MS Excel 2002 under XP opens a file called personal.xls every time I
start it. I can't find such a file on my hard drive and I don't have
any macros. How can I elegantly stop the software from creating a
window with this title every time I start it?

Good afternoon,

According to these two sites I found, the best way to deal with this
is to let Excel have the file but tell it to hide it from you: the two
links below document how to do it, and I have pasted in the more
complete text of the two.

The file will still be opened but the window will never bother until
you want it to.

Hope this helps. 

http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/personalxls.htm

http://www.uky.edu/IS/Training/tipsexcel.html



You can create a worksheet to hold all the macros and have that
worksheet always run when you open Excel. To do this, run Windows
Explorer and go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Xlstart
(assuming you used the default location when you installed Office).

Right-click the right pane of Xlstart and choose New, Text Document.
Name your new document personal.xls and press Enter. When asked if you
want to change the extension, click Yes.

Now double-click your new file to open it in Excel. Next, choose
Window, Hide and then choose File, Exit. When asked if you want to
save the Personal macro workbook, click Yes. The next time you run
Excel, personal.xls will run but remain hidden.

To store your macros in personal.xls, choose Window, Unhide to unhide
personal.xls. After you finish storing your macros, choose Window,
Hide to hide personal.xls again.

Thanks - I just needed to hide the window