Launching Office Apps and Html Desktops

[CWhite5280 at aol.com]

We are using html pages as desktops on our public workstations and need some input on two related problems. 
1.  We launch office apps from links on the desktop. Without compromising security, is there any way to eliminate the download/run prompt for Microsoft Office executables but retain it for other executables?
2.On Windows 98 machines, when launching executables from an html link on the desktop, has anyone encountered the following message?
"Publisher cannot be determined..."
"Authenticode signature not found"