When opening an existing Excel file Excel also opens book1 which can cause problems with large mailmerge documents. This didn't happen until we got new laptops. Is there a setting in Excel that turns this off?

Hi ! James , Please relax and follwing below step. Your problem : a kind of virus computer Result : not detroy your system but can be make your mad sometime. (Very annoies) Objective : Delete book1.xls How to do : 1) Ensure that you are not run MS office in memory. 2) Open Windows Explorer and browse to c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\XLStart 4)click mouse on book1.xls and delete it now. Note : both Mcafee and Norton anti virus can't find this and help you. Hope this help. Gai welcome to help you.

I found the solution to this problem and it wasn't a virus. I had Visio installed on my computer and at some point a button was placed on my Toolbar in Excel to be able to insert a Visio drawing. This button pointed to a shortcut in the XLStart folder you pointed me to. When I removed this shortcut I could open an existing spreadsheet without opening a blank workbook with it. Even though your assessment was incorrect, pointing me to the XLStart folder got me on the correct path, thanks.