Opening Files from Recent Documents or My Documents

When I double click on Excel file in "Recent Documents"
or in folder "My Documents" with out Excel already
running, it partially opens the banner of Excel and
stops.

However if I open Excel on its own and then open the same
file from Excel all is OK. I am running Excel XP on Dell
4550 using XP Professional as operating system.

Any ideas - please respond by email. Thanks.