I have win xp. The problem with word 2003 usually starts occuring in couple of months of flowless operation. Then for whatever reason, word starts taking more then 1 minute to open. I know it has to do with macros, because if I remove word template files from c:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOFFICE11STARTUP problem disappears because there are no macros to load by default when opening word file. If I add even a simple code to vba like: msgbox "Hello World", the problem is back. I also noticed that when word file with macros opens up there are two instances of unresponding word application in the task manager, though only one winword.exe process. After a while file eventaully opens up and one word application disappears. I spent numerous hours to troubleshoot this problem to no avail. I uninstalled word completely, removed all the templates from startup folder, deleted normal.dot, tried different users on the same pc and nothing helps. Really frastrated. 

Software/Hardware used:
Windows XP Professional SP3, MS Word 2003 SP3