Dave,

You are absolutely right. The workbook was indeed quarantined. I am not
exactly sure why. I used Excel 97 until a few months ago and I had the
personal.xls while still using '97. Perhaps this is the reason??? As I
mentioned in another post, I have been using the personal.xls all the time
by opening it manually without problem and so am puzzled why Excel felt it
should be quarantined.

Anyway, the file opens automatically now. Many thanks for your help!

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
If it really isn't opening (after you've checked for a hidden workbook),
try
Help|About Microsoft Excel|and click on disabled items.

xl2002 added a "quarantine" function for workbooks that it thinks are
damaged.
And it's easy to just click on "yes" to the "do you want the offending
workbook
disabled".

But if excel was really correct that your workbook is damaged, you may
have to
use your backup copy.

Shatin wrote:

My understanding is that the personal.xls is supposed to open at start
up
automatically. Don't know why but my doesn't. It's placed in this
directory:

c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\XLSTART\

So I choose "Tools|Option|General|At start up, open all files in: " and
put
the above path into the textbox. Still the same result, personal.xls
just
won't be opened at start up.

I wonder what the problem is. Have I changed some setting inadvertently?

--

Dave Peterson