Excel issues on 64 bit Vista

We had a computer with 64 bit Vista running 32 bit MS office 2007. The issue was Excel would bog down like mad when you did a multiple paste or a fill. The recalculation took ages. It turned out the printer spooler thing was running in the background and the display was trying to keep up and filter everything through the printer definitions.

The default printer was an HP printer. Those drivers were generic and kind of crappy. I have issues with HP drivers being crap. They try to write software that turns your computer in to a front end for their printer. That is just not what I want to dedicate my computer to dammit.

The solution to the problem was to set the default printer on the computer to the Microsoft xdoc or docx (whatever it is) printer driver. You don't have to print to that printer, but it will let you edit the Excel document without trying to drag every passed through the knothole of the HP driver ecosystem.

This has further significance because our new IT guy really has his eye on the ball. He has experience and is just plane good at his job. I was able to come up with this solution because I think "What would have the programmers have tested against?" when I troubleshoot. He tried it with the user and it worked. He has shown me at least fifteen things so, I guess I was due.