Rex,

There's probably something in the following...
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some general guidelines to use when automating Excel...
'Jim Cone - November 2004

1. Set a reference to the primary Excel objects used in your program.
Dim xlApp As Excel.Application
Dim WB As Excel.Workbook
Dim WS As Excel.Worksheet

Set xlApp = New Excel.Application
Set WB = xlApp.Workbooks.Add
Set WS = WB.Sheets(1)

Use the appropriate reference Every Time you make reference to a spreadsheet.
Do not use Range(xx) - use WS.Range(xx)
Cells should be WS.Cells(10, 20) or _
WS.Range(WS.Cells(10, 20), WS.Cells(20, 40))

2. Avoid the use of ActiveSheet, ActiveWorkbook, Selection etc.
Use your object references.

3. Avoid the use of the "With" construct.

4. Set all objects to Nothing in the proper order - child then parent.
Set WS = Nothing
WB.Close SaveChanges:=True 'your choice
Set WB = Nothing
xlApp.Quit
Set xlApp = Nothing

Violating any of these guidelines can leave "orphans" that still refer
to Excel and prevent the application from closing.

'------------------------------------------------------------

Articles dealing with unqualified references and automation
application not quitting.

1. 178510 - PRB: Excel Automation Fails Second Time Code Runs
http://support.microsoft.com / default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b178510
Summary: While running code that uses Automation to control Microsoft Excel,
one of the following errors may occur: With Microsoft Excel 97 and later, you receive the error:
Run-time error '1004': Method '<name of method' of object '_Global' failed -or-...

2. 189618 - PRB: Automation Error Calling Unqualified Method or Property
http://support.microsoft.com / default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b189618
Summary: While running code that uses Automation to control Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, or Word 2002,
you may receive one of the following error messages:
Run-time error '-2147023174' (800706ba) Automation error -or- Run-time error '462': The remote server...

3. 199219 - XL2000: Automation Doesn't Release Excel Object from Memory
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;q199219
When you run a macro that uses automation to create a Microsoft Excel object (instance),
the Excel object does not exit from memory when you specify.
If you create another Excel object after quitting the first, a second instance is in memory.
This problem occurs when your macro uses a "WITH" statement that refers to the automation object.

4. 319832 - INFO: Error or Unexpected Behavior with Office Automation When You Use Early Binding in Visual Basic
http://support.microsoft.com / default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b319832
Summary: When you automate a Microsoft Office application,
you may receive an error message or you may experience unexpected behavior, as follows.
You may receive one of the following error messages: Error 91: Object variable or With block variable not set....

5. 317109 - Visual Basic .Net & Visual C#

'-------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Cone
San Francisco, CA



"Rex" wrote in message ...
I tried both of your examples and in both cases, Excel remains in the process
list after my program ends. The fact that both of these as well as Inbar's
suggestions all fail makes me think there's something wrong in my
environment. In fact, the only way I've been able to get Excel to quit is to
*not* do the .Open. If I comment out the .Open and .Close lines, it works
fine. (Well, "work" is probably an exaggeration, but Excel goes away after
the Set XL=Nothing.)
Here's some more info, in case it means anything to anyone: I'm using VB
6.0 on XP SP2. Excel 2000 (9.0.6926 SP-3). The reference in my project is
to Microsoft Excel 9.0 Object Library.
Rex

-snip-