How to remove osa error

osa.exe file information

The process Microsoft Office XP component or Microsoft Office Wrapper belongs to the software Microsoft Office XP or Microsoft Office 97, or Microsoft Office XP Small or Microsoft Office XP Standard or Microsoft Project or Microsoft Publisher or OSA.exe or Microsoft Project Standard or Microsoft Office 97, Standard or Microsoft Office Visio Viewer or Odiyan or OSA.EXE" -b -l or Microsoft Office Professional or Microsoft Office Standard or UnInstall Turtle Beach or Microsoft Office Access Setup by Microsoft Corporation (www.microsoft.com).

Description: osa.exe is located in a subfolder of "C:\Program Files" - mainly C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\. Known file sizes on Windows XP are 83360 bytes (57% of all occurrence), 51984 bytes, 61440 bytes, 86016 bytes, 52224 bytes, 16384 bytes.
File osa.exe is not a Windows core file. The application starts when Windows starts (see Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders, HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders). The file is a Verisign signed file. It is certified by a trustworthy company. The application can be removed using the control panel Add\Remove programs applet. Therefore the technical security rating is 20% dangerous, however also read the users reviews.

If osa.exe is located in a subfolder of "C:\Documents and Settings" then the security rating is 46% dangerous. File size is 26112 bytes (22% of all occurrence), 11776 bytes, 13312 bytes, 25088 bytes, 36352 bytes, 25600 bytes, 35587 bytes. The file is a file without information about the maker of this file. The application starts when Windows starts (see Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders, HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders). The file is not a Windows system file. osa.exe is able to hide itself.

External information from Paul Collins:

• "Microsoft Office Startup" is not required to run at start up. Application which launches common MS Office components to help speed up the launch of Office programs. It's somewhat of a resource hog, and some users claim there's no difference with or without it but it usually isn't required. Note - if you make use of the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar outside an office program this application will need to be enabled for it to show

Important: Some malware camouflage themselves as osa.exe, particularly if they are located in c:\windows or c:\windows\system32 folder. Thus check the osa.exe process on your pc whether it is pest. We recommend Security Task Manager for verifying your computer's security. It is one of the Top Download Picks of 2005 of The Washington Post and PC World.

Links: osa.exe, osa.exe

Not dangerous, but it consumes too much CPU time & slows down OS. It is useless, as well as FINDFAST. Recommendation: disable it.
  ip  

my office 2003 don´t opens, it says osa.exe error
  Trab Nitnelav  

osa = office shortcut bar
  mark  

I have run Ofiice applications with and without OSA.exe and there seems to be no performance difference, (Other than freeing the resources it uses - 4MB Mem, 1.5 MB VM, 0% CPU) I have experienced no crashes, hangs or delays without it. If it is using alot of your CPU, it would be advisable to scan the file for mal-ware.
  MCDST 3844559  

Win XP, SP2, Office 2003. With osa.exe disabled, C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Source Engine\ose.exe does not initiate, which disallows windows update "Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB925534)" from installing succesfully. Be mindfull of this when choosing whether or not you will disable osa.exe. Link to simple way to enable OSE from command prompt:
  Braeden101   (further information)

Win XP
   

Useless resource-hog. I deleted it altogether.
  Veronica  

i was reading this and i clicked the "end task" button and my comps CPU usage went from 99-100% down to 5% then 1%, that might just be my comp but i doubt it, ctrl+alt+delete, processes, highlight it, then click end task
  Joe  

hangs the computer at shutdown
  Erika  

Logging in and running office are faster after I removed the shortcut from the programs- startup folder. I guess it's only good at hogging CPU since office runs better without it. The shortcut was called something like "microsoft office."
  Austin  

Datei legte nach löschen meine Windowspartition lahm
   

This causes my school computer to be unuseable. If you have it, remove it from the proces list
  Skr3d3  

I renamed it but it still starts. But when I close it I seem to get an error every time I open Word about a problem with links to other programs
  sttav  

it makes the office progs start faster. can safely be removed
  myself   (further information)

From the Microsoft Knowledge Base: The Office Startup Assistant (Osa.exe or OSA) is a program that improves the performance of Office XP programs. The Osa.exe file initializes the shared code that is used by the Office XP programs. When you use the Osa.exe file to initialize shared code, the Office XP programs start faster. You can safely remove the Osa.exe file without causing the Office XP programs to fail. However, if you remove Osa.exe, you no longer benefit from the performance advantages that are provided by running Osa.exe.
  Developers developers developers   (further information)

Part of Microsoft Office XP, if you disable certain services in Windows (Task Scheduler?), this process may get stuck upon windows startup and consume all free CPU resources (Task Manager showing 99% cpu usage for OSA.EXE).
  Sonic  

More comments can be found here:
    (further information)

osa scanner

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