Problem with Office 2007 Student version

I have installed the above on a 64-bit Vista Home Premium system. All
appeared to go right with the install. Then, I used Microsoft Update to
download and install all the patches currently available for office. That
went well, also.
However, every time that I try to bring up a file with an .xls suffix (this
may happen with every one of the applications; it's just that I started with
an Excel file), it begins configuring office and I finally end up with Excel
on the screen, without my file loaded, with a dialog box with simply
"stdole32.tlb."

Anyone have any ideas of what is wrong?

Thanks in advance,

Bill