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

PolarBear wrote:

when Word 2002 is open and I use the "Open" icon to search for documents -
the response for the search window which I use to navigate to my document is
very slow to open.

However if Word is open and I right click on start explorer ...to navagite
to and open a document, the response is much faster.

I do not experience this problem when using Excel or Powerpoint.

I beleive I have narrowed the problem to the slow responding "Open" folder
icon at the top of the word window.

I have reinstalled the entire office suite and the same problem exists.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Polarbear