Windows 7: Windows Journal freeze or slowdown with 2mb or larger files

Hello, I'm new here so apologies if this has been asked before.

I've been having problems with windows journal when a note file reaches 2mb or more.

I use an (older) tablet pc with a core duo CPU running Windows Home Edition and I wonder whether this may be the problem as upgrading my RAM to 4GB didn't help at all.

One way around this would be to have smaller files with different chunks of the data (diagrams and hand written notes) but I would have thought a 2mb file wouldn't cause such problems.



I've been considering upgrading to a brand new tablet but if the problem is with the software then I don't see much point yet.

I am having the same problem! any help out there?
these are files from my Windows XP computer, on which i had no problem with the files.

Hi jsolid, as you'll note- there have been no replies in 7 months to my question however I have gone back to using my old Windows XP machine for large journal files.

I did get the chance to try journal on a dual boot Apple Mac Pro quad core desktop running Windows 7 Professional and journal was incredibly smooth. I could copy and paste large quantities of data quickly and with no hang-ups or crashes. I opened large files really easily (and quickly) and could add data without the system suddenly crashing or dying.

The answer might be with an upgrade to Windows 8 as there won't be so many different versions and you should get the pro version of windows (and benefits to Journal) as long as journal makes it to Windows 8.

I upgraded to Windows 7 Pro for free with a license from work. no luck. at this point i will just have to make a clumsy fix, open the files on an old computer and break each large file into smaller files.
If this is the level of support, thats telling me that at some point i have to migrate from Journal. just dont know to which program, or how to do it without cut & paste page by page.

I have found that newer i7 computers handle large journal files easily. Another friend tested my files on his newer machine running Windows 7 Pro and could do everything I couldn't.


LOL, what "support!"

Anyhow, another self discovered solution - can you get a copy of Microsoft OneNote? I know you can copy and paste from Journal into OneNote and OneNote handles even larger files (on older machines too) quite well. Make sure both applications are open at the same time to copy/paste as the clipboard is erased immediately otherwise.

For me Journal was /is a necessity - I don't want to migrate to OneNote so I need a Core i7 tablet sometime.

Aha! i have an i3 chip.
anyway i have been using giant Journal files for 5 years across several computers, dont know why all of a sudden the hardware cant handle them.

it turns out i can get MS Office including OneNote for free too! thanks for making me look. so i guess im switching to OneNote.

Good to know an i3 can't cope with large Journal files either! You saved me from any potentially costly mistakes in future.

Seems the only Journal based solution for large files is an i7 with at least 8Gig of Ram and Windows 7 Professional. (Or possibly Windows 8)

now i can open any Journal file, no problem. maybe it was fixed in one of the Windows updates.

That's great. Good to read they are still developing some areas of Windows 7. I've still had no luck unless I open my big (1.5+ mb) files on anything other than an i7 machine.

Tested my files on 3 different PCs at work last week - 2 i5's and an i7 - only the i7 coped without dragging or freezing.