[Raistlin]

I'm guessing that she either a) doesn't have an administrative account on that machine, and that the programs have been badly installed/configured/written so they require an administrative account to run, or b) is trying to run programs from shortcuts and that the programs have either been deleted, moved, or renamed.

It's difficult probably going to be difficult to tie down without knowing a little bit more about the machine. The first thing I'd be looking for is what I've put above, after that I'd be trying to work out what those programs all have in common that set them apart from the programs that she can run.