Not much help I am afraid, but I have been having a similar problem for many months.
Outlook 2k on Win2k machine using Office 97, am unable to open any Word/Excel files attachments directly from Outlook. If attempted it will hang for ages, sometimes it will come up with a file not found error messages, others it just hang. Yet other machines using same setup, do not have this problem.
I noticed that if I opened Word/Excel first this would overcome 95% of probs, but not always. Also for a time recreating the Word/Excel shortcuts on the Desktop helped..... dont know why. But lately that does not seem to work.
This workstation is excellent spec, so no probs with lack of resources?
Any ideas would be gratefully received.
Good luck
Jackmeticler