PC Hanging

Here's problem 1:
Pc boots up ok, but when I try to open the control panel via "Start>Control Panel" it hangs for about 30 secs to a minute then all the options come up that are in the control panel. If I do "Start>Control panel" and then right click on the desktop and select "refresh", the control panel comes up staight away. Very strange.

Problem 2:
Now this is probably related in some way to problem 1. If I have a word doc or excel doc on my desktop and try to open it the same thing happens as problem 1, it hangs for ages and then opens. If I right click the desktop and select refresh, it opens. If I open up Word or Excel through "Start>Program Files>Word" and then select the doc that i want from "File>Open>*.doc" it comes up staright away, no delay.

Now I haven't installed anything new on the PC for a while or did any changes to it. It just happened when I tried to open a file from the desktop without starting Word or Excel first.

My thoughts:
It's hanging for a reason, it seems to be looking for something and then times out and opens it anyway.

What i've tried:
System restore to ages ago - didn't work
registry clean/fix - didn't work
disconnected the network card and printer - didn't work
Found something that it might be the corrupt templates in word - deleted them and it created new ones - didn't work

OS - Win XP Home SP2
Office PAckage - MS Office Pro 2003


Anyone have an idea on how to fix this problem?? Its driving me nuts