Win Explorer hangs when connected to network

I have an Acer laptop running XP. Whenever, in Windows Explorer, I right click a file, or double click it to open it in the appropriate program (e.g. a .doc file) then W.E. hangs for about a minute and a half. If I unplug the Ethernet cable it works correctly. Once upon a time I did have a network NAS drive but I clicked "disconnect" and it went from the network places list. The other curious thing is that if switch on my PC (XP) again it works correctly. I did have printers on that PC once available to the laptop but they have been removed.

It's something to do with the network, I understand that this problem is known but no amount of Googling has yielded a solution. There must be a registry tweak to sort this out.

All help most gratefully received.

 

Download this
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/startup_control_panel_standalone_version.html

Look over what is running at startup and uncheck/untick any suspect items. (They can easily be checked/ticked again if you notice little difference).