Question : shortcuts within documents and setting folder will not open

I look after a small office of 10 computers.  The one with this problem are windows xp home and pro.  When I try to open any file held in C:\documents and settings\* I get this error....let us use the example of fred.xls which has a shortcut on the desktop.  When I double click it I get "C:\documents.xls could not be found.  Check the spelling of the file name, and verify the file location is correct. etc etc." When I hit OK then it appears again with "C:\and.xls could not be found....." and when I hit okay for the 3rd time it says "C:\settings.xls could not be found....." and then when I hit ok the file finally opens.  If the file name had been "beer suds.xls" then I would have gotten a fourth warning stating "C:\beer.xls could not be found......".  If I open the file from within the program, then it opens fine.  I thought it was only 1 pc but it appears to be happening on at least 4, yet not all the xp machines.  Same with files in the program files folder, because there is a space in them.

Answer : shortcuts within documents and setting folder will not open

OK... Try This.  You can always reverse it if it doesn't work.

Double Click My Computer
Choose Tools
Then Folder Options
Then File Types Tab
goto the XLS file type
Click Advanced
Under the Actions Box Choose OPEN
Then Click the Edit Button
Clear the "Use DDE" Check Box
In the section labeled "Application used to perform action:" you should have something like this.
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\EXCEL.EXE" /e %1
if the %1 is missing from the end add it and surround it in quotes.  when you are done it should look like this.
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"

then Ok all the way back out.
let me know what happens.  If it doesn't work.  Reverse these steps back out.