The Word Starter 2010 that came pre loaded on my new computer with Windows 7 takes thirty seconds or more to open either for a new document or an existing one. Why so slow and is there another program like the Wordpad I had with Vista that opens normally (ie quickly)?

Try openoffice,org... its free and works every bit as good as ms office... I always delete preloaded programs and go with the stuff that works for free... :)