Finally, after a month of struggling with this same problem I found what I
think was the issue in my case. I was using a Home Use version(s) of MS
Office and even though I had uninstalled them I think they weren't fully
uninstalled. The cure was unbearable but since I didn't want to clutter up my
system with a bunch of other software, I did a clean install of Windows XP
SP3 and when I installed (only one of the Office HU versions!) I didn't
activate it as an admin (I was afraid this would create the issue again) I
logged in as user and activated it as my user account.
Now that I suspect the issue is the result of the Home Use Program, it
creates a whole new issue, How does one completely unistall these programs in
such a way as to be able to use the next version when it comes out?
