We have an application that uses word automation. It works fine under Windows XP, but does not work on our Windows Server 2008 64-bit virtual machine running on VMware ESX unless it is running as the domain administrator. Under any other account (including a local admin), Word starts, uses a lot of CPU for 40 seconds when opening a document, and then just hangs. Our application does not access anything not on the local machine, and this machine is not being used for anything else (not a domain controller, etc).

I know others have posted similar issues, with the solution of creating a Desktop folder somewhere under the windows directory. We did this, and it did not solve the problem (Word did not get as far as it did before we did this though).

Please don't turn this into a thread about why I am trying to do this, whether I should do this, or whether I need to. For argument sake, I don't need to do this, but understanding what privilege a local admin does not have that is needed to do this is a legitimate concern.