Not really my area of expertise, but whenever I see programs freeze for a
while like that, it's usually a network issue for me. Is it possible that
your default setup for Word and Excel is looking for a file that is at a
non-existent network location, or that they are trying to perform some other
operation across your network that takes a lot of time? An operation that is
only needed the first time after the computer is rebooted?

Network ops can also make the rest of the computer useless for a while.
They seem to monopolize things until they complete. Hence not being able to
access the Start button.

Does it look like the network is being accessed during that initial startup
period? If you have the LAN icon in the Notification area (bottom right of
taskbar), does it look like information is being sent or received?

HTH,

Eric

"DaveH" wrote:

These are brand new computers with the RAM maxed out at 4GB. And, that does
not explain why this only happens the first time & only with Excel and Word.
We are running numerous other applications that require a lot more overhead
than Excel and Word should.

"Teethless mama" wrote:

You need a faster computer with lot of RAMS


"DaveH" wrote:

We have several systems running Windows XP Pro SP3 and Office Basic 2007.
When trying to start Excel or Word for the first time after booting or a
reboot, either program will take anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes to start up.
The main Excel or Word screen will appear with the ribbons at the top and the
cursor will change to a large fat plus sign. At this point the program has
frozen or gone into some kind of loop. We cannot access the round start
button or do anything else in either Excel or Word, nor can we exit out of
the program without great difficulty (including thru the task manager).
After the first time either program is started (and left to finish opening),
both programs will work completely normally for the rest of the day, taking
only 4-5 seconds to start up and be running. The only significant change to
the systems prior to the start of the problems was the installation of
Windows XP SP3.