Word 97 issue

[Jamaal]

I recently upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows 2000.
Whenever I open up a Word document from the desktop or my
documents by double clicking on it, I receive an error
message saying the file is in use and querying me whether
I would like to open a copy.

If I open the document once I'm inside of Word, then I
don't have this problem.

Any ideas on why this is happening?
I'm having the same issue with Excel.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.