thus leading to performance degradation.  Whenever possible, the minimal amount of software should be running on the host.

Essentials for Office 365 Configuration

Moving on past the hardware and host, we arrive at the software itself and how best to configure Essentials for Office 365 to optimize performance.