MS Office Programs Freeze When Opening a File From File Toolbar

All my MS Office programs (MS Word, Excel) freeze when I click on File on the Toolbar and try to open a file. My Windows Task Manager shows that the Excel spread sheet opens itself giving me 2 applications trying to run and both are not responding. Problem started April 13th. When I try to restore the computer to an earleir date I get a message saying that it could not be restored to that date. I have tried several dates all the way back to January with the same message. MS Word  has the same problem with opening a file and also frrezes if I try to insert a photo.

 

Microsoft Picture It also freezes if I try to open a photo file.

 

I think the problem only occurs with Microsoft programs. Adobe Print Shop will open files and Adobe Photo Shop will open files

 

I can use My Computer to open multiple Excel files or Word files with no problem and I can click back and forth between them with no problem.

 

My system is Dell Dimension 4600 and MS Office was OEM from Dell