This will hopefully add some perspective about the world in which I think many institutional GIS users find themselves, in particular having limited to no admin rights on their computers.
My (former) organization adopted the "managed" desktop approach to software delivery for security and IT convenience reasons, otherwise known as the "one size fits all" approach in a world where 4 GB of RAM was sufficient in their view. Software was delivered to desktops via "canned" installation packages. This worked fine for Microsoft Office and security updates but was a challenge for esri GIS software due to its size, complexity, dependencies and ongoing changes and updates.
We (I originally) had to write out detailed instructions for the "packagers" who had no knowledge of GIS and test installations on test machines and then release a preliminary package to a few "volunteers". Broader rollout was undertaken only when the kinks were ironed out. Programs and procedures were developed around a certain version of the software and changing to the latest GIS release was resisted unless deemed to be unavoidable or beneficial. We also had to be able to work with clients outside the organization. My former organization is still using ArcGIS Desktop as far as I know and one can imagine the rocky road ahead changing to Pro, which yes, should have started a while ago.
In light of this thread, a few questions come to mind. Do you have admin rights? Do you install your own software, does IT do it or does it come as a package? Does your computer meet all system requirements, how is this checked and by whom? And so on.
I realize that things work for others, but if you have ArcGIS Desktop installed, check for and repair broken links in the mxd and run the ArcGIS Document Defragmenter utility. Alternately, create a Map Package and try to import that.
