Why everytime: "Initializing the Root Folders Display"

The problems is:

Everytime I want to open a folder or file, or browse through to find a file
to open, and my Office programs take along time, if ever, browsing through.
I get and hourglass, and it isn't until I doubleclick and get the "Not
Responding" error, that it finally goes browses. However, it does that at
every stage.

I think it is trying to Initialize the Root Folders everytime. It never
used to do that before. All my other programs browse immediately through
the open command in the menu bar. Office does not.

Solutions? - Thanks

have you tried running a detect and repair from the add and remove items list?
(change- reinstallrepair- detect and repair)

Right-click on the My Computer icon on the Windows desktop,
left-click on Disconnect Network Drive, and disconnect any mapped
drives that are not currently available.

It worked! I knew it has to be something stupid like that.

If you've recently installed a printer with a card reader, it may
automatically have added the card reader as a network drive. I've
noticed that with printers I've installed. Removing these from your
network drives fixes the problem.

[aberchick]

Thanks all! This has been a real nagging intermittent problem which I've been putting up with for months now.