Internet Explorer shortcuts won't open

Windows XP Home, Pro, & Media Center
Internet Explorer 7.0

Lately, every time I work on Windows XP after awhile, Internet Explorer's shortcuts won't working (an hour glass pops up) then goes away, but nothing happens. The shortcuts will only work with Internet Explorer is already open. The computer i'm currently on worked fine last night, I ran a defrag, then in the morning they stopped working, so I did system restore, and they still don't work. I've also resetting Web settings. The shortcuts that i'm talking about are the view mail in Windows Live Messenger, Start>Programs>Microsoft Update (at the very top) do not work, unless IE is already open. No malcious software is involved because they are freshly reformatted computers. Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Ok I figured out what's causing the general problem, just not the specific.
It turns out it's a service, I guess i'll need to do some more testing to figure out which one is causing it.

 

Ok it turns out to be the DCOM Server Process Launcher that has to be enabled in order for these shortcuts to work. LOL