How to prevent files from opening automatically in Excel

This article describes how to prevent files from automatically opening when you start Microsoft Excel.

When you start Excel, all the files that are located in the XLStart folder are automatically opened. This behavior occurs regardless of the type of file. Additionally, if you specified an alternative startup folder for Excel, every file in that folder is also automatically opened. To specify an alternative startup folder, in Microsoft Excel 2002 or Microsoft Office Excel 2003, click Options on the Tools menu, and then click the General tab. In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Excel Options, click the Advanced tab, and then locate the General section. This behavior may cause Excel to stop responding or this behavior may cause Excel to take a long time to start if either of the following conditions is true:

• The files in either startup folder are not valid Excel files.
• The files are stored on a network drive that has a slow network connection.

Use one of the following methods to prevent files in these locations from automatically being opened when you start Excel.

Guided Help to prevent files from automatically opening in Excel

Guided Help is available to prevent files from automatically opening in Excel. Guided Help can move any files that are located in the Excel startup folders to the My Documents\XLStartOld folder, and Guided Help can disable the alternative startup folder that is specified on the General tab in the Options dialog box. The actions that this Guided Help performs can be undone after Guided Help is finished. To undo the actions that this Guided Help performs, run Guided Help again. On the Welcome page, click Undo this Guided Help, and then follow the instructions. For more information about Guided Help, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 915092  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/915092/ ) Description of Guided Help for Microsoft Knowledge Base articles Requirements to install and to use this Guided Help You must be logged on to Windows by using a computer administrator account to install and to use this Guided Help. You must be running an English version of Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, or Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition to install and to use this Guided Help. Excel 2002 or a later version of Excel must be installed to use this Guided Help. You must exit Excel to use this Guided Help. You must first download Guided Help. To start, click the following link. Download Guided Help (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826922/ )

Manual steps to prevent files from automatically opening in Excel

Use one of the following methods to manually prevent files from automatically opening when you start Excel.

Remove files from the XLStart folder and from the alternative startup folders

To remove files from the XLStart folder and from the alternative startup folders, follow these steps:

1. Start Excel.
2. Excel 2002 or Excel 2003
   On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the General tab.
   
   Excel 2007
   Click the Microsoft Office Button, click Excel Options, click the Advanced tab, and then locate the General section.
3. Note the folder that is listed in the At startup, open all files in box.
   
   Note If you do not want to open any files at startup, delete the contents of this box.
4. Click OK.
5. Exit Excel.
6. Start Microsoft Windows Explorer or double-click My Computer on the desktop.
7. Locate the following folder:
   • Excel 2007:
     C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\XLSTART
   • Excel 2003:
     C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\XLSTART
   • Excel 2002:
     C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE10\XLSTART
8. Select any files that you do not want to open when Excel starts, and then move the files to another folder.
9. If you are running Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003, locate the following folder:
   C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
10. Select any files that you do not want to automatically open when Excel starts, and then move the files to another folder.
11. Locate the folder that you noted in step 4.
12. Select any files that you do not want to automatically open when Excel starts, and then move the files to another folder.

Start Excel in safe mode

When you start Excel, any files that are located in the XLStart folders or the alternative startup folder start to open. To prevent the files in these locations from opening when you start Excel, you can start Excel in safe mode. Starting Excel in safe mode prevents all add-ins, toolbar customizations, and startup folders from loading when Excel is started. You can use a command-line switch to start Excel in safe mode.

To start Excel in safe mode, hold down the CTRL key while you start Excel. You will receive the following message: If you click Yes, Excel starts in safe mode. You can then clear the alternative startup location as described earlier. In all versions of Excel, you can use a command-line switch to start Excel in safe mode.

Use Command-line switches

If there are files in the XLStart folder or in the alternative startup folder that you do not want to open when Excel starts, and you do not want to move the files to a different folder, you can use command-line switches to prevent the files from opening. Both the /safe switch and the /automation switch can be used for this purpose.

Note The /safe switch starts Excel in safe mode. The /automation switch disables all automatically opened files and auto-run macros.

To use a command-line switch to start Excel, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type either of the following lines:
   excel.exe /safe
   
   excel.exe /automation
3. Click OK.

Note If Microsoft Windows Installer starts when you use one of these command-lines switches, click Cancel to finish starting Excel.

Press the ESCAPE key

When you start Excel, any files that are located in the XLStart folder or in the alternative startup folder start to open. You can press ESCAPE after the files start to open to prevent any additional files from opening. When you press ESCAPE, you may receive one or both of the following messages: If you click Yes in either message, Excel starts without opening any additional files from the startup locations.

Note Do not hold the ESCAPE key. If you do this, the messages will be closed before you can click Yes.

REFERENCES

For more information about Excel startup folders, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: