I have an app that uses Excel to generate spreadsheets from a database. While it's running, if I open Excel and try to use it for any other purpose (or just open a spreadsheet and then close it), I will get an exception that crashes my app. I've also noticed that if I open a spreadsheet that my tool has generated while the app is running, Excel will start displaying more spreadsheets as the tool generates them

Is there any way to isolate the Excel instance used by the tool from other Excel instances being used by the client? Is there anyway to stop the unwanted display of the auto-generated spreadsheets as they're being built

Thanks, Chuck