Office97 Shortcut Bar Problems

My Office97 Shortcut Bar has suddenly decided to stop working. For every icon which worked fine just a few days ago, it now displays the "Open With" dialog box and asks which program I wish to use, as if it cannot find the executable file anymore. The only new program I can think of which I've installed lately that might have changed something was Shockwave.
I only found one related error report on the Microsoft website, but not close enough to provide any solutions. I tried "Refresh Icons", and tried replacing one of the buttons, but same result. Tried removing all the .tmp files from the Shortcut Bar directory in Program file - no change. Odd thing is, the programs will start OK when I click on the shortcut file from within the Shortcut Bar directory, but not from the Shortcut Bar itself. Anyone know of a solution which does not involve reinstalling the program or recreating all of my 40 or so buttons?

Have you tried deleting the shortcut to the shortcut bar in your
C:\windows\start menu\programs\startup directory? Try this: delete that shortcut, then do a find files folders for 'Microsoft Office *.*' and it will locate the orginal short cut in the MS office folder. highlight, right click, make a shortcut, then drag the new shortcut to the startup folder. Reboot your machine. This will at least 'refresh' the links to the programs on the bar.
Question: Is it possible someone moved the MS office folder by mistake? To make sure, do a find for WORD.EXE, EXCEL.EXE etc... they should all be in the MSOFFICE or Microsoft Office folders under their respective directories...

------------------
Mike Copeland

SAVE EARLY, SAVE OFTEN!!

Mike,

Thanks for the reply.
I did as you said and replaced the OSB shortcut, but that didn't correct the problem. None of the buttons can find any of the correct programs. I'm sure it was caused by my installing some new software, but, since I had installed several new programs since I used the OSB last, I'm not sure which program it was. I've removed the new programs, but no change.
I suspect one of the DLL files has been replaced, or something similar. I could replace it from a backup - but which one?

On the Office folder, like I said, I have about 40 buttons assigned on the OSB, so it's not just Word, Excel, etc. that were affected. NOTHING on the OSB works now.
Any other suggestions? Appreciate the help.
-----------

Quote:

---

Originally posted by TE12:
Have you tried deleting the shortcut to the shortcut bar in your
C:\windows\start menu\programs\startup directory? Try this: delete that shortcut, then do a find files folders for 'Microsoft Office *.*' and it will locate the orginal short cut in the MS office folder. highlight, right click, make a shortcut, then drag the new shortcut to the startup folder. Reboot your machine. This will at least 'refresh' the links to the programs on the bar.
Question: Is it possible someone moved the MS office folder by mistake? To make sure, do a find for WORD.EXE, EXCEL.EXE etc... they should all be in the MSOFFICE or Microsoft Office folders under their respective directories...

---

What happens if you open Word from the start menu? IF the same thing happens, you probably got a worm virus that was improperly removed.

If it is just the OSB, then just uninstall that component and reboot and reinstall it.

------------------
P933, 133MHZ FSB, 256M RDRAM
Ultra 160, 18.2GB Cheetah
Annihilator Pro, SBLIVE, DVD, FPS SOUND
MS Force Feedback, Cable Modem.
AKA- The ultimate gaming machine.