Weird "Problem with Shortcut" error at start

[New Daddy]

This is probably the weirdest error I've encountered in the more than 2 decades of using Word.

Whenever I start Word, it triggers a "Problem with Shortcut" Error. The error messages reads "The drive or network connection that the shortcut 'something.xlsx - shortcut.lnk' refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again."

The shortcut link that Word is referring to is not even a Word file!

[StuartR]

Do you have any content in your Normal.dot file? A shortcut in there could cause this.

[New Daddy]

Do you have any content in your Normal.dot file? A shortcut in there could cause this.

Well, I tried to look into my Normal.dot file and ran into some more weird situations:

• I don't seem to have Normal.dot file for Word. I see only a Normal.dotm in the folder that I designated for templates. Is it possible that Word operates with only a .dotm file and no .dot file?
• Wanting to double check that I was looking at the right templates file folder, I ran the "Templates and Add-in" command from within Word. What do you know? This triggers the same error that is triggered when I start Word!

Now what?

[HansV]

The "normal" situation in Word 2007 and later is that there is only a Normal.dotm, not a Normal.dot.

You might check the user templates path and workgroup templates path, in Options > Advanced > File Locations.
If that fails too, you can find these locations in the artistry. Notice anything out of the ordinary?

[kdock]

What I find most weirdest is that Word is looking for an Excel file. Is it possible you used one as a data source for a merge somewhere along the way? Word asks if you want to save a data source and you may have somehow associated it with Normal.dotm?
Kim

[HansV]

You could also look in Word's startup folder. Its default location is %appdata%\Microsoft\Word\Startup. Do you see a shortcut to an Excel workbook there?

[New Daddy]

None of the fixes suggested above worked.

There is another strange aspect about my problem: I share the same normal.DOTM across multiple computers through Dropbox. But this particular problem only occurs at my laptop.

Does that say anything about the cause of the problem?

[HansV]

Try searching your hard disk(s) for 'something.xlsx - shortcut.lnk', substituting the actual name from the error message (and without the single quotes). Does that return any search results?