Microsoft Word or Excel file takes a long time to open

I've had an issue for a while where if I open a Microsoft Word or Excel file it takes a long time to open but if I open up Word or Excel first and then open the file then it opens quickly and now I've finally found the solution on MyITkb.net Click here to go directly to the page that the fix is on. To save time I've put the instructions below but do yourself a favour and go check out that site.

NOTE: This refers to XP only. The functionality of editing file types manually has been removed in Vista.

Why is this happening? DDE may be broken for either Word or Excel.

Possible Resolutions:
Remember this is for ONLY when you double-click on a Word or Excel file and it takes a long time to open.

Solution 1.) If you have installed PDF maker, which can get installed when you install scanner software, the Excel add-on can potentially cause Excel to open slowly. This is more common in Office 2007.

1. Close Excel and any other window you have open
2. Open "My Computer" and browse to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\XLSTART
3. When you open Excel, check to see if the time it takes to open the xls/xlsx is shortened.

Solution 2.) This can be fixed by reinstalling Office but there is a faster way to fix this.

1. Go to your Control Panel, (click on Start then Click on Control Panel)
2. Click on Folder Options, then File Types,
3. scroll down to and select (DOC for Word files) or XLS (for Excel files),
4. click Advanced and select Open entry,
5. click the edit Button.
6. deselect "Use DDE"
7. append "%1" (include the quote marks) to the end of the application command line,
8. Remove /dde if it is at the end of the command line
9. Then click on OK three times.

If the issue was being caused by DDE, then when you now open a Word or Excel file they will now open faster, without a long pause.