You cannot run a macro without the file containing it being open.

It may seem that your mate can do this, but this is made possible b
:-
1. Perhaps the macro is contained in the workbook he is using.
2. Hiding the workbook that contains the macro when opened.

Most of us have a workbook called (by tradition, not necessity
personal.xls which contains our personal macros that we use all th
time. This is kept in our XLSTART folder so it automatically load
every time we open Excel. We set it to be hidden via Window/Hide (
prompt when closing Excel enables us to save it like that) - so w
never see it unless we want to

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