After not coming up with any good hints online, I spent some time with Tech Support. It would seem that there is a conflict in background services. At first it seemed to be SnagIt - running SnagIt AFTER running FM on my machine caused the mysterious hangs to stop - but that was quickly tossed out as this did not help on at least one of my co-workers' machines.
So, we are in the process of restarting with various services enabled to figure out what is what. I will keep the list informed. The experiments begin. Will. -- Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Well, dear, are you ready? Inga: Yes, Doctor. Frankenstein: Elevate me. Inga: Now? Right here? Frankenstein: Yes, yes, raise the platform. Inga: Oh. Ze platform. Oh, zat, yah, yah... yes.