Long delay opening file types using DDE

Using various utilities (Launchy, Google Desktop), I get a five to ten

second delay opening various file types (Excel, Word, http links). If

I modify the file association and force it not to use DDE, all of

these file types open very quickly. Is there any way to troubleshoot

why attempted DDE connections run so slowly? I don't see any unusual

activity in Process Explorer. I expect it is just timing out and

giving up, but I can't figure out why. Sometimes the delay is as long

as fifteen seconds.