OK, it looks like you are using XP: open Task Manager, sort the processes by CPU, and start one of these slow programs. What happens to the top of the process list? Is there an abnormal amount of disk activity? Is the program slow to use once it is up an running?
Thanks again for responding. Whenever I open up and try to sort by "CPU" I only get "00" next to each item (most of the time). Starting Word or PowerPoint gets the "processes" tab of the task manager to go a little crazy, but it's hard to say what exactly it's doing. It's too fast to watch all at once, otherwise I'd be able to report back what it's doing. Thank you again for your help.